Originally Posted By: eddie1261
Notes, do you have any idea on what airplay pays bands? If you get into a rotation where you are played every hour and project that over 2000 stations, and stay there for 4 weeks, at one penny per play that works out to $14,400.

Now, to factor in the odds of having that song get that kind of heavy airplay, you may as well put on a blindfold, try to

1. Get into your car
2. Drive to a bar with dartboards
3. Park your car
4. Find the entrance
5. Find the dartboards
6. Throw bullseye after bullseye, all night long.

MUSIC doesn't matter to this generation. Nobody says "Have you heard the new song by _________?" They say "Have you seen the new VIDEO by _________?" Different world since MTV. I remember when concerts were pretty much about watching a band stand in front of mics and amps and playing. Now it's dance teams, lights, costume changing, fire, smoke..... Personally I much prefer to see The Eagles stand on stage and sing Hotel California.... without elastic audio correcting the vocals on the fly and the high notes being mixed in from the board. It is truly a (sadly) different time.

I agree 100%.

1) The publishers always exploit the artists
2) I'd rather hear the real thing than an auto-tuned or other artificially enhanced performance.

And speaking of that. I went to a big rock fest quite a few years ago. I really went to see/hear Dr. John. Alice Cooper was on the bill, and during the scene where they marched across the stage to hang him on the gallows, the tape playing the music and vocals malfunctioned and the only thing you could hear was the parade drum. They went through the motions as rehearsed anyway.

And the publishers exploit the artists. The publisher makes more than the songwriter for the sheet music, more than the artist for a record sale, and so on. And like I said, it's not only musicians. My cousin wrote a novel that sold a few hundred thousand copies, but she never got to the point where she made a profit, and being a fist timer, the publisher just promoted it enough to recoup their costs from the royalties.

Visual artists pay for the canvas, framing, etc. (which is extremely expensive) and for the works that sell the gallery takes home more money than the artist.

Of course, all this changes if/when you break out and become famous. Then you get a better contract because you are worth more to the publisher.

Originally Posted By: Bob Buford
<...>

Nothing but the technology? The technology is everything. Copies back then were analog crap, and not everyone had a tape machine.<...>


I agree, but people listened to crap. And everyone I knew had a cassette machine. They listened to 2nd and 3rd generation tapes with no problem (except for the few like the musicians with 'ears').

Before that they listened to lo-fi 45rpm records and before that 78s. And what about those 8track players that faded out in the middle of a song, clicked to the next track, and then faded in to play the rest of the song.

The average music consumer doesn't care that much. They want to hear the words and sing along to the tune.

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And yes, you can now get to a global audience with the Internet for minimal investment. That's a good thing.

The down side is there are zillions of others doing the same thing so marketing to get people to find you might cost more than your streaming or download fees.

I can make more playing one gig live than most can with streaming and download profits for a year. And I do this a few days per week. I've paid off my mortgage, taken a foreign vacation almost every year (after we did 49 US states), bought a boat, cars, and paid all my bills doing music and nothing but music. Life is good.

The down side of that is that I'm playing at my full potential. I can't sell multiple copies of that performance and possibly break out and become a millionaire like Kenny G.

But for every Kenny G who makes it, there are thousands who record and try but never make a buck. It probably has about the same odds as playing the state lottery.

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So the way I see it is, the odds of making big bucks in the recording industry have never been good. On the other hand the opportunities have expanded but the field of competition has as well.

The big stars like The Beatles, GNR, and so on have always been the exception to the rule, and that small percentage has been able to live off their recordings since the last half of the 20th century, but with the increase of technology, they are now making less than they used to make.

But for centuries, the vast majority of musicians have made a living playing music, live, in front of an audience. Before mass media, all the musicians made all their money playing live to an audience.

The demand for live music is less than it has ever been since I was a child, but it's still there. Unfortunately there is more competition, screens (especially cable TV), open mic nights where your competition plays for free, DJs, and sports bars.

But a good musician can probably still make more in one night than he/she can with a year of Spotify royalties.

Back on topic.

Most of us play music because we really, really, really enjoy playing music. Those of us who can also make a living by playing music, are IMHO the lucky ones.

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Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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