How much money do metal bands/musicians make in a year?

[7 Dying Trees]

Q: do bands make money?

A: If they're smart, control their own merch, keep recording costs low, and make sure they have a business head, then yes. Otherwise, no. Plus, it helps to be fairly popular and tour.

 

[DaveCarter]

I was hoping you might chip in Good way to sum it all up

Definitely a cunning plan to have this stickied

 

[Koshchei]

This thread is what we call "The Sober Second Glance". The info and experience reflected here is priceless.

I really hope you succeed, Chavhunter (seen Devvo on fat-pie.com?) -- you seem to have the stars in alignment, and I need a host to live vicariously through

 

[DaveCarter]

This thread is what we call "The Sober Second Glance". The info and experience reflected here is priceless.

I really hope you succeed, Chavhunter (seen Devvo on fat-pie.com?) -- you seem to have the stars in alignment, and I need a host to live vicariously through

"fookin' yeah mate, innit!!!"

Thanks dude, thats awesome of you, cheers!!! I'll be keeping everyone here posted if anything does happen for us. It may well not, but you wont find out unless you give it everything you've got!!!

 

[badger71]

what?!?!?

Im glad you have now reconsidered this frankly laughable viewpoint.

So someone who is 'true to their music' should give it away for free?

even though they have to spend a ridiculous amount of money on gear, recording fees, practice space/time etc. Even though they dont have time to work 40 hrs a week so that they can afford to pay for that.

How are they supposed to do that if everyone takes their music for free?

I interviewed Vai this past December and he expressed his viewpoint on this topic. The short version is this: Be very protective of your creative property and don't give it away. He related to me the story of his first solo album and how the only deal he could get was only going to get him pennies on the dollar per album. So he basically did the leg work himself, found a distributor, and started the ball rolling.....I know, different time than now, but there are ways of still making money in the music business with your creative properties....as shown by the previous vid clip.

 

[Ze Kink]

I also vote for this to be stickied

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

I loved Full Scale.

So did I. I just chucked on their album recently and I forgot how much ass they kicked.

If you liked them, you'll like Zeke's new band Mammal. Fantastic live act.


Getting back on topic, Zeke is still doing the whole musical thing to get by as well. He was doing Mamma Mia back during the Full Scale days too.

 

[DarkKnight369]

Not sure if anyone posted this, but if not here....



Working Class Rock Star

 

[DevinShidaker]

Sorry for the bump, but I felt like I should share.

I play in a full time touring metal band, signed to Metal Blade, with albums in stores. Our shows do quite well in terms of capacity, and we sell quite a bit of merchandise at each show. While all of this sounds great, we still make next to nothing. We all live with our parents or grandparents, and we sleep on floors anywhere we can while we're on tour. When you're out there promoters for some reason like to take a shit on you. We have a set guarantee for each show, it is usually between $250-$300 depending on the area we're in. Sadly a lot of these promoters are money hungry bastards who will just as soon keep all of the money and bail on you or try to tell you that the show did well but not "well enough". The thing that really sucks is most bands in our shoes have to end up getting our money one way or the other... there have been more than a few occasions where we've had to physically drag a promoter to an ATM machine. It sounds brutal and it sounds wrong, but in all essence, they are robbing us. Touring is a lot of hard work, the only "break" really is when we get to play for a half an hour. We have to drive for hours on end in a van that may break down at any second (which by the was is uninsured because we can't afford the payments after paying off all of the other shit we have to pay for!), we have to haul our gear in and out of places every day, set up our merch table, all of that stuff that is physically and mentally taxing. As for food, IF we got paid that night, each guy gets 5 bucks that day to spend on food, that is all of the money we make. Besides that it comes down to pretty much being a peasant and pocketing pre made sandwiches from whatever gas station you've stopped at. Yeah it's stealing and it's wrong, but one way or the other, you have to eat. When the tour is all said and done with, any money you've made gets shipped off to pay the label, the management, the merch companies, the booking agents, and any other debts you surely have. To put this in perspective, our last tour was a month long, and my cell phone bill is $50 a month, I am struggling right now to pay that. But do I want to do anything else? Hell no. I love being in a different state every night, I love playing in a band, I love seeing kids faces when we play a song they might know. I don't want to do anything else, because even though I'd have money, it wouldn't make me happy. The war that us 5 guys fight together is great, maybe someday we will win, but if not we'll all go down fighting.

So next time you go to see a band that's touring in a van, just remember, they live in that van, they probably get to shower about once a week, and they're doing it all for the love of playing in front of you. Buy a t-shirt from them, or try to help them find a place to stay. hell if you can't do any of that, throw some change in their tip jar, believe me it goes a long way...

Sorry again for the bump and the long long post.

