A very low percentage of artist are making money from CDs or from downloads. Matt Rosoff's advice is for artist to not "worry about devaluing your recordings by selling them cheap or giving them away--worry about getting enough fans to hear them so they'll be interested in coming to your shows, and dragging a few friends with them. "
Link confirms your arguement
This is a link from an article from Digital Noise, written by Matt Rosoff that confirms your arguement. Selling CDs is no way to make a living.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10369956-27.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
A very low percentage of artist are making money from CDs or from downloads. Matt Rosoff's advice is for artist to not "worry about devaluing your recordings by selling them cheap or giving them away--worry about getting enough fans to hear them so they'll be interested in coming to your shows, and dragging a few friends with them. "