That is the standard.
This industry has been built over the years and for all intents and purposes volunteer work is the standard. Careers have become shorter and shorter. Artists dream of having a career. They start one and then they get to the point where they understand that they will never make any money. So they give up. We are seeing careers become shorter and shorter rather than longer. Over the course of their first production cycle, performers realize that they will never reach their goals, perfectly normal ones like owning property and starting a family. It won't happen under the current circumstances because of the system that is making careers shorter and shorter.