The New Rules of Engagement for Professional Musicians

Not only does selling albums become a major issue, but trying to make money with the album becomes even more difficult. I recently attended a Paramore concert. While backstage, the lead vocalist, Haley Williams, brought up a very interesting point during a discussion. She stated how for every album Paramore sells, not including the albums illegally downloaded, the band receives two cents for every dollar. This means that the other 98 cents goes somewhere else. When a band tries to survive off their album sales alone, they almost never make it. Ticket sales to concerts can provide a better income for more well-known bands, but many new bands have to pay to play. This way, the venue can guarantee an income for themselves. Basically, if a band doesn’t sell their allotted tickets, the musicians lose money or will lose their opportunity to play.

Since surviving financially as a musician seems nearly impossible due to what we’ve just discussed (and so much more), finding resourceful alternatives becomes necessary. Merchandise can provide the artist with the necessary funds to grow financially. Creating a brand out of the band name has proven quite successful. A good portion of an artist’s income comes from the sale of shirts, hoodies, hats, and posters. At shows, many bands promote the sale of their “merch” over the sale of their album. The profit a band can make off such items often eclipses the amount of profit from album sales. I personally do all of my clothes shopping at concerts because this supports the artist, and most of the items are different than anything found in a store. Additionally, successful bands even sell merchandise directly through their official website, creating greater accessibility to their fans.

This notion of “poppin bottles” and “makin it rain” is mostly a fairy tale, not reality. Today’s bands not only struggle with making unique music and providing it to a large population, but when some group does manage to create a masterpiece, more often than not, the band members don’t make much money from selling the song. This is the sad but universal truth of the music industry. Radio stations don’t help much, and neither do numerous others in the industry. Bands must rely on packing shows with people and selling as many items as possible to those fans. Musicians don’t just learn their craft overnight. It takes years to master an instrument. Once an artist reaches that point, he or she needs to realize that making money will not necessarily come just from an ability to manipulate the instrument. The Information Age demands commercial skills, too.