I have what the article says to go on, and the article contradicts you. But I know a bit more about the music industry, and it is absolutely the case that midlist music acts don't --- and never did --- generate enough record sales to cover their nut. There's a famous Steve Albini zine article that indicts the recording industry for never recouping an advance, and a less famous David Lowery article that explains why nobody could reasonably expect any of these titles to recoup.
It may be that we don't disagree at all, and are just talking past each other? At any rate: my only point here is, like startup investing and the music industry, we're talking about a hits business. And they aren't hits businesses because a cabal of cigar-chomping executives wants them to be that; they're that way because the median investment never recoups, and so the winners have to pay for the losers.
Just in case it's helpful: I think you're going to find this approach to dealing with disagreements on HN isn't going to work out to your benefit, or to the benefit of whatever point you're trying to make.
When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."
It may be that we don't disagree at all, and are just talking past each other? At any rate: my only point here is, like startup investing and the music industry, we're talking about a hits business. And they aren't hits businesses because a cabal of cigar-chomping executives wants them to be that; they're that way because the median investment never recoups, and so the winners have to pay for the losers.