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+--- Thread: a real eye opener on what musicians dont earn from sales! (/showthread.php?tid=20994)
a real eye opener on what musicians dont earn from sales! - CRAZY-HORSE - 28-04-2020
just read this interesting article on how the sales of cds are divided up amongst everyone who needs payment along the chain and its not good for the artist!
article gets into the nitty-gritty of it but heres a little bit for those who cant be bothered reading the linked article which i hope you all do:
Let’s say your CD is for sale for in stores at $16.00 and that you are a band of 4 that also writes their own material. Your deal is to receive a royalty rate of 11%, but your producer takes 3% of that. So in the end you make 8% net royalty. $16.00 – $8.32 (30% for retailers, 22% for distributors) = $7.68.
Let’s round this off to $8.00 (a very optimistic round up by the way) $8.00 - $2.00 (25% for packaging deducted by the label) = $6.00 X 8% = $0.48. So you make $0.50 per CD sold.
^^ and then theres the tax payable on that $0.50 also!
article: https://bandzoogle.com/blog/record-sales-where-does-the-money-go
in my opinion its an absolute effing disgrace that these artists who spend a year, two years, whatever creating an album get basically nothing in return for their efforts, which is why they have to tour because that's where they make their money apparently.
your thoughts on this welcome, especially Jerome who does sell his music.
RE: a real eye opener on what musicians dont earn from sales! - Ruby - 28-04-2020
Looks as though a lot of musicians are choosing other options lately and pre-funding their work with pledges - crowdfunding, etc., then releasing under independent labels. Quite often, you can only order directly from them which makes sense in this context. Loreena McKennitt has it all sorted - she is in complete control - owns her record label which only publishes her music - 14 million records later!
I don't know many professional performing musicians, but one I do know has to be constantly performing, selling tickets and doing corporate events in order to earn a liveable income which definitely doesn't come primarily from the sales of his music - and he's pretty much a household name here. It really does seem grossly unjust that so much work and talent (it's an art after all) results in so little reward and it's not very encouraging for potential new artists either. Whenever this subject comes up I can't help but think of Rodriguez - one of the greatest musical royalty ripoffs of all time. No doubt there have been many more!
RE: a real eye opener on what musicians dont earn from sales! - SteveO - 01-05-2020
Live concerts bring in the good money ! If you are not a good live act or incapable of performing live, then you will be making much less money.