On Giving Music Away

This Seattle weekly article provides numbers and musicians personal experiences to make the economic case for giving music away (AND selling it.) I’ve quoted a bit from the piece here for you:

“If you look at the numbers from traditional record contracts, only the elite of the elite, the top 1 to 5 percent, would make any money whatsoever off their albums,” says Aram Sinnreich, a managing partner in the Los Angeles–based media consulting firm Radar Research. Bands who sell 1,000 copies of an album on a major or independent label are no more able to quit their day jobs than those who give away 1,000 copies of an album. And because of record labels’ profit margins, many wind up in debt to labels after signing their contract. Under these conditions, “over 90 percent [of bands signed to a record label] would never see a royalty check. That’s a sad secret of the industry,” Sinnreich adds.

Although giving away music is novel, unknown bands aren’t guaranteed a return. But they can improve the chances their music will be heard. According to Ian Rogers, former Music VP of product development for Yahoo and now CEO of Topspin, a new digital music-marketing platform, a good example is Saul Williams’ recent release Niggy Tardust. “He sold about as many copies as he sold with his last release, which was on a label,” Rogers says. “But [because of the free downloads] he was heard by 10 times that, and that’s affected his ability to tour; it’s affected his entire livelihood.

(…)

“Even at its peak, when it was a thriving industry, recorded music only brought artists a fraction of the revenue that merchandise and touring brought them,” Sinnreich says. “Today, that disequilibrium has been exaggerated by the plunging music retail market and by the expanding music merchandise and performance market.”

Evidence corroborates: Lyle Lovett recently confessed to Billboard that after two decades and 4.6 million albums sold, he’s “never seen a dime” in royalties and has made his living primarily from touring. That’s a sure sign that business-wise musicians must find new ways to survive.