I’m sure you’ve all heard of Sixpence None the Richer*, a (IMHO) better-than-average non-threatening pop band.
They’ve had three Top 40 hits that I’m aware of, their current single being a remake of Don’t Dream It’s Over, the 1980’s song by Crowded House. Their other two hits were There She Goes, a remake of the 1970’s (?) song by The La’s, and Kiss Me, which I believe is original. That makes two out of three of their Top 40 singles remakes.
In a word, how do they make money doing stuff like this? The original songwriters get the royalties for every time their song is played on the radio; the band has to pay a licensing fee every time they perform the song live; and I’m sure all kinds of money changes hands just so they can have the song on the album. I don’t see how they can come out in the black, even if the majority of their songs on any one album are original (and especially if they don’t get played on the radio, which seems to be the case now). And FTR, Sixpence-ntr’s website says that 12 of the 13 songs on their current album, Divine Discontent, are original.
*I loves me some Leigh Nash.
MMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm, Leigh Nash.
BTW, some day I’m going to write a Pit Thread about how modern bands and DJ’s are calling songs from my generation “classics.”
The reason they make money on cover songs is that they appear on the CD, which is bought by the customer. While a bit goes to the songwriter(s) royalties, that’s just a part of the pie. Notice how people like Britney Spears, Boy Bands, Some country stars, etc. don’t do much writing, but are still filthy rich?
The royalty payment on each play of a song is about 4 cents (it’s been a long time since I checked, so it could be more now). The band gets the rest of the money from the sale of the CD (less commissions, expenses, etc., etc. and so forth). They also get concert, t-shirt, etc. money (as someone pointed out) also less expenses.
Brittany and the boy bands take home a nice check, but only if they’re selling zillions of CDs, toys, etc. since they pay commissions in the high double digits–being “manufactured” stars as they are. Each job that you do yourself means you get to keep another piece of the pie, but that leads to the “jack of all trades/master of none” problem. If you spend time managing/promoting/selling you don’t have time to get good at your (songwriting/singing/playing) craft.
I was out of college, on the road, playing in a copy band in 1985. Actually, it was 1971. Eventually you get over the Grrrrr!:mad: from hearing songs you played for a living being called “Oldies” or “Classics”–but it still sucks.
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Because people go to bars to drink, talk and meet guys/chicks. They’re not there for the music. The band is just part of the atmosphere. A good club band plays a lot of party tunes to keep the booze flowing.
If you play concerts you had better have your original tunes–or cool new arrangements of someone else’s tunes–ready to go. Get up and play “Takin’ Care of Business” just like BTO and you’re gonna get laughed off the stage.
It has been widely reported lately, that a group signed with a major label doesn’t have a chance of making money off of CDs unless they sell at least a million. And even if they do, creative accounting will still cause some bands to be in the hole to the record company.
As stated above, the money is in concerts, t-shirts, etc. That’s where almost all groups make their money, cover bands or not.
I don’t have an answer to your question - it seems like others have answered it pretty well here. But I just wanted to mention that The La’s song in question, “There She Goes”, is not from the 1970s, but was released originally in, believe it or not, 1990. I can see why you might have thought it was older, though; The La’s definitely had a retro-pop feel to them.
Homie, I think one of the things you need to do is differentiate between cover bands and original bands doing cover songs. Sixpence is, IIRC, a Christian-oriented band, and it’s simply been the case that the few observably non-Christian message songs they’ve done are the ones that have received airplay. Of the three you mentioned, 2 were covers. I have a feeling that Sixpence is using the covers to boost their sales because their albums are not specifically targeted at the wider pop audience. So, they’re making money by selling their albums, but the price of doing the cover is actually an investment since they hope to get people outside their normal audience.
Full-time cover bands can rake in money hand over fist, but they will almost never be able to make it to a national level or score a record deal if they have no original stuff. F5, one of Spiffled’s top acts, is a cover band (I know, cos I did a few songs with them). They are a very popular band, mostly because they’ve taken great pains to make their covers sound as close to the originals as possible. And when you get right down to the brass tacks, that’s what folks getting snockered want to hear-songs they know and can dance to. But you can’t make an album out of everyone else’s music. They’re in it for the cash and the fun, but not much else. Covers are covers.
Morph’s right, BTW. There She Goes was early 90s by The La’s, redone by The Boo Radleys for the So I Married an Axe Murderer soundtrack (actually, both versions appeared on that album).
