I am constantly amazed by how screwed the music industry is. It seems that everyone in the industry who isn’t actually making music is trying to figure out how take money from those are. It’s stunning.

Here’s an article illustrating just how screwed it can be. Here’s the most relevant part: it shows a typical breakdown of the net earnings from a successful band:

This is why I’m a strong advocate for do-it-yourself music. Why settle for .5% of the gross from your music earning when you can have all (or nearly all) of it? I’m a big believer in educating yourself. Learn to record yourself. Learn to promote yourself. Learn to book yourself.

Here are a few music industry sites I frequent.

newmusicstrategies.com – I strongly recommend this blog to anyone in a working band or aspiring to be a recording artist. Andrew Dubber teaches about the music industry at Birmingham City University, and his blog, newmusicstrategies.com, features articles about how the music industry is changing and how to find you place in the new and constantly changing markets. His site also has a free e-book, entitled “The 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online.”

cdbabypodcast.com – CDBaby is an online consignment house for bands with CDs to sell. Their podcast, CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast, is an awesome, authoritative and informative show about all aspect of the music business for the unsigned, independent artist. Don’t miss an episode.

projectstudionetwork.com – This is the premier home recording podcast. There are several others, and many are very good. But if you’re only going to listen to one, this is it.