Regarding sales....just to prove how bad the business is...Joe Bonnamassa's recent album sold 17,000 copies in the UK and got to number 2!!He's probably getting £3 at retail. That's £51,000 at retail. Take off the tax, your recording costs, advertising, touring expenses...
There's nothing left at the end of it. The niche bands that we all love on here will be lucky to sell 1000-2000 copies of album in a lot of cases.
Sad but true.