Okay Geek Farm
Musicians actually make $24 for every $1000 of Music Sold
Brandon Davenport
Well, this is really depressing and eye opening in terms of counteracting every claim that was made saying “Musicians are loosing money due to piracy” — What money are they talking about? If the industry claims that the artists are loosing money, than what’s happening to the industries money? My guess is not much, considering if anything was actually happening to it, it wouldn’t be noticeable.
If you think that all musicians live like Beyoncé and super rich kids like Bieber, you’re wrong and have been terribly mis-informed about what the music industry is actually like for the other 98% of artists.
Of the 97,751 albums released in 2009, just 12 of them sold more than 1 million copies that year. Only 2,050 of those albums sold over 5,000 units. That means that 98% of all albums released in 2009 sold under 5,000 copies.
Looking at this chart (left) only 13% of all profits go to the artists, and that gets split apart after the fact. That means that for every $1000 dollars of music sold, the actual band only makes $23.40, and from that amount, each band member makes about $4.21 with the rest going to lawyers and producers.
When the industry talks about their bands loosing money from pirating, they’re talking about the Biebers and Beyoncés who are the 2.1% of artists selling over 5,000 copies, and actually have money to loose. When we think about everyone else (the other 98%) they have nothing to begin with and when we pirate their music, it hits them hard.
We’re not hurting the 2.1% that sell millions of copies and have money to blow, we are hurting everybody else that the music industry fails to care about.
So if you think that being a musician is “fun” and will make you rich, look at the chart to the left, and realize that you have a 98,000/12 chance of making it big. Rock on… I guess.
More Info about how music works
Where does the money go? - Read more at TheRoot
Crunching the numbers - Read more at Billboard
