For those struggling musicians worried by rampant piracy and the subsequent difficulties in earning a living, Tim Blanning has news for you: it was ever thus.

Writing in The New Statesman, Blanning traces the history of the music industry, finding "Modern musicians' lot compares very well to that of their predecessors." Indeed, Blanning points out the very bane of modern musicians' existence - the ability to record (and, hence, copy and distribute) music - is also the very reason that musicians have an opportunity to generate outsized returns on their musical investments.

Until music could be recorded, the only revenue available to the musician was from performances of that music. "Not even as great a virtuoso as Paganini or Liszt had a back catalogue."

The result? Today, good-but-not great bands like Coldplay can make tens of millions while the great composer Richard Wagner died a comparative pauper. With all the flaws of the modern system from pirates and ensuing economic uncertainties, we should be cheering the modern system and its digitization of musical content, even when some profit is lost to piracy.

For composers... copyright protection is very much a creation of modern times. Until deep into the 19th century, piracy of the most flagrant kind was the norm....In the course of the 19th century, ever-growing markets, bigger spaces for music and better communications allowed many more performers to make much more money...

...[Even so] for every Bono and his countless millions, there is a host of modestly paid session players, 90% of whom earn less than [$22,500] a year... It will come as no consolation to them to know, if they do not know it already, that it was ever so.

Ever since musicians emerged from the servile but cosy world of aristocratic patronage into the harsh daylight of the public sphere, the musical profession has been a pyramid with a broad base and a sharp top. The new opportunities brought by every major technological shift have also left many casualties among musicians unable or unwilling to adapt.

Matt Asay
cnet news December 15, 2008.

Hay que ponerlo en claro: creo que Steve Jobs lo ejemplifica bien: en esencia eran piratas. El capitalismo es piratería: comienzas pequeño, rompes la ley, tienes éxito y te legalizas. Es la historia de los negocios en EU ¿Por qué todos los estudios le están dando a Netflix todas sus películas? En un entorno capitalista todos quieren tener sus dólares, por eso se las dan sin importar lo que les paguen.

A pesar de que los daños que ocasiona la piratería se valúan en miles de millones de pesos, la industria del entretenimiento en México ha mantenido un incremento constante.

En 2016, el Departamento de Comercio de Estados Unidos colocó al país como el 6o. mercado más importante del mundo en exportación de productos de entretenimiento, en donde la industria de los videojuegos y el cine son los 2 rubros más robustos.

Para 2019, se estima que el 1o. crecerá 6% hasta alcanzar un valor de más de 2,000 millones de dólares (MDD), mientras que la industria musical tendrá un valor de 459 MDD este año.

Esta alza se debe en gran medida a la popularidad que tienen los servicios de streaming en el territorio nacional. En el caso de producciones para cine o televisión, el crecimiento del mercado doméstico ha permitido que aumente el número de producciones locales en español que son transmitidos en plataformas digitales.

Por otro lado, 4 de cada 10 usuarios de internet mexicanos pagan por un servicio musical de streaming, de acuerdo con un estudio de mercado realizado por la consultora Ipsos MORI.