Yes, that's a '?' and an '!' Because it's both a question and a statement. Musicians CAN make money... But of course there's a lot more to it.
Because of internet streaming services, pirate websites where one can download just about any album, the dying off of CD's and other mediums, it's been harder and harder for musicians to make money these days. Sometimes one has to be very shrewd and driven to come up with interesting ideas on how to pull this off. Merchandise has become the mainstay for some bands to make most of their money.
Last year at a couple of Wasteland Zombies shows, we asked fans what they wanted as far as merch, what they preferred, CD, vinyl or Mp3's. We were told that various types of merch is what's desired, whether that's pins, stickers, gig posters, shirts and other clothing (toques, hats, sweatshirts, patches etc).
Now, I'm not trying to be mean here, but a lot of 'local' bands in the Maritimes won't ever see enough National (let alone) local airplay to really have some serious coin coming in and the proceeding article is really more about bands that ARE in that glorious level of actual airplay that is warranting some decent income. But with gigs paying very little and album sales (physical albums) severely slumping, there has to be some way for bands to make some cash and to make some cash if they've received 'advances' from their label or just owe costs for production or are just trying to save up money to record an album or try to fund a tour.
With my failing health, I've let the guys know that I highly doubt I'll be able to pull off any live shows. MAYBE one or two sporadic local shows, but I think my days of travelling to other towns for gigs are over. Hopefully not forever.
We've never been under any delusions that we are going to 'make it' or that we'll become "Rockstars" at our age and day. Heck, even IF we had some great huge hit that caught on and some label wished to sign us and we started on our way up the chain. My health wouldn't allow me to go very far... I'd rather not see the band replace me for another singer, but Glen's (our drummer), really the 'original' member of the band and I guess it would be up to him and the guys. I'd rather the band not go on without me, selfish? Maybe, but I had said, once we had Jamie and Jake in the band, that I saw our current line up as the final incarnation. I think it's the best we've been at since the original line up that included Ray Robinson on guitar.
Anyhow... It's hard these days for bands, even the best of the best in our local area are still struggling. We've heard from touring bands that the situation is much the same across the country, but here in 'Canada's butthole' (aka Atlantic Canada), where the towns are far apart, the bars to play in are few and far between, it's almost like pounding nails into sand to make any kind of life at this. It's also been part of my 'falling out of the music scene' of late. It's not that I don't believe in the scene anymore, it's that the scene is so futile, it's hard to believe in anything. I'm not saying that bands are wasting their time. We, who have grown up on the East Coast playing music most of or all of our lives, know very well that there IS a great scene back East here in all genres, some sure, are more lucrative and popular than others, but that's the way it's always been. The bands that have formed, reigned and died off are many, but many of them have left great legacies and inspired new generations to take up the guitar, sticks, bass and mic to make their own paths.
Here on the East coast, with cities and towns spread out so far apart, it's hard for 'fans' to get to venues sometimes, it's expensive back here, alcohol is super expensive, the Winters cause many to decide to stay home and drink with buddies (thus the birth of house shows, which of course come with their own issues).
So, IF, a local band started to 'make it', how could they make money these days? I found an article on BBC news today about some companies that are aiding musicians to get the best amount of money they can from their work, without it going to 'other' greedy hands.
It's a long article, so I've posted the meat and potato's and if you wish to read the entire piece, I've put the link to the source after the article. (Note, this is a Euro article, so I'm only guessing that these services are available to Canadian musicians and there may even be Canadian companies that are involved in this area, if not, it might be a great money making venture for some entrepreneur):
How Bands Are Escaping The Music Industry Snake Pit
(bbcnews.com) - - Music streaming - playing songs over the internet "on demand" - is widely regarded as having saved the music industry, following an era of music piracy marked by falling CD and vinyl sales.
Yet songwriters and musicians have long complained that they're not getting their fair share of the spoils, but now a number of tech start-ups are trying to help them receive what they're owed and give them more control.
Dan Haggis, drummer with Liverpool band The Wombats, is a happy man. The band's fourth album, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, recently entered the UK chart at number three - a career best.
And this time around, they stand to make more money from their success.
This is because they've signed to Kobalt, a technology-driven music services company that gives songwriters and bands complete ownership of their work and a greater share of income than has traditionally been the case in the industry.
"We never used to make any money because we were always paying off our advances," recalls Haggis, whose band formed in 2003. "We'd get about a 20% share of revenues and the label would keep the rest.
"Now we get to keep about 90% of what we earn ...it's such a difference, it just made sense."
Other tech start-ups such as Mycelia and Choon are also trying to use new technology, such as blockchain, to give more financial power back to music creators and help them track down what they're owed.
Mycelia, a "think and do tank" of music professionals set up by London-based artist Imogen Heap, argues that having a verified global registry of artists and their works would help make the payment process more transparent.
And Choon, a new streaming service and payments platform, is based on the Ethereum blockchain and promises to get more cash to artists by paying 80% of the revenues generated by their streams to them directly.
