Short history of independent publishing
An interesting and thorough account of the evolution of independent publishing and the current sponsorship-driven model.
Same same for the music biz:
“The ratio was something like 1:10,000. Meaning that for every one person you could convince to subscribe, donate, become a member, or support you on Patreon … you would need 10,000 visitors to make the same amount from advertising. Or to put that into perspective, with only 100 subscribers, I could make the same amount of money as I used to earn from having one million visitors.”