 

[Arminius]

^keep fighting

 

[Mindcrime1204]

Pretty intense man! I'm glad you could share your experience with us, and anytime your crew rolls through SA, drop me a message and I'll throw an AWESOME BBQ! Promise!

 

[DevinShidaker]

thanks dude! That would be much appreciated!!!!!!!

 

[Scar Symmetry]

ok so I know for a fact that the dude from Nile (is it Dallas?) has to work at Pizza Hut when they're not touring to make ends meet.

metal is pretty underground, and if you're underground in metal then you're probably going to be double-poor.

unless you're Metallica, Linkin Park, Slipknot or Korn you're pretty much on a minimum wage

 

[DevinShidaker]

ha minimum wage would be a blessing! And I would have though Nile was doing at least decent for themselves. That really sucks!

 

[Rick]

I'm not buying a shirt from you, Devin.

 

[DevinShidaker]

ha I'm not saying buy a shirt from me, but if you see a band and they impress you, and you think they worked hard enough and deserve your contribution, then by all means contribute!

 

[Rick]

Depends on how much you guys suck that night.

I'll definitely grab one from you guys.

 

[kmanick]

I feel for you guys.
If I was 18 again and had the chance to go down this road , I don't know if I would.
Back in the 80's (when I was actively gigging) is was a different world.
these days it seems almost impossible to actually "make a living" by being a musician, unless you're one of the "Pop divas" and you're entire audience is 12 year old girls.
Hang in there as long as you can!

 

[vampiregenocide]

ok so I know for a fact that the dude from Nile (is it Dallas?) has to work at Pizza Hut when they're not touring to make ends meet.

metal is pretty underground, and if you're underground in metal then you're probably going to be double-poor.

unless you're Metallica, Linkin Park, Slipknot or Korn you're pretty much on a minimum wage

You'd have thought he could make a fair bit from lessons or something, producding or whatnot.

I think its down to how you manage it. Some musicians make fuck all, but because they manage it well, and always have something on the go e.g teaching, clinics etc.

 

[Sacha]

Sorry for the bump, but I felt like I should share.

I play in a full time touring metal band, signed to Metal Blade, with albums in stores. Our shows do quite well in terms of capacity, and we sell quite a bit of merchandise at each show. While all of this sounds great, we still make next to nothing. We all live with our parents or grandparents, and we sleep on floors anywhere we can while we're on tour. When you're out there promoters for some reason like to take a shit on you. We have a set guarantee for each show, it is usually between $250-$300 depending on the area we're in. Sadly a lot of these promoters are money hungry bastards who will just as soon keep all of the money and bail on you or try to tell you that the show did well but not "well enough". The thing that really sucks is most bands in our shoes have to end up getting our money one way or the other... there have been more than a few occasions where we've had to physically drag a promoter to an ATM machine. It sounds brutal and it sounds wrong, but in all essence, they are robbing us. Touring is a lot of hard work, the only "break" really is when we get to play for a half an hour. We have to drive for hours on end in a van that may break down at any second (which by the was is uninsured because we can't afford the payments after paying off all of the other shit we have to pay for!), we have to haul our gear in and out of places every day, set up our merch table, all of that stuff that is physically and mentally taxing. As for food, IF we got paid that night, each guy gets 5 bucks that day to spend on food, that is all of the money we make. Besides that it comes down to pretty much being a peasant and pocketing pre made sandwiches from whatever gas station you've stopped at. Yeah it's stealing and it's wrong, but one way or the other, you have to eat. When the tour is all said and done with, any money you've made gets shipped off to pay the label, the management, the merch companies, the booking agents, and any other debts you surely have. To put this in perspective, our last tour was a month long, and my cell phone bill is $50 a month, I am struggling right now to pay that. But do I want to do anything else? Hell no. I love being in a different state every night, I love playing in a band, I love seeing kids faces when we play a song they might know. I don't want to do anything else, because even though I'd have money, it wouldn't make me happy. The war that us 5 guys fight together is great, maybe someday we will win, but if not we'll all go down fighting.

So next time you go to see a band that's touring in a van, just remember, they live in that van, they probably get to shower about once a week, and they're doing it all for the love of playing in front of you. Buy a t-shirt from them, or try to help them find a place to stay. hell if you can't do any of that, throw some change in their tip jar, believe me it goes a long way...

Sorry again for the bump and the long long post.

Kudos for sharing that. Not a lot of bands talk about it but just about every signed / touring band I know has a very similar story.

Lots of respect to those that live that life but it's not for me any more I don't think. At my age I need a little security and a place to call home and come home to.

I think I live and breathe music as much as the next guy but my career is what gives me the resources to continue to pursue it, even if it is in more of a constrained fashion then some.

I feel lucky to be able to write songs, record albums and play shows with / for my friends and that's enough for me.

I don't think things where always this hard for musicians (maybe i'm wrong), but these are the times and the society we live in unfortunately.