Reply #26: music industry [View All]

Most artists make the real cake, the take-home, on merchandising sales. Most, if not all, of the ticket sale receipts are swallowed up by "production costs".

Well, as a former band member (played bass for years, nowadays my classical guitar playing has been temporarily suspended for new parenthood :-)), I gotta say that the state of the music industry is sick beyond belief. I didn't know that about ticket sales. I do know bands often fund their own videos, recording, etc. etc. and that most of the starting out bands barely eat. I had considered attending Berklee and trying it in the music biz way back when, but am quite grateful I decided to stick with amateur music and go to a regular university instead.

Despite the money that the musicians (sometimes) manage to make, it's a phenomenally exploitive system. One of my fantasy alt. careers for retirement is to start a label that doesn't completely fuck the artists.