Hi,

My name is David Cavan Fraser,  I’m an emerging artist from Ontario, Canada.  I’ve played over 1000 paid shows and made a decent living playing music full-time.  I think the debate about “give you music away online” vs. “we gotta monetize it” is beyond me right now.   I sell my CDs at my shows for $20 each, and make about $100 on average a week from CD sales and about 12 times that on average from live performances.  I’ve made about $100 TOTAL from Itunes.  So I consider the live show the reason I can sustain a full-time career. 

I’d like to PAUSE on the debate about online file-sharing and promoting yourself through social media and focus on the good old live gig.  Live music venues are becoming more rare and paying less and less (some even make you pay for the “privilege” of playing for them.  I feel like THIS regression has killed the opportunity music business more than any other factor (internet, the bad economy etc. etc.)