famousringo said:
A slice of text from The Economist: Seven years ago musicians derived two-thirds of their income, via record labels, from pre-recorded music, with the other one-third coming from concert tours, merchandise and endorsements, according to the Music Managers Forum, a trade group in London. But today those proportions have been reversed—cutting the labels off from the industry's biggest and fastest-growing sources of revenue. Concert-ticket sales in North America alone increased from $1.7 billion in 2000 to over $3.1 billion last year, according to Pollstar, a trade magazine. Now, I'm not trying to necessarily say that you're wrong. I would suggest that the main reason why the bands you know make more money off of CDs and online sales is because they have a better deal with their self-publication or small label than they would get with a major label. They probably get a bigger slice than the dollar or so per CD that artists on major labels get, and probably can't charge as much for a show as a more famous artist on a major label can. Different markets just have different business plans, I guess. |
This can depend on the type of band... Some bands that earn a lot of money are assembled by producers and are designed to be profitable. These sellout style bands are much more likely to succeed, then the band you watch at your local bar; and they will likely skew the results because they will lose most of their money to the producer.
Now most bands, well call them friends who like to play music style bandswill earn most of their revenue from their shows, especially if you count the merch they sell during them. These days it is so easy to produce a disc that good bands usually progress further without record contracts. Think about how hard it was for Johnny Cash. IME if a band has talent, people like them and they get big.
