God
Creator of the Universe
ill o.g.
I remember when I started in music it was conceivable you could have one hit album and have a huge financial windfall from that, provided you had the right representation and such. It was completely reasonable that you could be in the gutter in January and driving a Ferrari by December.
If you were lucky enough to be one of the chosen few, the record company would throw marketing dollars your way and you'd blow up even more. It was completely conceivable with three hit songs you could go multiplatinum. You could easily get a multimillion-dollar payday off royalties considering the way the contract was structured, but you get my drift.
You could live off those album sale royalties for a long time. A real long time.
One hit song could net you $500,000 a year (for many years) in royalties from albums as well as TV, licensing etc. But I'm staying away from the licensing debate. I'm talking about albums and revenue off sales of albums and singles.
Now, you get a hit single, nothing like "Blurred Lines" but maybe a Top 5 song. iTunes gives you shit for royalties (after the record company takes its cut.) You don't sell albums anymore, because-- why even bother? And there is so much competition from others that record companies have their pick of who they want AND they expect you to do the marketing for them.
Call me an old fart, but I liked the days when if you "made it," shit was handled for you. You had that steady royalty stream coming in. You would get paid a lot for gigs and one hit single could last for a lot longer than now.
What I'm saying is: if you think you can get rich in the music industry-- man, those days are gone. You have to work hard just to stay solvent and afloat.
Plus, there are so many cats out there with the technology to make music, it lowers the bar of entry. Which means you just have to compete. And competition ain't always fair. Granted a lot of what cats make is shit, but there's a lot of hot stuff out there that gets ripped off by producers or is picked up for $1000 or something.
What I'm saying is. Do this for fun or go "all in" and expect to make a decent living -- but you're hustling hard to make the money that a lawyer, PR executive or a doctor would make.
I tell cats these days, get away from the narcissism of our society: do something you like, but also that makes you money. Honestly, it seems a lot easier to go to school, earn your law degree and get paid $150,000/year out of college. You're making more than most producers make.
Now, is it fun? Law sucks and most lawyers will tell you so. Being a doctor is also difficult because you have to be good at math and chemistry (I would argue it's easier to become a lawyer.)
In any case, call me lazy -- but I like the idea of spending a year on an album and releasing it. Now music are just like blogs. You have to have content coming out all the fucking time. It's physically impossible to pop out that many bangers unless you have ghostwriters and ghost producers on your squad.
If you're a new kid to the game. Stay on the education grind. Music is a crapshoot. Sometimes you're on top of the world living in a mansion and once those royalties dry up-- you're back to hustling.
Also, you have so many scam artists in the game because anyone can be a manager these days, the shit is almost a joke. So watch out. Believe in your dreams, but don't be unrealistic. Keep your feet to the ground.
If you just want to earn a living, consider licensing and other opportunities. Album and single sales just don't cut it unless you're the artist or a genius/exploiter of ghost producers that constantly pump out bangers.
If you were lucky enough to be one of the chosen few, the record company would throw marketing dollars your way and you'd blow up even more. It was completely conceivable with three hit songs you could go multiplatinum. You could easily get a multimillion-dollar payday off royalties considering the way the contract was structured, but you get my drift.
You could live off those album sale royalties for a long time. A real long time.
One hit song could net you $500,000 a year (for many years) in royalties from albums as well as TV, licensing etc. But I'm staying away from the licensing debate. I'm talking about albums and revenue off sales of albums and singles.
Now, you get a hit single, nothing like "Blurred Lines" but maybe a Top 5 song. iTunes gives you shit for royalties (after the record company takes its cut.) You don't sell albums anymore, because-- why even bother? And there is so much competition from others that record companies have their pick of who they want AND they expect you to do the marketing for them.
Call me an old fart, but I liked the days when if you "made it," shit was handled for you. You had that steady royalty stream coming in. You would get paid a lot for gigs and one hit single could last for a lot longer than now.
What I'm saying is: if you think you can get rich in the music industry-- man, those days are gone. You have to work hard just to stay solvent and afloat.
Plus, there are so many cats out there with the technology to make music, it lowers the bar of entry. Which means you just have to compete. And competition ain't always fair. Granted a lot of what cats make is shit, but there's a lot of hot stuff out there that gets ripped off by producers or is picked up for $1000 or something.
What I'm saying is. Do this for fun or go "all in" and expect to make a decent living -- but you're hustling hard to make the money that a lawyer, PR executive or a doctor would make.
I tell cats these days, get away from the narcissism of our society: do something you like, but also that makes you money. Honestly, it seems a lot easier to go to school, earn your law degree and get paid $150,000/year out of college. You're making more than most producers make.
Now, is it fun? Law sucks and most lawyers will tell you so. Being a doctor is also difficult because you have to be good at math and chemistry (I would argue it's easier to become a lawyer.)
In any case, call me lazy -- but I like the idea of spending a year on an album and releasing it. Now music are just like blogs. You have to have content coming out all the fucking time. It's physically impossible to pop out that many bangers unless you have ghostwriters and ghost producers on your squad.
If you're a new kid to the game. Stay on the education grind. Music is a crapshoot. Sometimes you're on top of the world living in a mansion and once those royalties dry up-- you're back to hustling.
Also, you have so many scam artists in the game because anyone can be a manager these days, the shit is almost a joke. So watch out. Believe in your dreams, but don't be unrealistic. Keep your feet to the ground.
If you just want to earn a living, consider licensing and other opportunities. Album and single sales just don't cut it unless you're the artist or a genius/exploiter of ghost producers that constantly pump out bangers.
