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Music

Another sign that streaming music royalty payments stink

It almost doesn’t pay to be a musician these days.

We’ll take that back and rephrase:  it LITERALLY doesn’t pay to be a musician these days.  And yes, we are using the word “literally” correctly in that sentence..

With more and more businesses deciding to hop onto the STREAMING MUSIC bandwagon, one would think that the greater exposure would result in greater earnings for the musicians and songwriters who are getting their music spread far and wide.

Music Publishing: The Roadmap to Royalties
Music Publishing: The Roadmap to Royalties

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10 Things Music Websites

Who are the Most Sampled Recording Artists of All Time?

It’s been said that there will reach a point in time where every single piece of recorded music has been written.  There are only so many combinations of notes on a musical scale that can be made.

So that’s where the ability to make variations on a theme come into play.  Combining two different songs to make a completely new one.  Sampling music in order to add your own voice, style to something that already exists.

Start Your Music Business: How to Earn Royalties, Own Your Music, Sample Music, Protect Your Name & Structure Your Music Business
Start Your Music Business:
How to Earn Royalties, Own Your Music,
Sample Music, Protect Your Name & Structure Your Music Business

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10 Things How To Music

How much money does Pandora pay artists for music streaming?

Whether you get your music listening fix from your own MP3’s stored on your cellphone/tablet/desktop, from the local AM/FM radio station, or a streaming service like PANDORA, SPOTIFY, or others — you know that nothing is ever free.

Whether it be listening to advertising, viewing popups, or purchasing the audio files from your favorite vendor (Apple, Amazon, Google Play, Best Buy) — that music has to get to you somehow.  And it’s that transport that’s going to cost someone, somewhere.

Pandora
Pandora

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10 Things How To Music

Top Paid Musicians of 2012 (here’s a hint: it’s not all from Youtube or iTunes)

It’s time once again to take a look at HOW MUCH MONEY MUSICIANS MAKE each year.

Web Watch knows what you’re thinking — with iTunes, the Amazon Music Store, Google Play and other services, let alone the money that comes in from Youtube from display advertising showing with all their posted music videos — that successful artists would almost literally be rolling in dough.

But that’s not the case, as Web Watch has told you before regarding HOW MUSIC ROYALTIES WORK.

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Music

How much does Pandora pay musicians?

Web Watch has covered the COMPLICATED WORLD OF MUSIC ROYALTY PAYMENT CALCULATIONS in the past, showed you how to calculate MUSIC ROYALTY PAYOUTS with a MUSIC ROYALTY CALCULATOR, and even told you HOW MUCH MONEY iTUNES PAYS ARTISTS.

And yet, the question keeps coming up over and over from various artists: HOW MUCH MONEY CAN I MAKE ONLINE WITH MUSIC?

And the answer keeps coming back as “not as much as you’d think”.

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Music shopping

Today’s kids don’t like to pay for music. Here’s what’s wrong with that

By now you’ve probably heard about that NPR intern who claims to have over 11,000 songs in her music library, but only paid for 15 CDs in her life.

Remember CRACKER?  What a great opportunity for someone in the music industry to write an open letter to that intern, right?

That’s exactly what DAVID LOWERY did.

 

Categories
How To Music

The secret to having a hit record is all about “Treating the radio guys nice.”

Hey Mr DJ I Thought You Said We Had a Deal by They Might Be Giants
Buy this TMBG album for the song
“HEY MR DJ, I THOUGHT YOU SAID WE HAD A DEAL”

Rock band THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS wrote a song all about what it allegedly took to get a song on the radio, aptly entitled Hey Mr DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal.  In it, the lyrics read, in part:

I struck a bargain with my radio DJ
I said I’d like this song to be number one
He said I’d really really like to help you my son
And then I knew that I would have him to thank
Because he asked me how much I had in the bank

He said the record wouldn’t have to be hot
And no one ever seemed to care if it’s not
It would depend on something else that I’ve got

Hey Mr. DJ, I thought you said we had a deal
I thought you said, You scratch my back and I’ll scratch your record
And I thought you said we had a deal

And while it may appear that TMBG is talking about PAYOLA — paying money to a DJ to get a song on the airwaves — what they could be talking about is just THE BUSINESS OF MAKING MUSIC.

Categories
10 Things Music

You can’t be a successful musician until you’ve gone bankrupt at least once

The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop
The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop

There are lots of financial obligations when you’re a solo musician or in a band.

You have to worry about getting gigs, writing music, obtaining copyright or other legal paperwork.  Then there’s the infighting, splitting appearance fees, and paying for samples in your hit song that borrowed liberally from clips you found on YouTube.

Yeah – music royalties may not pay a lot, but they do end up paying something.  But sometimes, what you get from those royalty checks isn’t enough to make ends meet.

But all is not lost if you have to file for bankruptcy.   All sorts of extremely successful and well-respected artists have had to make that financial sacrifice in order to continue their careers later.  If you end up having to file bankruptcy, at least you’d be in good company.