Support your favorite musicians

Ever wonder how a dollar gets from your pocket to your favorite musician's when you purchase a concert ticket or CD/music download? I recently asked that of Duane Propes, bassist for Little Texas.

Duane isn't claiming his views are the same as all artists, but I can bet they are similar to many. The answer is going to vary depending on the artist, their current status in popularity, their record company contracts, etc.

"For us with concert tickets, that dollar doesn't get to us," he started. "We get paid a flat fee to play." So the concert promoter is the one taking the risk of how many tickets are sold to make his profit.

Music sales are a different animal. If you buy a CD from the artist's website or the merchandise table at a concert, they make the full amount of profit they can. However if you purchase the same CD at a big box retail store, that money goes first to the record company and eventually to the artists. "Around a year later I might make twenty cents from that," Duane said. "Music downloads barely make us anything at all."

This explains why you see so many artists recording new versions of their greatest hits and making them available only through their own websites or fan clubs. I assume the same goes for other merchandise like t-shirts, etc.

So in other words, if you want to really support your favorite musicians, buy directly from them.