It was the byzantine nature of the music industry's payments system that inspired Kobalt's Swedish founder, Willard Ahdritz, to set up his music publishing and technology platform, with the aim of collecting and tracking artists' song royalties much more quickly and accurately.
Clients can see on an app how much revenue their works are generating globally in real time.
"Transparency is probably the key word," says Haggis.
One of the problems to date has been the lack of metadata accompanying song information, argues music writer Stuart Dredge. If a recording lacks the necessary credits for the writers, performers and producers, they may not get their cut.
"Streaming isn't the villain," he says, "but it's shining a light on some of the music industry's historic problems around data and attribution and making sure the right people get paid."
But music analyst Mark Mulligan is highly skeptical of blockchain's potential to become a force in the music business.
"No label or rights association is going to allow blockchain to gain any momentum because they rely on a lack of transparency - there's a huge amount of revenue that's never attributed properly because of messy data and that just goes straight to the bottom line of record labels and publishers," he says.
While so-called collection agencies will try to track down royalty payments for artists and protect their copyright, they acknowledge that this isn't always easy given the complex nature of a global industry that now has so many distribution platforms.
PRS for Music, one of the UK's biggest music licensing societies, is involved in a multinational project with Berlin-based ICE Operations, which is attempting to automate copyright processing using cloud computing and machine learning.
"There's an awful lot more to creating a successful song than most people realise," explains PRS chief executive Robert Ashcroft, "it doesn't just happen. From the idea to the crafting, from the engineering to the sound production and promotion - it's the result of a lot of professional effort."
Better technology enabling royalty tracking and payments means that artists and writers are starting to get paid for the first time in markets such as China, where piracy has previously dominated.
Streaming is now raking in more than $5bn (£3.6bn) globally for the three major music groups - Universal, Sony Music and Warner, considerably more than the $3bn from sales of CDs and vinyl records. Services such as as Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, Apple Music, YouTube and Amazon Music have become the de facto way many of us now source our favourite tunes.
Spotify dominates, accounting for around two-thirds of all song streams. But it pays many music labels less than a cent per stream. How much of that the songwriter or band gets depends on the deal it has with the label, but the ratio of label income to artist income is roughly 4:1.
But last month, the US Copyright Royalty Board ruled that streaming services - Google, Amazon, Apple, Spotify and Pandora - would have to increase the share of their income they pay songwriters and publishers from 10.5% to 15.1%.
Good news for songwriters.
Read more here: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43156285
Because of internet streaming services, pirate websites where one can download just about any album, the dying off of CD's and other mediums, it's been harder and harder for musicians to make money these days. Sometimes one has to be very shrewd and driven to come up with interesting ideas on how to pull this off. Merchandise has become the mainstay for some bands to make most of their money.
Last year at a couple of Wasteland Zombies shows, we asked fans what they wanted as far as merch, what they preferred, CD, vinyl or Mp3's. We were told that various types of merch is what's desired, whether that's pins, stickers, gig posters, shirts and other clothing (toques, hats, sweatshirts, patches etc).
Now, I'm not trying to be mean here, but a lot of 'local' bands in the Maritimes won't ever see enough National (let alone) local airplay to really have some serious coin coming in and the proceeding article is really more about bands that ARE in that glorious level of actual airplay that is warranting some decent income. But with gigs paying very little and album sales (physical albums) severely slumping, there has to be some way for bands to make some cash and to make some cash if they've received 'advances' from their label or just owe costs for production or are just trying to save up money to record an album or try to fund a tour.
With my failing health, I've let the guys know that I highly doubt I'll be able to pull off any live shows. MAYBE one or two sporadic local shows, but I think my days of travelling to other towns for gigs are over. Hopefully not forever.
We've never been under any delusions that we are going to 'make it' or that we'll become "Rockstars" at our age and day. Heck, even IF we had some great huge hit that caught on and some label wished to sign us and we started on our way up the chain. My health wouldn't allow me to go very far... I'd rather not see the band replace me for another singer, but Glen's (our drummer), really the 'original' member of the band and I guess it would be up to him and the guys. I'd rather the band not go on without me, selfish? Maybe, but I had said, once we had Jamie and Jake in the band, that I saw our current line up as the final incarnation. I think it's the best we've been at since the original line up that included Ray Robinson on guitar.
Anyhow... It's hard these days for bands, even the best of the best in our local area are still struggling. We've heard from touring bands that the situation is much the same across the country, but here in 'Canada's butthole' (aka Atlantic Canada), where the towns are far apart, the bars to play in are few and far between, it's almost like pounding nails into sand to make any kind of life at this. It's also been part of my 'falling out of the music scene' of late. It's not that I don't believe in the scene anymore, it's that the scene is so futile, it's hard to believe in anything. I'm not saying that bands are wasting their time. We, who have grown up on the East Coast playing music most of or all of our lives, know very well that there IS a great scene back East here in all genres, some sure, are more lucrative and popular than others, but that's the way it's always been. The bands that have formed, reigned and died off are many, but many of them have left great legacies and inspired new generations to take up the guitar, sticks, bass and mic to make their own paths.
