When you scroll through the music library on your phone, do you ever think about how much money those artists make? How many other people do you think have that same artist's music on their phone? Everybody knows that the "Billboards" artists are making millions of dollars a year and don't have to worry much about retirement, but what about the other guys? Even if an artist's music isn't on millions of phones, they still deserve to make money because most artists have trouble garnering more than a small fan base. Money distribution in the music industry, however, is very controversial and doesn't occur how most people expect. It seems that all over the world, money issues take center stage; from defense spending to taxes, and there are always disagreements regarding its distribution.
The truth is, when all else doesn't fail, the effective distribution of money does. For instance, the current average salary in the United States is about $50,000 per year, which many believe is low as Barack Obama is pushing for a raise of the minimum wage from $7.25 to at least $9. We even tip the average taxi driver, deliveryman, waiter, or hair stylist 15 to 25 percent on top of their original wage or salary. CEOs currently get paid 380 times the amount that the average United States citizen earns per year. United States citizens believe it is unfair for CEOs to be paid such an inflated salary. Last year, a petition was even signed by millions of U.S. citizens urging Congress to enact legislation to limit CEOs' pay to a maximum of 50 times the average U.S. salary (U.S. Department of Labor). The music industry obtains numbers far worse.
In the music industry, there are large disputes over who obtains money and who benefits from the selling of music. When you buy a Jay-Z song on iTunes, you'd think that you're paying Jay-Z to have his song. More often than not, however, that is not the case.