links for 2010-11-08

Topspin CEO Ian Rogers reported this weekend that fewer than 30,000 artists are making a living from music.

Hands has learned that one of the things a record label has least control over is its own product: an elusive, magical mix of sound and emotion, made by volatile, creative people, for an audience that doesn’t know what it wants until it hears it.

"As a musician, I make and record all the music, drive hundreds of miles to do concerts, eat ramen and sleep on floors. And here these companies were charging up to 15 percent of my sales in perpetuity, just for sending a file from one server to another," Price said.