Is this the Life?

A career in the music industry can be a very rewarding and fun one if in it for the right reasons. Many people hear about the success that comes from this career. However, what you see from the outside isn't all it is said to be. This blog is especially about the financial aspect of the industry.

If you take a look at one of my previous blogs, 4 Myths About the Music Industry, I talk briefly about the common misconceptions that people have when it comes to the finances of the music industry as a whole. 

Well, in this blog, I wanted to go a little more in-depth on this topic.

If you watch these artists on television, you will see a plethora of elegant, expensive material things such as big houses, nice cars and the like. There are three explanations as to how they get a hold of these luxurious things. That is they actually have the money to buy them, they are spending   beyond their means, or these things are not actually theirs and they’re borrowing them. In a lot of cases, they do have the finances to live this flashy lifestyle, but there is as much of a chance that what they’re showing you is actually just a figment of their imagination.

On average an artist may make several million if they are lucky on his or her first recording contract. However, like Damon Dash points out at the beginning of this video, that several million dollars you make can quickly dissipate. You have to keep in mind that a chunk of that goes into taxes, then some people who see this kind of money get overly excited and want to go haywire as soon as they get that check. The money goes towards things such as cars, clothes, big houses, and forms of entertainment that shall remain unmentioned. They also have to keep in mind that they have family and friends who want a piece of that pie. Not to mention, there are still bills that have to get paid and food that has to be put on the table. Before they know it, those millions of dollars that they thought would seem infinite is no longer there.

Many people think that the amount of album sales equals money in the pockets of recording artists. This may be true if the artist chose to go the independent route. In that case, he or she gets all of the revenue that comes in. However, if the artist is signed to a major recording label, only about 10-15% of the total record sales are going to the artist according to this Cheka Digital article. The way artists usually make their money is through tours and any merchandise that they sell. People are in the mainstream scene now and are selling millions of records but getting just a small percentage of what they actually sell as a result of being signed to a record label. The difference may not be much between an artist signed with a major deal and an independent artist. In some cases, if handled right, an independent artist may end up having more success in the long run.