Seeing that the rap/hip hop analogy thing has been done to death...
Hip Hop reflects life a little more directly than most other genres of music in my opinion. So this analogy thing will never die. Ever rap song has some sort of metaphor or analogy in it. So Hip Hop will continuously reflect life so it will never die and the "analogy thing" probably wont die any time soon.
Labels = restaurants and rappers = food
Labels = car manuf. and rappers = car models.
Rappers are the restaurants and their food is their music that other people will buy keeping their business going. Are they small independent establishments or huge commercial chains? Rappers are car manufacturers and their cars represent the purpose of their work. They rap to make money. Or they rap to breath soul into the art form. For the pride of creation.
Usually analogies make complex concepts more easier to understand. Do you need an analogy to say some small labels are okay and some big ones are in trouble. Some rappers appeal to many and some only to a few?
Or analogies can flesh out simple concepts and give them more depth. So no, I don't need an analogy to make something simple more complex. But I do need an analogy to answer eDUB24's question. Yes... anyone can make money off of their work if they approach it like how other industries do. The analogy was to help you understand how people can make this a career by comparing it to other industries.
And I'll use an analogy to answer your question.
The only thing I don't undertsand from most people (and producers/rappers/artists...) is why they focus so hard on One thing to get Another. When you ask them WHY they want these success points it's always for something else.
I want to sell beats so I can....
And a lot of those goals can be realized without selling beats.
This is what made me even address you. You're new here so I wasn't going to say shit but you are calling me out on what I believe in so I'll give you five minutes. You are in a forum... where everyone here aspires to make a living doing what they love, making music. Making beats.
What I find funny, is you ask "Do we need complicated analogies to understand simple ideas?" But you were the one who doesn't understand why people say
I want to sell beats so I can....
If you can't understand that, why are you here at iLLmuzik?
So I figure you need an analogy more than anyone else. But don't get me wrong. I feel what you are saying. Why do people turn to selling beats to find success when you can do a lot of other, "better" things to reach it. You can be a nurse making 30 bux an hour doing what you love, helping people. Or you can be a mechanic making 60 bux an hour doing what you love, working on cars. You can be a barber making up to 45 bux an hour, making great money doing something that comes easy to you. Or you can make X amount of dollars making beats, something you can do all day everyday...
Doing what you love to reach success...