The music business may not seem like a lucrative business, but there’s money to be made provided you play your cards right.
As a musician, there are several things that you will need to learn, in order to survive in the music business.
Its important for artists and musicians to invest their money in the right places; one of the main reasons that those who start out in the music business fail (spend their finances in the wrong things).
Its important to know that industry goes through a shift every few years. Things that worked for musicians in the 90’s and 00’s is not going to work today, especially in terms of money.
- You can’t rush through things in the industry. So spending your money to get instant results should be avoided at all costs.
- Instead of throwing money at poor promotions and investing in Publicists (you don’t always need them), invest in Doing it Yourself
- Instead of investing in a 5k music video, spend that money to boost your single and make sure it’s hot.
- Instead of investing in “Pay for Play Shows” (where artists pay promoters to perform at shows), invest in Electronic Press Kit (EPK), booking agents or consultants
Watch: Why Artists Don’t Make Money – The Business of Life
Does Spotify Pay Peanuts to Music Artists?
Accused of paying peanuts to music artists, Spotify CEO says “music business won’t exist without us”…
For some time now, Recording Academy president Neil Portnow has been throwing punches at the music streaming industry for not parting with their lucrative profits to artists.
“Isn’t a song worth more than a penny?” Portnow asks the music streaming industry. And he’s been using the Grammy awards as a platform to raise his concern.
Finally, Daniel Ek-CEO and co-founder of Spotify, currently the world’s biggest music streaming service provider with nearly 30 million paying subscribers, shot back with his own opinions.
In a Q&A session on Quora, Ek replied to the following query:
How do you respond to some artists’s claims that music streaming services are harmful to the industry?
With the following answer (excerpted):
Look, we pay the great majority of our revenue back to the music indsutry [sic]. And as we grow, that revenue is really making a difference. Many people don’t realize that the music industry was in decline throughout all the download years (with a one-year exception in which it was basically flat). Now, finally, after years and years of decline, music is growing again, streaming is behind the growth in music, and Spotify is behind the growth in streaming.
So basically what Ek said was that Spotify is actually responsible for the music business’s continued success in recent years. “We are all in this together,” he wrote in the Quora answer, insisting that Spotify wants more success (and money) to the songwriters and music producers.
So do the music streaming companies really pay well to the music artists?
It’s true that Spotify pays a major chunk of its revenues to record labels and artists. But that chunk, when broken up come out very little to the individual music-makers.
No wonder that several music artists are in revolt. Taylor Swift and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke both publicly pulled music from Spotify in protests of its meager payouts; Adele, Prince, and several others have followed suit.
And these moves did affect Spotify. Spotify, who have been a big proponent of the all-music-should-be-free attitude changed its stance and allowed some artists to exclusively release content on the service’s paid tier (yields more profit as compared to its ad-supported free tier.)
Well, if more artists continue to rebel, Spotify and Ek may have to sing a different tune in the future: and that’s not about the benefits that streaming poses for the music industry, but more about the concessions it should make to put some more money in the pockets of the music artists.
French Composer Jean-Michel Jarre on Making Electronic Music (& Money)
Interview with French star Jean-Michel Jarre, who says making music is like cooking, sex & magic.
Jean Michel Jarre is a French composer, performer, and music producer, known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks. Jean is considered to be a pioneer in the electronic, ambient, and new-age genres.
In the interview, Jean-Michel Jarre says (when asked what advice he can give to youngsters) that “Don’t listen to any advice, do what you like and be yourself.”
Compensation for Musicians
One of the highest-earning musicians, Jean says “Music today has never generated so much money. The problem is that authors and creators have never got so little.”
On the topic of compensation for musicians, Jean-Michel Jarre asks music companies to “Pay creators fairly”.
“It is not a matter that we should complain about because we are now entering an entirely new age. We’ve never been listening to so much music. If you take a company like Spotify, its value is more than $8 billion and yet the majority of artists at the end of the year get the cost of a pizza without pepperoni. So it is something we have to readjust – we have to reinvent a business model for the 21st century for artists.”
Jean urges artists (both famous and not-so-famous) to “stop grumbling” and start talking to powerful tech companies.
Listen to the timeless Oxygene by Jean Michel Jarre (His career started with Oxygene in 1976)
Rapper ‘Soulja Boy’ Signs Multi-Million Dollar Deal, But the ‘$400 Million’ is Not Fully Cash
There are several magazines who write articles saying that the music industry doesn’t pay much to artists, so when rapper ‘Soulja Boy’ tweeted about his $400 million “brand ambassador” deal with World Poker Fund Holdings (a publicly traded company that develops and operates online and event-based social gaming platforms and brands), not many believed it. However, the news seems to be true after all.
$400 million deal confirmed. I still they think they low balled me though. I was thinking 2 or 3 billion..
— Soulja Boy (@souljaboy) May 1, 2016
What role will Soulja Boy play?
The young rapper ‘Soulja Boy’ has a social media following of over 15 million (5 million on Twitter, 2.8 million fans on Instagram and 9 million friends on Facebook) and the rapper is also passionate about gaming, and that’s what probably got the company to sign the deal.
Soulja Boy will leverage his network to promote World Poker Fund’s online gaming assets like CelebrityWorld.com and its to-be-launched gaming platforms.
Well, if you’re a veteran in the music industry, I assume you’re still doubting this piece of news 😉
So is this deal really ‘real’? How is a company that’s worth around $50 million going to pay out $400 million to Soulja Boy?
Here’s the catch!
The deal, according to a company rep, includes both stock and revenue-sharing, and is not a fully cash transaction. The deal is capped at $400 million, and it’s based on a forward-thinking valuation of the company.
“Endorsement deals are calculated on a lot of different factors. He really kind of jumped the gun by using the $400 million figure, and tweeted something he probably shouldn’t have. He was getting a lot of pressure from within the entertainment community, so he wanted to put a statement out.”
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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