The way that money being earned by singers have changed, songs
themselves can't earn the kind of money that is expected in the old
days. The China market is a huge one but so is their websites
hosting hundreds of thousands of free songs for people to
download.
The sure fire way for singers now to earn money is to endorse
products beside from appear on TV shows and concerts. To endorse
products, most need good looks, so having good looks count more in
the talent agencies recruitment drives as they get to have a cut of
the artist endorsement product fees also.
Due to more attention being focused on good looks and youth,
less people are being recruited from clubs and bars when real vocal
proficiency can be honed as also clubs and bars have a minimum age
before anyone is being allowed in so some of the more hopeful
aspirants are already a bit old to be groomed.
Recording technologies have improved by leaps and bounds, having
a "raw" voice will not hinder any artist nowadays, things can be
adjusted to a certain degree so artist are more of learn as they
progress.
