From a letter from contributor and reader Lou Carlozo:
"I'm at a crossroads. I have a professional home studio that continues to grow and has done well in the Chicago market. I'm blessed to work with artists whose music I really enjoy. Much of this comes thanks to a good day job that allows me to turn down gigs with bands that would have me pulling my hair out! But after three years, I find myself wondering if it's time to take a big leap (and a big loan) towards a more first-class facility. Part of me says no — that the music business is in a crappy way and that I have a distinct advantage keeping low to the ground overhead wise (the studio is in my basement and turned a nice profit in 2003). Yet I also sense that I need to do something if I'm to grow beyond the world of producing local band demos and albums. Based on the feedback I've gotten from my bands and people in the business, I seem to be ready for a next step."
From the conclusion of "The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales An Empirical Analysis" by Felix Oberholzer and Koleman Strumpf:
"...the financial incentives for creating recorded music are quite weak. Few of the artists who create one of the roughly 30,000 albums released each year in the U.S. will make a living from their sales because only a few albums are ever profitable. In fact, only a small number of established acts receive contracts with royalty rates ensuring financial sufficiency while the remaining artists must rely on other sources of income like touring or other jobs."