Tunecore says typical artist sells $179 of music a year

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Tunecore says typical artist sells $179 of music a year

Post by @?,*???&? » Tue May 10, 2011 2:24 pm

Seriously.

And THIS is the state of the music industry.

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories ... t=Netvibes

F---in incredible.

The original story:

http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/042511tunecore

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Post by JGriffin » Tue May 10, 2011 3:23 pm

Just out of curiosity, how much did the "typical" artist sell per year in the 80s? The 90s?
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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Tue May 10, 2011 6:07 pm

i think i made about $179 in royalties last year. paid for some sandwiches and stuff.

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Post by jhharvest » Tue May 10, 2011 10:21 pm

I'm not familiar with this TuneCore service but it looks like a digital distribution service. I guess the questions that remain with that kind of a calculation are:

Are all, or the majority, of TuneCore clients professional musicians who expect to sell any significant numbers?
Is TuneCore their only sales channel, or do they make money from other album sales as well?
If this is the average number, what is the median number? How about the third quartile, especially if not all TuneCore clients are professional musicians?

Basically I'm trying to say that averages aren't usually very useful for looking at this kind of data.

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Post by kslight » Wed May 11, 2011 5:51 am

Yeah but this is for Tunecore, a service generally dominated by amateur bands without label representation or management. There are probably a lot of groups that sell next to nothing on there, and a few that do okay. The service seems like a bit of a scedam anyway, its not like you need them to get on iTunes anyway. Any bands I think that are making decent sales will probably pursue a label to take it further.

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Post by kslight » Wed May 11, 2011 5:51 am

Yeah but this is for Tunecore, a service generally dominated by amateur bands without label representation or management. There are probably a lot of groups that sell next to nothing on there, and a few that do okay. The service seems like a bit of a scedam anyway, its not like you need them to get on iTunes anyway. Any bands I think that are making decent sales will probably pursue a label to take it further.

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Post by @?,*???&? » Wed May 11, 2011 7:44 am

kslight wrote:Yeah but this is for Tunecore, a service generally dominated by amateur bands without label representation or management.
*cough* You mean like non-barcoded, non-ISRC'd digital only, illegitimate releases? *cough*

bwaaaaaaahahahahahahahahaha

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Wed May 11, 2011 9:25 am

that stuff isn't even music.

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Post by @?,*???&? » Wed May 11, 2011 10:16 am

Okay, suppose this, "What if the only goal of a release is to make it's money back?"

That would mean that the artist would be paid for their labor- like someone working hourly in a grocery store. Maybe each disc should therefore post how many man hours were spent making that disc. Once that cost is re-couped through sales, the disc should become free.

Does a guy who repairs brakes make money on the brake-job he did AFTER the repair is done? No. He only makes money doing the repair. Is there any 'intangible' production going on in the form of some kind of intellectual property rights in his work? That's debatable, but maybe.

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Post by jhharvest » Wed May 11, 2011 10:21 am

I think Dan Bull has a pretty good idea. He's currently auctioning songs on ebay. If you win the bid he'll write and record a song for you on the topic of your choosing.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CUSTOM-SONG-writt ... _500wt_929

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Post by @?,*???&? » Wed May 11, 2011 10:37 am

Does a new service like Patronism have any meaning in this day and age?

www.patronism.com

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Post by JGriffin » Wed May 11, 2011 10:42 am

@?,*???&? wrote:Does a new service like Patronism have any meaning in this day and age?

www.patronism.com
Well, Kickstarter seems to be having some success, so crowdfunding is a proven concept at this point. This is slightly different but could work if the artists involved can produce enough material that the "subscription" is worth it to the consumer.
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Post by Gregg Juke » Wed May 11, 2011 10:55 am

>>>>He only makes money doing the repair.<<<<

1) In a perfect world :wink:

2) Which is one reason it costs so much to get the dad-gum repairs done!

I know you're playing devil's advocate, Jeff, but intellectual property has, and always will be, different than brake jobs, sales of consumables, etc., etc.

Art and Commerce have never coexisted without some strife and difficulty, but "free" and "just like a brake job" are the kind of words and phrases that frustrate me in these types of discussions; apples vs. oranges...

GJ

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Wed May 11, 2011 11:02 am

@?,*???&? wrote:Okay, suppose this, "What if the only goal of a release is to make it's money back?"
what kind of crazy person would have that as a goal? let alone "the only" goal. would you want to listen to that record?

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Post by JGriffin » Wed May 11, 2011 11:04 am

:arrow:
Last edited by JGriffin on Wed May 11, 2011 11:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Jeweller, you've failed. Jeweller."

"Lots of people are nostalgic for analog. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." ? Brian Eno

All the DWLB music is at http://dwlb.bandcamp.com/

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