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White Collar Criminals

CAN MUSICIANS MAKE A LIVING SELLING RECORDED MUSIC ANYMORE?

 Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 12:00pm by

Metal Injection posted an interesting chart from Mashable that shows how many copies of records or tracks sold through various outlets a solo artist needs to sell in order to earn the U.S. monthly minimum wage. Before looking at this chart, please understand a couple of things:

  • These numbers don’t take into account fixed costs like recording, gear, mixing, mastering, etc. They assume you’re starting at $1 and profiting from the very first record sold. Of course, most bands who do this all independently will already be in the hole from the above costs, and most bands signed to labels will have to pay back money to the label (“recoup”) before ever seeing a cent.
  • This chart shows what it would take for a SOLO artist to earn said amount of money. Since most metal musicians are in bands of 4 or 5 hairy, sweaty dudes… they’d really need to make 4x or 5x this amount of money just to be earning minimum wage.

OK. Now let’s take a look (click to enlarge):

Pretty dire if you’re looking to make a living just on selling recorded music, eh? In short: better hit the road and sell a bunch of t-shirts.

-VN

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  • The Deformed B

    Funny how most musicians make less then the minimum wage. Either that, or they go into debt

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Byron-Ward/797615124 Byron Ward

    Selling recorded music isn’t a viable option anymore, at all. From now on it’ll all be based on merch, concert tickets and other licensing avenues…

  • kmfcm

    That’s why I’d never try to make a living doing that

    • Frank Decurtis

      Thanks for letting us know about that. We really value your opinion. I guess everybody should be just like you right?

    • Mj7655

      What a snobby thing to say.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joel-Bailey/1624089874 Joel Bailey

    Bands can absolutely make a living selling “recorded music”

    Step 1: Stop making shitty music

    Step 2: Establish a connection with your fans.. make them feel like they are an extension of you and your band. A lot of us on here are old enough to remember bands that had actual fan clubs. Facebook, Myspace and the like have made bands lazy and complacent.

    Step 3: Be smart. You DON’T need to sign a shitty 360 deal just to get your name out. If you’re willing to take the initiative, you can get legitimately huge and sell a lot of records by writing and recording good music and being smart and aggressive with your promotions.

    Look at some of the biggest acts in music in recent years… Master P, Kid Rock, O.A.R., Dave Mathews Band, etc… Love them or hate them, they grew their fan base by hustling and creatively promoting their art. Metal bands could learn a lot by paying attention to how they did it. Music is Music… pop, rap, country, metal… it doesn’t matter.. if you have the songs, and you are willing to work.. then you can make money.

    Here’s some cool sites that I’m sure have been posted before on making a living in the current music industry climate…

    http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?currentPage=all
    http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php
    http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2007/05/18/how-i-did-it/

    • Hetallica

      Master P got big in “recent years?”

    • AreWeHereNow?

      Two thumbs up.

      When I saw this chart, it just made me angry. There are so many ways to generate income as a band. STOP BITCHING AND BLAMING OTHERS; JUST MAKE IT HAPPEN! If you are a worthy musician and you treat your BUSINESS AS A BUSINESS there are plenty of viable models for prosperity.

      If you are stupid and cannot think creatively, you will probably not make money in the music industry. That has always been the case.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joel-Bailey/1624089874 Joel Bailey

        thank you

  • Bierko

    The problem is the record company still is needed to front the costs for touring…

    Tough situation for the bands.

    • Chris D.

      I thought their main purpose was to front costs for recording.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Glenn-Pillsbury/641369365 Glenn Pillsbury

        They can do both. In many ways a record company is just a bank that loans money to bands for various things — it could be recording one day and touring the next. As a bank, though, they always need to be repaid.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joel-Bailey/1624089874 Joel Bailey

      simple solution.. don’t tour

      if you read The Real Deal by Dana Schwartz or the Passman book.. (Everything You Need To Know…) both of them talk about dominating a single market and growing from there.. Grow your band in concentric circles from an established home base. Don’t stretch that circle until you have maximized the previous one.

      So many bands don’t look at the business world for guidance. Those are the bands that fail.

      • evilfatguy

        Everyone who’s interested should also read Confessions Of A Record Producer with a highlighter in their hand.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joel-Bailey/1624089874 Joel Bailey

          1

      • AreWeHereNow?

        Exactly!

        If you want your music to be your business, you must TREAT it like a business. You still need basic logical thinking and mathematics capabilities to make it in music OR you need to be an amazing musician that has a fanatic willing to baby them through the elements that require intelligence.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jayson-Shenk/737290767 Jayson Shenk

    Not everyone can be the biggest acts in music though. That’s just not really a viable plan for every other band. Especially considering the biggest acts in music are very mainstream friendly with a lot of crossover potential. About 85% of what Metal Sucks covers just couldn’t do it unless they made huge changes (re: Metallica)

    This bums me out though, because I don’t want any merch. I went to a show last night and bought CDs from two bands. Everyone had about 5 different t-shirt designs and I didn’t want any of them. Now I feel like I just fucked the bands, despite buying a ticket (only $10) and some albums. I just don’t want 500 more band tees and hoodies. It’s also a case of, I spent $33 last night. I don’t really have that much more to spend. I couldn’t have laid out $80 to go get the actual music I actually wanted to listen to and throw $47 on top of it to support the bands. I just don’t have the cash.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joel-Bailey/1624089874 Joel Bailey

      yes.. but at some point.. you have to realize that not every band is going to make it.. just like not every business won’t make it..

      If you have a business that appeals to a tiny fraction of the population.. unless they are willing to pay out the ass for what you’re offering.. that business is going to fail..

