Music Biz

Every now and then I stumble across an article that hammers home exactly why it's not a good idea to get yourself into the music biz if you're a performing musician.

This one was written by a member of Too Much Joy, it doesn't say who. A band I heard of but I don't think I ever actually heard. I saw it posted to twitter by John Strohm, formerly of the Blake Babies.

Give this a read.

If that doesn't make you want to vomit...

This article was linked from that article. It was written by Steve Albini. Steve Albini to me is a producer who makes records that sound so alive it's like you are in the room with the band. He makes bands sound like bands, not like processed cheese.

As the article's header says the numbers he lists are a bit out of date but they still drive home the point. Artists signed to major labels do not make enough money to survive.

Read this one if you dare.

To sum it up succinctly, I will try and recall an article I read in Metronome Magazine about 1000 years ago...

I think it was probably 1995 or so, give or take a year, and Mike the Bass Player and I were in a little going-nowhere band with Dan the Drummer. We had a rehearsal room in the basement of a mill building in Lowell. It was very reminiscent of Hollywood's standard depiction of a castle dungeon. We didn't care, it was fun. (although the stone walls were LOUD! and whatever hearing damage I have suffered in my many years of playing really loud music can probably be traced back to the few months we spent practicing there)

There was a little lobby with a couch and candy and soda machines. Every month a stack of copies of Metronome would appear in there and I would generally give it a quick read.

On one occasion there was an interview with Doug Pinnick (or is it dUg now, or something like that) of King's X... a band I have been very into for a very long time. I think they were touring in support of their Ear Candy album, which as it turned out was the last record they released on a major label. At one point Mr Pinnick was asked a question that must have been about how the business was treating him (I can't remember the exact question) and his response was that it would be nice if he could make his car payments.

He'd spent almost a decade making records for Atlantic and had as much success as you can get without becoming a full blown star... and he couldn't make his car payment.

Point made.