Authenticity and Arithmetic: The future of the artists business

Consumers drives artist revenues, but by selling shows to promoters, and recordings to labels, artists focus their business on intermediaries as opposed to going direct to consumers. Making money from art is not a normal business, the fans have deeper connections with artists than applies in other industries. Scale (e.g. McDonald's) trades quality and connection for price and value, but artists like Taylor Swift have huge customer bases and sacrifice nothing in terms of their connection to fans. The soft skills of fan clubs and audience curation have the potential to transform the business model so that with the authenticity of a boutique restaurant engagement not volume is the focus. How do artists take control of their commerce? Who is going to finance the new artists? What are they investing in, what is the business model, and what is the technology that can help artists reinvent the artist-fan-relationship?