Recently, I read an article that quoted Slipknots Bassit I think. If you listen to their music or not, doesn't matter, fact is that they sold millions and millions of albums. That guy stated that he didn't earn something with the cd sales. The money went directly into covering touring and promotion costs. The only thing that artists earn money is with excessive touring and merchandise. I think this is also a reason for merch being that ridiculously expensive.
It's sad to whitness the downfall of products like vinyl and cd.
"A lot of people in the industry want to blame downloading for the state of the business. But I think if most music wasn't shit to begin with people wouldn't be downloading it for free," - Corey Taylor (Slipknot)