You know what complaint I’ve never heard before…
I make music that tons and tons of people want to hear and hear again and they’re telling all their friends, but there’s just no money to be made in the music business.
Lots of artists say they can’t make money on music…but have they ever backed up and looked at what they’re pedaling? What songs they’re pedaling?
The most played song on Spotify is Avicii’s song Wake Me Up. As of today it has 318 million plays, which would net the Avicii empire (not necessarily himself, depending on the deals he’s signed) anywhere from $1.2 million to $2 million. So streaming revenue off of that one song more than payed for the cost of making the entire album, the marketing plan, a radio push, and probably some new sneakers for the artist.
With those costs covered, if he’s smart, a much larger percentage of the other revenue streams will be net profit. He ain’t complaining about making money in the music business.
Yep, I used the most extreme example possible, the highest played song on Spotify to make my point. But what’s your counter point?
Take away terrestrial radio (which is still important) and the playing field gets very even, very quickly. Sure, those with deep pockets will still try and pay off the gate keepers, but there are less and less gate keepers today than ever before.
By the way, there are lots of songs on Spotify’s Most Played All-Time list that you haven’t heard before. Songs with over a hundred million plays.
If the opening complaint is where you find yourself (and if you’re honest with yourself, I don’t think you could make that complaint), then there’s a breakdown in the equation somewhere that you’re not noticing. So I’ll give you a brief plan to remedy the situation.
Spend half your time writing songs. Will you start here? Or did you already decided you’re going to “play the business”, or try to “get some syncs” and go from there?
Spend the other half relentlessly building a quality team. A team with sharp edges but put all together will round out the entity as a whole.
That’s your job. Admit you’re a leader. Be a leader.
