Apple Thoughts: How Much do Artists Really Make?

"This incredible infographic from Information is Beautiful really puts the iTunes business model in perspective: for the vast majority of artists, iTunes gives them a significantly larger share of the revenue than traditional retail outlets, and orders of magnitude more cash than any other digital music service out there."

When I first looked at this, after reading the initial paragraph, I thought the writer was delusional. But now that I understand the high end royalty deal is only for the big name artists, I can see the benefit to using something like iTunes for an artist. Of course pressing them yourself will get you the biggest cut but that isn't a viable option for most artists, especially those just starting out.