Let’s say there’s a 4 person band that has big a regional following, but they have not broken through nationally. They can get as many bar and venue bookings as they want locally.
In these days of almost free media distribution how do musicians with a strong regional following make a living? Is it all just pure touring ticket sales these days?
Well, small regional bands like that rarely made a living from music alone, even before file sharing. Unless you got a record contract, at best you could earn was a small second income, but a four-person band would only make enough from gigs and CD sales to have a little left over after expenses.
Aye, merch is where the money’s at.
This.
Demand for live music has been going down for a long time. Junior Brown pegs 1980 or so as a knee in the curve. Big screen TV’s and karaoke increased competition for the entertainment dollar. In the past, it was easier for a band to hone their sound and build up a following while getting paid. Nowadays, most audiences would rather hear a DJ or a jukebox play recordings of familiar songs than listen to an unknown band play originals.
Also, the musical instruments industry (via “School of Rock”, vocal processors, effects pedals, etc.) has enabled lots of middle class people to quickly learn to play passable covers of their favorite classic songs. To a lot of audiences, a group of accountants and dentists who started playing last year doesn’t sound much different than a good band. And venue owners love hiring people who work for free.
Result: the quality of live music has gone down - demand spiraling with it - while the other entertainment options have gotten better.
I know a semi-famous rockabilly musician in Arkansas. When he started playing out around 1960, he could make more money per night than eight hours’ pay at a day job.
Today, how do you get a musician off your front porch? Pay him for the pizza.
A buddy of mine who is 61 has been this close to making it nationally ever since highschool. He’s had a few close calls, but no. He still plays a gig or two a week.
He has gotten into producing.
I can’t help but think the soaring costs of tickets is another factor in that. When I was in high school tickets to a band like the Moody Blues, the Beach Boys, and so forth was around $10-15, a price accessible even to teenagers.
Now a live concert ticket can cost hundreds for a major band.
When the band I played with in my youth approached our 30s, we all realized this was never going to be anything for us but an avocation. We’d all continued to have second jobs, but most of us switched the order of things around and turned the band into our second job.
Two of my bandmates got in on the ground floor of the wonderful world of internet sales and now own the world’s largest online retailer and wholesaler of school band instruments. Another bandmate owns a recording studio in Canada, I went into athletics (and later into HR) full time, and our drummer became a college band director.
We all continued to play, and everyone but me stayed in the field in one way or another, but you have to be incredibly talented, incredibly lucky, or preferably both, to make a band your career.
My brother manages a band that was nationally famous for a minute in the 70s but really are only widely known on a regional scale.
One guy from the band makes his living as a famous solo musician in his own right, but the other two have day jobs. They get together a couple times a year at most to play shows. They have released some albums and DVDs of live shows since they stopped doing studio albums.
Nobody’s getting rich off it. They basically just love playing and love their fans.
I’m a fan of a singer/songwriter/guitarist who had a couple of top 40 hits in 2003/2004, but never really broke through beyond that. She has a loyal, but not huge, following – her artist page on Facebook has around 9,000 followers, which isn’t terribly large for a musician.
She still records and plays live shows, though she mostly plays in the Northeast (she’s based in NYC). When she comes here to Chicago to play a gig, once a year or so, she plays at a bar or nightclub, and does a solo show, in part because she isn’t making enough from the date to bring a backup band along.
She released a new album a year and a half ago, which she funded, in part, via a PledgeMusic campaign (though I believe that she eventually got a record label to distribute it). She regularly releases new songs digital-only on iTunes, and she’s had a number of her songs used on TV shows and commercials.
In short, she’s probably making a small-to-medium amount of money from a bunch of different sources, but I doubt that she’s making a fortune as a musician. She’s married, and her husband apparently has a solid (and non-music) job, which undoubtedly helps.
My spouse owned a marching band for a bit over a decade.
Truthfully, our performances only broke even on costs for the event, basically transportation costs for the performers and a dinner for everyone afterward, a bit for maintenance of the drums and some of the paraphernalia like the band banner.
He made his money off teaching people to play bagpipes and doing marriages/funerals/bar mitzvahs (seriously, he played a surprising number of bar mitzvahs). The of the band were mostly in it for the fun of it, and because they wanted to play music.
Head East?
Doesn’t sound like much has changed since my college days. Some friends and I got together to practice and learn a few songs. Word got out and we got invited to play at a few parties. Got a few gigs at local bars. Never got much except beer money and something to eat. Very glad we never took it too seriously. Graduating and getting a day job was the best move for my friends and I.
I’d guess its even harder today. The internet makes learning to play music more accessible. The competition to even get in a working, local band must be intense.