system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If recording artists are not selling music because everybody steals it, how do they afford multi-million dollars mansions and private jets?

Just curious. We are constantly hit with this barrage of claims about how the recording industry is being wiped-out by theft. Yet, Gulfstream and Bentley seem to be selling tons of their products to these same broke-ass singers. Are they making 10's of millions per year just doing concerts and selling t-shirts?
gpt
Artists have rarely made money from record sales themselves.  That money has almost always gone to the record companies.  Recording contracts are structured to give minimal money to artists.  We're talking pennies per album.  For artists, the real money is in performances, publishing rights, merchandise and synchronization rights (allowing your music to be used in TV, movies and video games).

The recorded music industry absolutely is getting their shit wrecked, but it's hurting the corporations' profits, not so much the artists.