
How little musicians earn online - latif
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/
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nostromo
It's misleading to compare a single track download on iTunes with an entire
album bought on CD. If you assume that a CD comes with about 10 songs, the
iTunes payout is actually better than a Retail Album CD (low end royalty
deal).

Of course we all know that record labels loved making users buy an entire
album for one or two songs -- but that's their own fault.

~~~
leviathant
The numbers they display for iTunes and Amazon are completely incorrect.
Having listed albums on both through Tunecore, I can tell you you get closer
to 70% of the sale price through Amazon or iTunes than 9% - and when we sell
MP3s/albums on Bandcamp.com, we get 100% of the sale. Good riddance to the
compact disc.

That said, they're pretty much on the money as far as Rhapsody, Spotify and
the like are. It's amusing that these companies even bother reporting the
pennies we "earn" through them.

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DrJokepu
Once again, musicians don't really earn anything on record sales.
Theoretically they receive about 30% of the profit made on album sales but
that's normally deducted by the record label as payments for the loan they
have given them for recording their tracks, shooting the videos etc. so unless
you're a very very famous musician it's unlikely that you'll ever pay back
this "loan" or earn anything on record sales.

The two main sources of income for musicians are:

* Performing rights. They receive royalties for public performances of the works they composed. Which means not everyone in the band gets paid, only the ones who are registered as composers of that particular work. This is paid for public performances, e.g. radio and television broadcasts. If your work gets broadcasted (or played in chains such as McDonald's as background music) you can earn an awful lot of money.

* Live performances. Even for moderately well-known musicians, it's not unusual to get paid around $1500 per gig per person.

(I work in the broadcasting / recording industry)

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nerme
Why is there so much interest among web developers and entrepreneurs with the
business of music?

I really can't figure out it.

Why are you all trying to "solve" an industry that you have no interaction
with and seemingly know little about?

How many gigs do you go to a month? How many new albums do you listen to?

Where do bands in your city practice? Who does booking, and for what nights,
at what clubs? Who are the promoters? Do you know any music publishers? Tour
managers? Record labels? Recording studios?

Do you know any online and radio promotion companies? Do you know any band
managers? Do you even know a single musician who makes more than $1000 a month
from music?

Do you know where to get a tube amp repaired? Do you know anyone who does live
sound? Do you know any good drummers with room for another project on their
plate?

Should I go on, or is it painfully obvious that you are all commenting on
things you can see very little of?

Why are you so compelled to enter in to the conversation at all?

I am truly curious.

~~~
paulnelligan
Um, I'm a musician and web developer, I do both professionally.

The web is a massive avenue for selling music, and is what most independent
musicians use most frequently to promote themselves.

I couldn't agree less with what you're saying here. It's absolutely ESSENTIAL
that web developers take an interest in the Music Industry, especially since
so much of it has moved to the web.

~~~
niels_olson
too bad they're down-voting him. The polar difference between his question and
your answer seems to make it clear he asked a legit question.

~~~
paulnelligan
His Question:

'Why is there so much interest among web developers and entrepreneurs with the
business of music?'/'Why are you so compelled to enter in to the conversation
at all?'

My answer I think addressed that question.

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tomjen3
They still make more than chess players or mathematicians, but I don't hear
complaints from mathematicians about only getting paid $0.01 per proof.

This is what society has said online music is worth, so if that is not enough
why do you produce music?

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nod
Make sure you catch the issues with the data and presentation of the viz.
First there's the basic "albums vs. tracks" equivalence, and then someone's
reply post is here: [http://freshspectrum.com/2010/06/04/critiquing-the-
infograph...](http://freshspectrum.com/2010/06/04/critiquing-the-
infographic-%E2%80%9Chow-much-do-music-artists-earn-online%E2%80%9D/)

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aw3c2
This is blogspam, source is [http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-
much-do-music...](http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-
music-artists-earn-online/)

~~~
masklinn
Did I miss something? Isn't your link the same as the original one?

~~~
nex3
The moderators probably fixed the link to circumvent the blogspam.