      Some bands are always going to be “hobby bands” for the members involved.. they may be passionate about the art they’re making.. but the audience for it is so tiny that there’s no way they will have a viable business.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jayson-Shenk/737290767 Jayson Shenk

        I still disagree. You’re talking about huge bands that are at the very top of record sales. If we stop an think about “big” metal bands like Kreator or Cannibal Corpse for instance, they’re not anywhere even in the same league as Metallica. Even a hugely successful band like Mastodon isn’t on that level. It’s realistic to categorize everything as Metallica or a hobby.

        Also frankly all of those bands fucking suck. Everyone you mentioned is middle of the road, lowest common denominator music. It’s saying you’re either McDonald’s or you’re cooking yourself dinner. Be McDonalds is not any kind of realistic answer.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joel-Bailey/1624089874 Joel Bailey

          Not at all. Metallica and the like would be the Fortune 500 of the music world. For every Metallica, there are hundreds of bands who make a good living (Mid – Average Sized Businesses/Mom & Pop Businesses of the music world). Check the links I posted above for how much income an artist needs to expect to generate from each fan to make a living.

          The rest of the bands.. and unfortunately a LOT of these are in the metal community.. fall into the “hobbyist” category.

          You have to find some balance. You don’t have to compromise your music/art to make a living.. but you do have to work a hell of a lot harder to establish a fan base that can support you if you choose to live on the fringe of established genres.

  • http://thenumberoftheblog.com deseee

    Or they could just do it for the love of the music……
    also whichever one of you guys had the bright idea to use a captcha code for comments should be spanked… Is akisment really that bad that you need the catptcha too?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Zach-Gates/14209777 Zach Gates

    If you needed to be TOLD that the bulk of musicians’ money comes from merch and touring, you gotta be kinda dense. Album sales alone have NEVER been a big piece of the pie for artists.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joel-Bailey/1624089874 Joel Bailey

      You can make more money from a good Publishing deal than you can from merch. This can be done by any band.. touring or not.

      • evilfatguy

        Publishing is WAY different than album sales, but most SUCCESSFUL musicians make the true bulk of their money on publishing.
        Some of the richest people in the music business are names you’ve probably never heard.

  • rupert

    you dont make music to pay the bills.

  • http://www.philistineonthesidewalk.net Kodiak

    I know I don’t, but I do have a full-time job, so I’m not too worried about it. It’d be nice to make a little more coin off of what I do, but I don’t see it ever being a sole revenue source. It’d be nice if it was one of my stronger multiple income sources since I love creating music so much, but as a solo artist recording out of my home and paying nothing for advertising, I’m not expecting huge returns.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Yu/2207107 David Yu

    Reading stuff like this makes me think it’ll be less likely I can make a living as a musician but I do enjoy it…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Anthony-P-Stine/1314021455 Anthony P Stine

    It’s probably a good thing that most artists don’t try to make a living off of recorded music only — or only through one of the outlets listed above, but through all of them at the same time with touring and merchandise as other sources of income.

  • mike

    Can’t wait to see the Behind the Suit and Tie documentary re: the heavy metal industry.

  • Isaac

    I am planning on joining a band, but this is also why I’m getting a law degree for not only backup, but as a second job.

  • Todd

    A the beginning of the 20th century, the composer Charles Ives dreamed of a world where music was neither bought nor sold, but was freely distributed and available to all. He also said, “Perhaps no music has ever been written or heard. Perhaps the birth of art will take place at the moment in which the last man who is willing to make a living out of art is gone and gone forever.” He made his living selling insurance and at the same time composed some of the most iconic and innovative works of American concert music. Over the last few years, the amount of new music that I’ve discovered has increased exponentially, and it seems like it keeps getting better. Some of my favorite discoveries are unsigned bands producing their own music, distributing it for free on the ‘net, and making their living elsewhere. It’s a subjective viewpoint, to be sure, but I think we’re standing on the threshold of a new golden age of music.

    • AreWeHereNow?

      Art for Art’s sake

      I applaud the man who sees the art as an end in and of itself, a man that requires no other compensation than the satisfaction of knowing he has created something meaningful and relevant.

  • Samuel

    I think it’s still a viable option. Look at people like Klayton (Celldweller) and Tyler Drone (drøne, 16 volt). They reach massive amounts of people independently and make a living off their music.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joel-Bailey/1624089874 Joel Bailey

      Scott (Celldweller, etc…) is a great example.. he’s totally used avenues that the average musician never would think of.. Good call on that one!

  • Mitchum

    I think the original thread was: “Can musicians make a living SELLING RECORDED MUSIC anymore?” and clearly, as long as downloading music keeps growing by leaps and bounds, it is not a good bet.

    Keep in mind, a musician who’s an ace at tapping into the emotional response of his/her fans could in theory even be supported by donations, subscriptions, purchases out of support and solidarity, etc. etc.

    But the point is, in the not so distant past, an average artist could write an accidental hit record and earn millions! These days, the same record would be downloaded mercilessly before the artist has had a chance to sell anything.

    New technologies have brought good and bad changes. The bad change is that selling mass records will not be easy again any time soon. Even huge established stars can only sell a fraction of what used to be possible.

    Let’s just put it in perspective and realize that it was historically a mid to late 20th Century thing. Before that, it is not through selling recorded music that musicians made their fortune. And in a way, many undeserving musicians (and especially their handlers) made tons of money in that era.

    Music has gone back (at least temporarily) to the performance based medium it has always been – a live experience. A band like KISS would have no trouble earning millions even today, because they were always a huge draw on the road. They can easily compensate for the loss of CD sales with higher venue tickets.

    Music has gone Circus again. You get paid to actually perform under the lights. Then, there is of course the big P (publishing) and the big M (merchandising); but that is a different question.
    My 2 cents.
    .