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Re: Zoe Keating in NY Times article.@borisfx.com
Back in the time of music being released on physical media, record companies had to invest a lot of money to get a record out. They'd pay for the band's time at a professional recording studio, the mastering, distribution, manufacturing, marketing to radio stations and record stores, shipping samples, etc... Arguably, they still ripped off the artists, but even if they weren't, it's easy to see where 70% or so of the cost of a CD had to go.
Itunes/Amazon/Pandora/Spotify/Amazon/Emusic spend absolutely no money on the recording of music, the production of physical media, or the promotion of the artists that they sell. They have to spend money on storing the media and internet bandwidth. Given the number of songs they sell, they could give the music providers 80% of the income generated, and still be a solvent business. However, being a solvent business is not enough. They have to make billions,so they do so by paying the artists a much smaller share.
That WAS supposed to be the great thing about buying music online - you could get an artist's release for $6, and know a substantial portion of that was going to the artist. Now you pay almost as much on iTunes as you would for a physical CD a few years ago, and the lion's share of that money is net profit for Apple.
