When I was signed to CBS, just before it all fell apart, the managers advice was to ignore anyone in the office and go down to the basement and get to know the delivery drivers… THEY were the guys who’d make sure your records hit the shops if they got a nice attitude and freebies now and again. All the office bods were too busy trying to get up ladders and snorting coke with the stars than deal with anyone who’d sold less than platinum. You’d be amazed at the chancers who get to CEO (we got our record deal because the CEOs dog liked us!?) level. Almost off the street, instantly sackable when sh hit fans, leaving the rest of the office to carry on regardless. Business has to be as creative as the artform.
There’s a reason the people on the distribution side make all the money. They’re the ones who make the sales.
In this day and age, you can reach a global audience without any middlemen. Distribution is no longer a barrier requiring gatekeepers. But distribution is just the path to a transaction. It doesn’t cause the transaction to happen.
In the world of money, nothing happens until a sale is made. Therefore, the people with the real power are the salespeople and marketers.
Unfortunately, most creative creatures would rather be drug across carpet tacks and dipped in rubbing alchohol than do anything remotely resembling the marketing of their work. So, they don’t participate in making the sale and the money flows through someone else’s fingers, with very little ever being seen by the artist.
There was a time when you had to go through the gatekeepers to record an album or make it available for the general public to hear and / or buy. That’s no longer true. The only thing keeping most musicians from making money is their dislike of the sales and business side of things. And even though I understand this, it’s no different for me.
These are self inflicted wounds.
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Garth Brooks: Ghost Tunes? Okay I just say a video with Brooks’s new music store:
Interesting the man talks honestly about the music industry, iTunes, Apple, Spotify where Taylor Swift has removed her music. BTW looks like she’s the only platinum selling artist this year. One of my favourite producers recently said that labels are not signing artists like they used to instead of 50-100 in each genre they only have one.
He’s not making the same money he was back then. 
Companies like apple are money.