TOO MUCH JOY was a band in the early 90′s that not a lot of people knew about, although they had a reputation for being one of the best live bands around. Web Watch knows this first-hand, having been lucky enough to have the chance to see them play more than a few times over the years.
If you’ve seen the film SHAKES THE CLOWN, then you’ve heard TMJ’s song “CLOWNS
In other words, Too Much Joy has been around the block a few times. They’ve released a few albums, made national news covering other people’s songs, had some radio play, have celebrity fans, and have done pretty well for themselves in the subsequent years. They’ve even been called “sell-outs” by some of their fans. What’s not to love?
Tim Quirk, lead singer of Too Much Joy and now an executive at the music streaming service Rhapsody, knows the answer to that question: the music royalties.
Continue reading "The Ugly Truth about Music Royalties from TOO MUCH JOY’s Tim Quirk"
How much royalties do musicians make selling music? If sold via iTunes, almost not enough to live on
32GB iPod
Previously, Web Watch has written about how little money artists receive from music sales.
While that post was about the best band in the world and how they are still in debt to Warner Brothers even after millions of albums and downloads sold, new information has come to light regarding more current and popular artists and how they are affected by music royalty payment calculations… or lack thereof.
Lady Gaga, for example, was reportedly PAID JUST $167 FOR FIVE MONTHS WORTH OF STREAMING (totalling over 1 million plays) of the song “Pokerface” on the streaming service Spotify. Of course, SPOTIFY DISPUTES THIS, and says that the payment that was reported was for a tiny timeframe, represents just one country, and was still when they were a lesser-known streaming service. Web Watch thinks that even with those caveats, since the streaming totals or dollars paid weren’t updated in the counter-discussion, that Gaga’s low payment number still stands.
Referencing other EMPIRICAL DATA ABOUT HOW MUCH ARTISTS GET PAID for each type of distribution method, David McCandless put together a phenomenal graphic that VISUALLY SHOWS HOW MUCH (or little) MONEY ARTISTS ARE PAID, specifically looking at how many items in each distribution model need to be sold in order for the artist to make a monthly living minimum wage. Let’s take a look at what David’s graphic is trying to tell us:
Continue reading "How much royalties do musicians make selling music? If sold via iTunes, almost not enough to live on" »