How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?

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-- How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?

Posted by Trancefxs on Apr-15-2010 23:49:

How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?

Here is an interesting graph that I found and that I figured may interest some of you.

I took it from this blog post: How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?

If you are interested in a complete overview of the numbers, all data is available here: http://bit.ly/DigitalRoyalty

Don't take the numbers as the Holy Graal since this is not the outcome of an academic or professional research. "This image is based on an excellent post at The Cynical Musician called The Paradise That Should Have Been about pitiful digital royalties."
Follow the link to find the original post that explains the "research method": The Paradise That Should Have Been.

Posted by Subtle on Apr-16-2010 00:08:

Sick.

Posted by Sykonee on Apr-16-2010 00:15:

Be cool if there was a vinyl figure with that as well.

But yeah, now I feel more justified in only spending my money on physical copies.

Posted by Kismet7 on Apr-16-2010 00:25:

There is virtually no transparency in the sales. So even if you do earn sales, how do you even know what they state were all the sales?

Artists have to ask retailers/distributors to create a transparent receipt/proof of sale system. The current system is highly susceptible to abuse. Another option is for artists and indie labels to create their own retailer that is highly transparent, the transparency alone would push its massive success. Since it would be a very unique product and service for both artists and labels. Also, online retailers take far too big of a cut and offer very little in return.

Posted by EddieZilker on Apr-16-2010 00:33:

Thanks for posting.

Posted by MSZ on Apr-16-2010 09:11:

interesting.

Posted by Ian on Apr-16-2010 09:48:

I've said for many years that artists should be able to sell their own stuff online through their websites or that of the smaller labels and that most of the money should goto them. They deserve it for making it and the sooner something fairer comes in, the better imo, however I will still continue to support them by whatever means I can, cd, vinyl, mp3, wav, whatever,.

Posted by SYSTEM-J on Apr-16-2010 10:32:

If you follow the link and find the full database, then you'll see that the figures go down if the artist also has the songwriting credit. The Napster figure goes down from 1229 to 972, for example.

Posted by Trancefxs on Apr-16-2010 11:32:

@SYSTEM-J: I have added the link you mention to the first post. By the way it is mentioned also on the bottom of the picture, but for obvious reasons you cannot click there and expect to get redirected to the spreadsheet.

Posted by IceColdWater on Apr-16-2010 11:59:

12,399 sales on iTunes just to get a min salary of $1,160..
Wow that's pretty disencouraging for aspiring musicians.