The system is obviously flawed, but the example is not very convincing. $85k a year to do what you love, for alot less hours than a regular job (it doesn't take 2000 hours to make a record), whether the record is a dud or not? That seems pretty good to me.

So give me 85k salary, a half million dollar budget to spend on production, and tell me I need to make a website of my choosing sometime within the next year, which you'll then spend potentially millions of dollars promoting. I don't have much upside in this unless it's a mega-success, but I have no downside and can choose to shoot for the stars or make something important and useful. Is it me or does this sound like a far better deal than most developers have?

Perhaps musicians should stop feeling that being able to sing or play is a golden ticket and anything that blocks them from being a member of the idle rich is the acme of economic injustice.