The music industry is one gatekeeper after another. But unlike most industries, the gatekeepers don't just control access to the people who make (or fund) the decisions you need made (release of a record, access to influential DJs, etc). They also, in the case of big agents, big promoters, big venue owners, big DJs are the only ones who know the industry's real financial picture.

How much should a DJs charge for a showcase at Sonar versus a headline gig at Fabric?

(Ignore the obvious question - how the hell would a total music-industry outsider get a headline slot at Fabric?)

This is extremely difficult to find out, as is most pricing information in music. What's a record deal worth? A good lawyer should know, as might someone who worked at EMI in the last ten or fifteen years.

But the people who know are in no hurry to tell.

That's one reason why the industry has its shitty reputation for being packed full of swindlers.

Which makes honest pieces like this fascinating: Ambient musician Robert Rich talks through the financial side of his career on Kevin Kelly, ex-editor of WIRED's, blog.

It's a response to Kelly's earlier piece, which I broadly agree with, that the way musicians will make money in the future is not to sell lots of records to lots of people. Instead, they will have intense relationships with a smaller number of fans, each buying everything to do with the musicians career (box sets, gig tickets, record-club membership, etc). Kelly suggests it's 1000 people paying US$100 each - "1000 true fans".

There's a link to the original piece in the first paragaph of the link above, and Kelly has also written a case against (link down the left-hand side of that piece).