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How Much Do You Artists Make?
I was just got asked a question about how much artists make on Facebook by graphic designer, developer extraorderinaire
Here is the questions and the replies:
Q from Jessie Nivens:
How much money does a band make from:
1) A full length CD sale
2) A 1.29 itunes download
3) A .99 (?) Amazon download
4) A play on Spotify
5) A play on Rdio
6) A play on Grooveshark
7) An inclusion in a major soundtrack (like Twilight)
8) Use on a major commercial.. like a beer or car commercial
Answers from Me:
These are averages withOUT a record deal as too many factors (recouping, contract negotiations could alter this dramatically) Most artists sign away about 85% of their rights when they sign a record deal (rights to their music of course not life rights 🙂 This is all negotiable!
1) A full length CD sale – On a $9.99 album : iTunes takes 30% and depending if you’re using a distributor or not they could be taking a flat album fee per year (tunecore takes like $25 a year) or a percentage of each album sold by a distributor (orchard, ingrooves, etc.). In the example of one distributor taking 30% and iTunes taking 30% its about ~$4.50 per album net to the artist before the costs surrounding production, post production, marketing, tour support, etc and not to forget the amount of hours the artist took to make that actual album.
2) A 1.29 itunes download same 30% iTunes/30% distributor splits = ~.63 per download
3) A .99 (?) Amazon download same 30% Amazon / 30% distributor splits = ~.48 per download
4) A play on Spotify It is a bit of a sliding scale based upon each artist and the revenue generated by each artist. The average payout is about .002, yes POINTZEROZEROTWO (cents) per spin. (about 300 Spotify spins = 1 iTunes download on average)
5) A play on Rdio They haven’t disclosed much from what I’ve read but I imagine its probably less or equal to Spotify.
6) A play on Grooveshark Around the same or less than Spotify but they OFTEN are in trouble for not properly paying out artists that are uploaded legally or illegally. They are currently being sued by Universal for billions of dollars.
7) An inclusion in a major soundtrack (like Twilight) $10k to $100k (depending on the size of the artist) A major label artist with a major publishing deal will have more people negotiating on their behalf and therefore will make more money as a whole.Â
8) Use on a major commercial.. like a beer or car commercial ~$75k+ Example: Arcade Fire got $250k for its NFL commercial a couple years ago which was donated to Haiti relief (they do not sync or license their music, this was a special cause).
matt
p.s. special thanks to Jesse Nivens for inspiring this blog and the clip art above!Â
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