And we hear all sorts of tales about the sales not being there anymore, record companies feeling the crunch, artists claiming that it's near impossible to either make an impact or make a living like in the old days - basically, to quote Sonny Black from Donnie Brasco, that there are too many wise guys all chasing the same nickel. I hear stories of bands going bankrupt, selling off gear and vans, etc; we've all read over and over again about how the landscape has changed and nobody is making money from record sales anymore.

So, how come everytime I turn CRIBS on, there is another rapper I have never heard of showing off his 3 hummers and his sprawling mansion in the California Hills? Or, some mall-punk kid with a guitar bragging about his palacial loft in NYC, motorbikes, custom recording studio and how he just bought this super-rare test pressing of the first Black Sabbath (In case you doubt that he is dark and tough) album?

CREDIT

You think in this day and age, the artists in question are that naive? You certainly can't be suggesting that record companies are still giving huge advances to recording artists? Does this still go on?

not sure how realistic your sample population is

Ok, if Cribs is an unrealistic representation of how "successful" musicians are living, let's talk about that.

I haven't watched an episode of Cribs all the way through ever, and haven't seen a snippet in probably 2 years. Are you trying to extrapolate the few people they scrounge up for that show into "the music biz?"

There are always going to be some very successful no matter how bad the biz is in general. Plus many of the rappers have other stuff going on like clothing labels, record labels, cocaine, etc.

In 2008, 428 million albums were sold in the US alone. Over 1 billion digital tracks were also sold. In the same year over 150 million albums were sold in the UK.

For all the hoo-ha about decline it is still a huge and very lucrative market.

I'm assuming those 428 million are only the soundscan numbers? There is no way they a can account for all the self produced discs sold via the internet and local shows.