Put a Dime in the Heavenly Jukebox

The artists have been poor and starving historically. And thanks to the internet and digital copying, that trend will continue in the future too.

The attempt to compensate artists is nice, but not practical as 4947 pointed out.

Who says that being an artist or a writer is a career? I thought it was a labor of love, done regardless of whether one is reimbursed. I wouldn't call greedy Lars Ulrich an "artist". An artist pours his heart into his work, kind of like the bedridden writer in Stephen King's "Misery".

Tankgirl was on to something by pointing out that buying an original work will always have some kind of advantage over a downloaded or copied one. They would be for the artist's real fans (the minority) rather than the freeloaders (the majority). An artist will always have this paradox of losing a lot to gain a little; that is, the artist will have to give a lot of content out for free in order to make a few significant sales. Perhaps artists shouldn't view it as a money making pursuit, but rather as a pursuit that will give them a couple of extra bucks and a lot of prestige.