Selling Out - how much music artists earn online

[agodi]

I think I devised a genius (but hypothetical) way to make money in selling my music:

Step 1. Produce a good track (its not as easy as that) but press only a few copys to vinyl
Step 2. get a few copys out to some of the big name djs but keep the rest of your records yourself.
Step 3. Wait for the track start gaining popularity
Step 4. Once people start looking for it , sell your own stash on discogs for 10 times the price!

[patrick bateman]

I think I devised a genius (but hypothetical) way to make money in selling my music:

Step 1. Produce a good track (its not as easy as that) but press only a few copys to vinyl
Step 2. get a few copys out to some of the big name djs but keep the rest of your records yourself.
Step 3. Wait for the track start gaining popularity
Step 4. Once people start looking for it , sell your own stash on discogs for 10 times the price!

Good idea, except that step 3 doesn't happen for tons of good music

[PsyTox]

only beatport and other shops are making serious moneys at mp3 bussines.


1.99$ per download

50% - beatport
50% label -> 99c for label

- 20% distro = 80c for label

80c - > 50% label + 50% producer
40c is for producer/musician [track price is 2USD]

it's actually 60/40 with Beatport and you don't have to work with a distributor. I would even say: what's the use for a distributor, you make most money on Beatport anyway so just concentrate on getting a direct account with them and get the max of money there, and offer the rest on a distri like Feiyr where you can cater 300 stores for a little bit extra AND you don't have to sell to all of their stores, just the ones you choose. But more importantly: they license your tracks always and make some money for you with their compilations. You don't have to do promotion for those compils and you just get a little bit of cash, just enough for mastering f.e.

For a label it means you only have to upload all your tracks 2 times and fill in the files etc, but that's not really much hassle.

Either with vinyl or digital: it takes effort and investments and time. But that's a small price to pay for something you like. We also have a sponsor now who basically advances us the money for vinyls and parties and we try to get gigs with the label which is also again a bit of money. We go to orgs like Poppunt and work out how to get subsidised by the government, do remix contests,... anything really.

The times that you could just make music and sit back and let the wonders of nature run its course is indeed over, a label has to find all kinds of ways to stay afloat. But that's just the fun part, if it works out you can actually offer your artists a much wider experience that in the long run will help him secure better paid gigs and deals with big labels, remixes, whatever. Thinking outside the box has never been more necessary as today. And I expect that it'll get worse and that music will indeed evolve to things like spotify where you will be paid per stream (which is basically nothing). Artists go back to playing live/dj'ing and the result is that ticket prices are going up like crazy, simply because people don't want to pay 1 euro for a track, but they happily fork over 150 euro for a festival ticket. So everything evolves away from the real music selling and more to events, sponsorship, licensing, music for video games, ...

Just my two cents. Per download.

[gustafsson]

Digital is stupid for artists. Vinyl is more profitable once you start getting past the break even point. The only people who do well with digital are the people running the websites and the people stealing the music.


The problem is that in case u havent noticed in the last years almost ALL of the big distributors CLOSED down and didnt pay thousands to the labels
so talking about profits is weird i have friends with very good labels who wait a long time to get the money and many are in the 20th release but still havent received the 16th wich was 1 year ago so...
+ sales are quite low in general and near to digital sales
Digital will not go away and the problem is this
Underground Music 1 format = 1 label = 400 sales example
not much , but if u sell 200 in each format u will prob lose money + hassle etcetc
Thats why i said some time ago having 2 formats and sales divided betwen these 2 medias is worst for the labels
and if theres only one format , digital then it would be better overall
Of course i understand some people might disagree but time will tell
if this is to continue
i have no doubts many will keep pressing but just because they use it as a promotional tool and are willing to lose money
Also in House from what friends who own labels tell me sales in Digital are higher than the ones in vynil.
Of course there must be more improvements in digital world i personally am more in favour of a specialized shops , House , Techno , Trance
I dont really think its good to have everything under one roof for several reasons , better to have 2,3 specialized portals in House with good music selection than a big one like beaport will not elaborate more on this for now maybe in another post

[ChrisCV]

people are saying buying CDs is more profitable... but looking at those stats.. you can see a CD album vs album download through itunes is comparatively the same.. both require 1,200 sales for minimum wage...

they don't mention the cost/return on buying singles from a shop.. so we have no way of knowing whether one is better than the other..

so its not that surprising you have to sell 10 times as much as a CD album because the price is 10 times less for a single mp3 track against a whole CD album.

[Themis]

haha gustafsson i really love you

[Casanova808]

The problem is that in case u havent noticed in the last years almost ALL of the big distributors CLOSED down and didnt pay thousands to the labels

That is why you don't work with big distributors. The underground boutique distros is where you want to be.

so talking about profits is weird i have friends with very good labels who wait a long time to get the money and many are in the 20th release but still havent received the 16th wich was 1 year ago so...

Your friends are either stupid, or you don't know what you are talking about. It doesn't take a year to get paid unless your distro is really fucking you.

+ sales are quite low in general and near to digital sales
Digital will not go away and the problem is this
Underground Music 1 format = 1 label = 400 sales example

Again, you sound like you don't know anything about the actual business. Tell me which is more profitable, 500 records, or 2000 downloads(this assumes you sell all four track, unlikely)? Also, how many downloads do you sell after the mastered 320's hit rapidshare 12 hours after the release?

Thats why i said some time ago having 2 formats and sales divided betwen these 2 medias is worst for the labels
and if theres only one format , digital then it would be better overall

This doesn't make any sense. They don't take away from each other because they are different markets. Digital is the thief's format. 95% of the market exists because people don't want to pay for creative work. Beatport isn't going to take away vinyl sales. People who buy vinyl aren't going to settle for a 320.

MP3's are going to stay, but it is going to be cheesy DJ who play them. Laptop DJs are bullshit. Laptop DJs get defensive when you say that because they know in their heart that they took the easy way out. That is why the sets suck, because computer DJs took the lazy route. Vinyl will always be more impressive.

Vinyl isn't going anywhere. The plants are so busy right now that you have to wait in line in order to get pressed. My last record sold out in four days. If you are good, vinyl still sells.

[livecollective]

MP3's are going to stay, but it is going to be cheesy DJ who play them. Laptop DJs are bullshit. Laptop DJs get defensive when you say that because they know in their heart that they took the easy way out. That is why the sets suck, because computer DJs took the lazy route. Vinyl will always be more impressive.

Vinyl isn't going anywhere. The plants are so busy right now that you have to wait in line in order to get pressed. My last record sold out in four days. If you are good, vinyl still sells.

You sound like an ass.



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