Houston Calling

The high cost of selling out

July 6th, 2007 · No Comments

I came across an interesting article in the Guardian earlier this week. It’s about how much money it takes for a band to have a realistic shot at mainstream success: the costs of promotion, videos, professional recording, etc.

While this is obviously not what every musician or band aspires to, I am sure that many bands wouldn’t pass up the chance at not having to work menial jobs to support their dreams. Feedback welcomed.

Here’s a snippet:

You’ve got the band, you’ve got the talent (or you’d like to think so) – all you need now to make the big time is that killer hit … and about half a million pounds. Dave Simpson reports on the price of fame or, more realistically, the cost of squandering money on a lost cause

Advance: £150,000
An advance is the money a record company gives to the band when the contract is signed – it’s cash the label plans to recover from the earnings the band will make from future CD and download sales. It is meant to cover the band’s living expenses over the cycle of a recording, releasing and promoting an album (which is usually around 18 months). The advance is split between the four members, and the manager will take 20% off the top. That works out as less than pounds 35,000 each over a year and a half, which isn’t enough to make throwing TVs out of hotel windows a viable financial option.

Read the entire article here.

Tags: Music

0 responses so far ↓

  • There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.

Leave a Comment