Throughout 80ies and 90ies, because release model was different, you had musicians that could quite easily create purely studio stuff and live off music sales without going on tour or playing live. Sometimes entire labels were based on this model - if you look at catalogue of, let's say 4AD, due to how this music was created and how much effort was required to reproduce it on stage you would rarely see bands like Dead Can Dance or the "project" groups like This Mortal Coil play live and yet all members could happily make living from their creations, with occasional break through to main stream media in form of soundtrack or background music for documentary. The whole system relied on audiophiles around the world going to their local Tower Records and Beggars Banquet outlets and buying the vinyl album in its entirety, instead of chunk of their 40 minute suite as 79 pence itunes track.
Today it's different. Yes you can create music and publish it for handful of listeners, acquire niche audience via internet media but you will never be able to make living that way. Unless artis is prepared to go touring every year or let rappers borrow samples, the next Enya or Mike Oldfield will need a day job to feed their kids. Using my original example if Dead Can Dance happened today, they would have to quickly switch to working as waiters in Melbourne, and anything that was created as a result of their expressions and relations with other studio musicians, from 50 odd soundtracks, from Baraka, through the ethereal death scene in Gladiator and Constantine, all the way to Deus Ex: Human Revolution probably wouldn't happen. And the world would be THAT much poorer for it.
