OK,
I have been trying to get some hard numbers from some reputable sources so here is one with a pie chart and everything...
http://cgi.cnn.com/interactive/enter...t.exclude.html
If you take a close look, there are a lot of people who have their hand in the pie who have nothing whatsoever to do with the performance. Of the $16.98 reported by Billboard Magazine to CNN only $1.99 goes to the artist/songwriter. If they are two people they split the fee. Out of that money the songwriter pays the publishing house, agent fees, copyright fees, legal, etc. The artist pays the recording studio fees, the backup musicians, the rental equipment for recording, all of the material (DAT tapes, cd blanks, etc.), engineering fees and then himself if anything is left. Often the recording company has a contract with the artist that requires a minimum number of personal appearances, guests shots on talk shows, interviews, shopping center opens etc. They may pay for the travel or they may not but the performances are usually gratis or industry minimums. For tours it is very hard to make money at the artist level because of all of the people involved. And if you hit it really big and CD sales exceed expectations, costs go down and profits go up. The hard fact is, after all of this hard work, with everyone and their brother with their hand in your pocket you are further pressed by people who are taking money from you without anymore involvement than owning a computer with a CD drive and some software. You don't see even a single cent per copy from the bootleg. If you further research the recording sales data you will see that sales has fallen from a peak in 2000-2002 while the costs of living has risen.