Here on the East coast, with cities and towns spread out so far apart, it's hard for 'fans' to get to venues sometimes, it's expensive back here, alcohol is super expensive, the Winters cause many to decide to stay home and drink with buddies (thus the birth of house shows, which of course come with their own issues).
So, IF, a local band started to 'make it', how could they make money these days? I found an article on BBC news today about some companies that are aiding musicians to get the best amount of money they can from their work, without it going to 'other' greedy hands.
It's a long article, so I've posted the meat and potato's and if you wish to read the entire piece, I've put the link to the source after the article. (Note, this is a Euro article, so I'm only guessing that these services are available to Canadian musicians and there may even be Canadian companies that are involved in this area, if not, it might be a great money making venture for some entrepreneur):
How Bands Are Escaping The Music Industry Snake Pit
(bbcnews.com) - - Music streaming - playing songs over the internet "on demand" - is widely regarded as having saved the music industry, following an era of music piracy marked by falling CD and vinyl sales.
Yet songwriters and musicians have long complained that they're not getting their fair share of the spoils, but now a number of tech start-ups are trying to help them receive what they're owed and give them more control.
Dan Haggis, drummer with Liverpool band The Wombats, is a happy man. The band's fourth album, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, recently entered the UK chart at number three - a career best.
And this time around, they stand to make more money from their success.
This is because they've signed to Kobalt, a technology-driven music services company that gives songwriters and bands complete ownership of their work and a greater share of income than has traditionally been the case in the industry.
"We never used to make any money because we were always paying off our advances," recalls Haggis, whose band formed in 2003. "We'd get about a 20% share of revenues and the label would keep the rest.
"Now we get to keep about 90% of what we earn ...it's such a difference, it just made sense."
Other tech start-ups such as Mycelia and Choon are also trying to use new technology, such as blockchain, to give more financial power back to music creators and help them track down what they're owed.
Mycelia, a "think and do tank" of music professionals set up by London-based artist Imogen Heap, argues that having a verified global registry of artists and their works would help make the payment process more transparent.
And Choon, a new streaming service and payments platform, is based on the Ethereum blockchain and promises to get more cash to artists by paying 80% of the revenues generated by their streams to them directly.
It was the byzantine nature of the music industry's payments system that inspired Kobalt's Swedish founder, Willard Ahdritz, to set up his music publishing and technology platform, with the aim of collecting and tracking artists' song royalties much more quickly and accurately.
Clients can see on an app how much revenue their works are generating globally in real time.
"Transparency is probably the key word," says Haggis.
One of the problems to date has been the lack of metadata accompanying song information, argues music writer Stuart Dredge. If a recording lacks the necessary credits for the writers, performers and producers, they may not get their cut.
"Streaming isn't the villain," he says, "but it's shining a light on some of the music industry's historic problems around data and attribution and making sure the right people get paid."
But music analyst Mark Mulligan is highly skeptical of blockchain's potential to become a force in the music business.
"No label or rights association is going to allow blockchain to gain any momentum because they rely on a lack of transparency - there's a huge amount of revenue that's never attributed properly because of messy data and that just goes straight to the bottom line of record labels and publishers," he says.
While so-called collection agencies will try to track down royalty payments for artists and protect their copyright, they acknowledge that this isn't always easy given the complex nature of a global industry that now has so many distribution platforms.
PRS for Music, one of the UK's biggest music licensing societies, is involved in a multinational project with Berlin-based ICE Operations, which is attempting to automate copyright processing using cloud computing and machine learning.
"There's an awful lot more to creating a successful song than most people realise," explains PRS chief executive Robert Ashcroft, "it doesn't just happen. From the idea to the crafting, from the engineering to the sound production and promotion - it's the result of a lot of professional effort."
Better technology enabling royalty tracking and payments means that artists and writers are starting to get paid for the first time in markets such as China, where piracy has previously dominated.
Streaming is now raking in more than $5bn (£3.6bn) globally for the three major music groups - Universal, Sony Music and Warner, considerably more than the $3bn from sales of CDs and vinyl records. Services such as as Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, Apple Music, YouTube and Amazon Music have become the de facto way many of us now source our favourite tunes.
Spotify dominates, accounting for around two-thirds of all song streams. But it pays many music labels less than a cent per stream. How much of that the songwriter or band gets depends on the deal it has with the label, but the ratio of label income to artist income is roughly 4:1.
But last month, the US Copyright Royalty Board ruled that streaming services - Google, Amazon, Apple, Spotify and Pandora - would have to increase the share of their income they pay songwriters and publishers from 10.5% to 15.1%.
Good news for songwriters.
Read more here: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43156285
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