well, I am more of a live music fan (jambands and the like)...and most of these do their best financially selling concert tickets, as opposed to record & merchandise sales.
Now, if I happen to like one of these bands, I will, in addition to buying regular tickets to their shows, purchase cds and such to help "further the cause".
A prime examples from my own experience...and I know I'm not the "norm", but I have HUNDREDS of hours of live Widespread Panic recordings (well over 150 cd's)...and some of these are super high quality (better than what you can get at a store anyday). These were also all freely traded either online via bit torrent, or through a network of folks I know personally. That being said, I also "try" to see anywhere from 5-15 Panic shows a year. And on top of that, at least once a year, I buy a shirt or something, and a poster or two from the concert's merch booth. AND, I also own almost every studio & live commercial release on cd (and a couple of tapes), and several vhs/dvd movies. The only thing I haven't hopped on in this case, is purchasing the live recordings from their "concert vault".
Now...this type business model doesn't work for everyone, but right now, Panic is 25 years into the game, full on, and they are one of the top touring acts around. This same model has also worked for The Grateful Dead, Phish, String Cheese Incident, Sound Tribe Sector 9, The Allman Brothers, Lotus, and many others...
» R2-D2 DVD ... Last Reply: 8 months ago by Nils.
yeah, it's pretty out of this world...
but that Millennium Falcon remote...oh lawdy, I gotta have one!