William, Marc, thanks for coming by. I think on both of your points, it partly is an issue of what you consider “making a living.” Growing up in the music business, I saw a lot of musicians who were very good, who spent their entire lives working “day jobs” as music teachers, or selling shoes, or, frankly, selling musical instruments in our store so that they could afford to perform. A $10/hr day job only pays $20,500 a year. So, a musician who can get 20,000 downloads a year can begin to think about not needing a day job; a musician who doesn’t need a day job can start touring. This isn’t going to get them a Bentley, but it does give them a chance to avoid singing the “would you like fries with that” song.
Certainly, someone who sells at Radiohead’s scale needs a more substantial infrastructure, but again, consider the costs of that infrastructure versus a traditional record company: you can build a very substantial web presence with $100,000. But, again, the real power here isn’t for a Radiohead, it’s for a small group or an individual. And whether you think Scott has a professional sound or not, we can be certain that professional quality cuts are being made with desktop computers, because it’s already being done.
