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

[DevinShidaker]

yeah man, these times aren't like the old days where a rock band was treated like royalty, you don't get to go destroy hotel rooms and hang out with groupies. Pretty much every underground metal band is fighting as hard as possible to hang in there, and sadly a lot of competition is coming up, lots of bands are really trying to out do each other to stay relevant and to keep their fan base up, instead of just writing songs they want to play, it's really a shame. And none of the fans seem to understand this. We had to cancel a tour a while back because our van was from the stone age and it was dying at every stop light. We couldn't afford to fix it, and we definitely couldn't afford to cancel and be out in the middle of nowhere. So after cancelling, there were of course a lot of kids saying "I hope everything is ok", but the majority was "what the fuck you guys cancelled? Fuck you!" as if we're sitting around laughing about bailing on this tour. You just have to keep pushing through it, shit happens, shit will always happen, and until something better happens, you have to keep at it.

 

[DaveCarter]

Ouch dude, it sucks that that level of broke extends to bands on labels as big as Metal Blade. Im still not giving up though, its all Id be happy doing so I intend to do it for as long as I can, just so that Ive done it Huge respect to you guys for carrying on regardless!!

 

[Scar Symmetry]

the vocalist in my band used to be signed to Metal Blade and he had the same deal.

he got so fed up with it that he got a job alongside touring where he could take loadsa time off.

the guy gets paid shitloads too

 

[DaveCarter]

the vocalist in my band used to be signed to Metal Blade and he had the same deal.

he got so fed up with it that he got a job alongside touring where he could take loadsa time off.

the guy gets paid shitloads too

and that job was???????

 

[El Caco]

The paranoid part of me suspects that this is part of the system, make people think they have to sell out and land a contract with a label to make a living. I don't know it may be easier in Australia but I've known well known guys that have struggled and eventually folded and other smaller guys that have managed themselves more, taken more control over everything they do and been able to consistently make some money.

It sounds to me like promoters over there are cunts, it doesn't matter how much you love what you do, don't ever let people piss on you or steal from you. Find bands you can work with, pool your resources, organise and promote your own shows. Think about it, 4 bands hire a venue, do some promotion, sell a lot of tickets at a reasonable price, EP sales at a reasonable price, other merchandise, go to next town and repeat. Your not going to get rich doing this but you can make a decent living, I know people who have been in average bands and watched them make a decent living from music for 15 years. At the same time I have watched much higher profile death metal bands break up and go on to regular gigs in pubs playing rock covers because it pays the bills. It pisses me off that one of my favourite Aussie bands ever not only no longer exists but there is now no memory of them, no songs on the internet, nothing, I had their album, it went walkabout and now there is no way of ever hearing their music again.

 

[Maniacal]

The safest bet is to have a good job and just play fairly local gigs for next to no money. You still get to gig and you need to even think about money/food/sleeping arrangements.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

The safest bet is to have a good job and just play fairly local gigs for next to no money. You still get to gig and you need to even think about money/food/sleeping arrangements.

fuck that, I want the grit of tour, the feeling I get when I see kids scrambling to get my singer's attention because they are singing the lyrics back to him.

for that, I'd gladly sleep on people's floors and barely eat one meal a day

 

[Variant]

Why don't we just write terrible pop songs every few years or so and cash in on them, then do what we love the rest of the time.

*Note to self: Work on shitty one-off pop side project.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

or have the best of both worlds and start a Crabcore band!

 

[Variant]

^
No, I doubt that Fellate Fellate! are making bank.

I'm thinking Jonas Brothers bad: Narcissistic, panderous mall-soundtrack shit aimed at 14-year girls. Make several mil and sit on it while revealing your true avant-prog-cyber-death-experimental-etc. self. Then point a laugh at them all.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

I have always wondered how rich I could get if I wore brightly coloured clothes and sang about gettin' low in da club wit shortay...

maybe in another lifetime

 

[Variant]

I'd do it once, if for nothing else, to piss off all the douchebags that bought my (intentionally bad) music.

 

[Koshchei]

^
No, I doubt that Fellate Fellate! are making bank.

I'm thinking Jonas Brothers bad: Narcissistic, panderous mall-soundtrack shit aimed at 14-year girls. Make several mil and sit on it while revealing your true avant-prog-cyber-death-experimental-etc. self. Then point a laugh at them all.

But... The Jonas Brothers make little girls' 'ginies tingle...

 

[Variant]

^
Rep. for proper apostrophe use in that statement.

 

[DevinShidaker]

Attack Attack! is making some decent money. They're from my home town and they're a bunch of douches. Their old singer was a good friend of mine for a long time until we all found out he was lying to us about having heart disease to get attention... reeeeal shitty person. And what's funny is before homo homo! was a band, I never ONCE saw one of those kids at any shows at all. They'll fizzle out eventually, that's what happens when you have shit handed to you instead of working for it.

 

[badger71]

Sorry again for the bump and the long long post.

No..it's good that things like this are posted. However, this is not just a "happens in metal" thing. It happens in all genres. I guarantee there is a country music forum where musicians are saying the same thing....making a living wage in this industry is hard. I threw in the towel years ago because I didn't know enough about the business side of the music business. Now with "pay to play" and internet piracy, bands don't really make their money with the music, they make it with merchandise, licensing, and endorsements.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

Attack Attack! is making some decent money.

Variant, here's proof, we need to start a sea-food flavoured side project!

 

[ralphy1976]

actually Dave, since you are in a band, does your band make any $$$ (sorry no GBP sign on my keyboard!!) or does it work?

 

[Scar Symmetry]

£ copy and paste away!

we've just released our first EP so we're not seeing any sustainable income out of it yet, but when a few of the dudes come back from university we'll be devoting a lot more of our time to Traces

 

[ralphy1976]

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good to hear that you have a positive attitude. how's the work with ESP coming along too? any news you can share with us "groupies"..male that is ok?!!!