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kylemathews
Hmmm... and why wasn't the "pay a gig in front of x number of people each who
pay $5" included as how I understand things, that's how most artists make
their money.

~~~
jimmyjim
What of music that is impractically hard to perform live?

The Beatles' decision to become a studio-only band (that eventually churned
out the Sgt. Peppers album) would have earned them a rather paltry amount of
money for their efforts today by your model (well, ok, to be fair, maybe not
-- Sgt. Peppers went on to become a platinum certified album, they would have
made a sizable income by your model, but what of bands of lesser prominence?)

And further yet, how would you deal with someone like me -- I have _zero_
interest in ever attending a live concert. But I do enjoy listening to music
casually all the time on my computer.

~~~
leviathant
As a fan of Nine Inch Nails, I'm often surprised at how well they pull off
translating the least performance-friendly music into a five-person show. In a
way, the best example is the track "Starfuckers" from The Fragile, which on
the album, is a very studio'd/produced track, but when they play it live, they
do it without any backing tracks, and it kind of destroys.

Having grown up on Warp Records, Nine Inch Nails, and Nintendo music, I've
actually come to really appreciate a good live performance. I've seen the
unlikeliest of artists doing live shows, and I've also gone to dozens of
festivals which turned me on to music that I'd never appreciate if not for
having seen the groups that played the music live.

Aside from that - it's too bad you have zero interest in ever attending a live
concert. To me, that's like saying you have zero interest in tasting delicious
food, or zero interest in having sex. You've got at least five senses, and
only so long to live - make the most of what you have!

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cvinson
As a musician with a startup in this space, so I know first had these numbers
are skewed.

First, a musician's online product isn't just their music -- merch sales like
t-shirts make up a big part of their revenue stream. For our members it is
70/30 split in terms of music/merch, but the profitability of merch is a lot
higher. And as others have mentioned, royalties are not in the picture.

Second, the data seems to favor CDbaby. I guess it was easier to just look at
one source, but these days there are a lot more compelling options for
musicians that have no fees (through sites like Bandcamp). Even the physical
CD pricing with CDbaby is incorrect -- on a physical disc an artist selling an
album for $10 would only make $4 with CDbaby, not $7.50.

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collistaeed
OK I totally thought this was going to be an article about how "little
musicians" earn money :-)

Awesome graphics btw!

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rguzman
My main reaction to this is "So?"

It seems to me that online music sites are a form of advertisement for the
artist and his shows, which is where most of the revenues come from.

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wallflower
> The sort of artist who survives at the long tail is the sort who would be
> happy doing nothing else, who willingly sacrifices security and comfort for
> the chance to communicate something meaningful, hoping to catch the
> attention of those few in the world who seek what they also find meaningful.
> It’s a somewhat solitary existence, a bit like a lighthouse keeper throwing
> a beam out into the darkness, in faith that this action might help someone
> unseen.

Robert Rich

<http://robertrich.com/1000-true-fans-an-answer/>

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jrockway
How much would a musician pay to advertise their song to 4 million interested
listeners? Negative 0.000017 cents sounds like a pretty good price -- better
than Adwords anyway.

~~~
sailormoon
And what exactly is the point of "advertising" a song to people who, for all
intents and purposes, already own it?

~~~
jrockway
There must be some point, or otherwise it wouldn't be done. Follow the money.

~~~
sailormoon
Care to provide some evidence that it is being done, ie. that artists are
happy with the payment arrangement negotiated on their behalf with Spotify et
al on the basis that it constitutes cheap advertising?

~~~
JoachimSchipper
I think he's referring to radio.

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alextp
LastFM and Spotify should be compared with having your videoclip on MTV or
your song on radio, not with selling albums.

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mynameishere
As you can see here, the real numbers are much less straighforward,

<http://www.ascap.com/about/payment/royalties.html>

~~~
niels_olson
Personal effort, individual sales, and shows are not in their calculation.
These are industry shills.

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d_c
How about big musicians?

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empika
I think this infographic got debunked a while ago. I cant remember where or
why though.

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ddemchuk
Anyone else just picture very small sized musicians making money online when
you read the title of this thread?

