How does the music business differ from the book business? Authors do not plan on supporting themselves by touring. Why is this more or less expected for musicians?
Are authors worse off for not having a viable touring option?
I'm mainly curious about assorted business models that work well for musicians for whom live performances are not practical. If one person with a pc and some electronics makes an album, live gigs may be nonstarter.
In some regards it's even worse for authors. A lot of authors, especially of technical non-fiction books, have day jobs.
Regardless, the reason why this is so is simply because it has become the norm. There is nothing about it that is particularly good except the degree to which it concentrates wealth in the hands of publishers (which they certainly enjoy). Over the long term I expect the norm will change to self-publishing or very low-overhead mostly self-service publishing.
Are authors worse off for not having a viable touring option?
I'm mainly curious about assorted business models that work well for musicians for whom live performances are not practical. If one person with a pc and some electronics makes an album, live gigs may be nonstarter.