Just buy merch and go to shows. No one makes money off albums anymore.
did any artists ever really make that much money off of albums? I thought that was why they all toured.
...it is a massive change and it does alter the fact that people don’t make as much money out of records. But I have a take on that – people only made money out of records for a very, very small time. When The Rolling Stones started out, we didn’t make any money out of records because record companies wouldn’t pay you! They didn’t pay anyone! Then, there was a small period from 1970 to 1997, where people did get paid, and they got paid very handsomely and everyone made money. But now that period has gone. So if you look at the history of recorded music from 1900 to now, there was a 25 year period where artists did very well, but the rest of the time they didn’t.
- Mick Jagger
A friend made about $15k off mp3.com back in the day. A label offered to sign him for a $50k advance against his first four albums. He decided that was too little freedom so opted out. Then MP3.com folded. He writes speech training software now. When Sony signed Sky Cries Mary, it was for a 10-album deal. We all knew that was effectively the end of Sky Cries Mary; you're basically saying "we understand that we will never get paid again for ten years under this contract." But they all started driving AMG Mercedes around town and they took the deal. They still play every now and then, but Roderick and Anisa mostly build treehouses for a living. Reckon they're still living off that 10-album deal. Yes. People used to make that much money off of albums. The labels made more. So much more. When records wore out and cassettes were inferior and ten songs cost ten bucks and your choices either involved record needles or FM radio, people made that much money off albums. Def Leppard sold 25 million copies of Hysteria. Take whatever imaginary number you want for recoupable expenses; assume fuckin' half of all those copies were promo giveaways, assign another half of those to Columbia House or whatever. Even with that blunt tool you're still talking about $65 million in sales. A friend of mine wrote Pirates of the Caribbean. All of them. He's the most successful screenwriter of all time. The house he's in now? He bought from Blackie Lawless of WASP. Can you... think of any WASP songs?
Fuck Like A Beast, of course! (Dear lord, I OWNED that album.) Footnote: Sadly, they are divorced. Anisa has a housewares/interior design biz in NYC, and when the treehouse-building schtick took off and spawned TV shows, etc, Roderick kinda went to ground. He now basically builds custom one-offs for the ultra-rich on a bespoke basis. His web site is basically abandoned now. I got to see their reunion show at Neumos last year, when the bass player was dying of cancer and they needed to raise money for his care. It was glorious. Nothing like an SCM show. Can you... think of any WASP songs?
Roderick and Anisa mostly build treehouses for a living
Touring was basically a marketing expense for the records. It hopefully broke even, for the majority of bands that were not the Rolling Stones. That has pretty much flipped in the age of digital distribution, though. There is no more money to be made MAKING music. Instead you make money PLAYING music, and the music itself is an advertisement to come to the live show when I'm in your town. The world is upside down.