I wish there was a web site like Celebrity Net Worth (guilty pleasure of mine, like
holy shit asshole reprehensible jew/woman hating drunk has $425 million!?!?) for underground musicians. Something like, Masonna net worth, -$13 in his bank account.
I would assume some of the people who have established labels get some sort of life-sustaining income, Prurient, Carlos Giffoni, Nate Young, etc..
I know this is a weird post, but now that I'm living in New York and have now worked my way through college and 1/3 of grad school, money has become so much more of a huge worry to me. It really impresses me how much these people sacrifice to be putting this music out. It really bummed me out when I walked from my East Village apartment to 2nd ave and 3rd st to go to the Hospital Productions store only to realize that it had been closed for a couple of years (missed that memo i guess).
All I'm saying is it takes an impressive amount of courage to willfully dedicate your life to something that you know could totally lead to you being completely broke. And being broke, speaking from some experiences here and there, really really sucks.