I remember watching a documentary years ago when Prodigy’s Fat of the Land was doing well stateside & an insider said that the band members would be looking at $1 off each album sale going to them… not sure how accurate he was, but I’ve remembered that quote none the less.

Stats regarding some artists earning taken from the below picture (warning: very big file):

 

 

http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz122/agsrule/MoneyMusicandPiracy.jpg

 

 

EDIT: Can't get it to appear in full size for some reason, even when I tried spoiler tags!

 

Foo Fighters average cost to hire for show - $200k - Cut of $18.7k

Katy Perry - $100-150k - $11.7k

Snow Patrol - $40-50k - $4.2k

 

Global live revenue has increased from $16.6 billion in 2006 to $22.2 billion in 2010.

 

Breakdown of average royalities (for single and album sales):

 

Distributor - 63%

Record Label - 24%

Band - 13%

Edited December 15, 201014 yr by ags_rule

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010...ts-earn-online/

 

If you buy a song from iTunes, the artist gets nine cents (US) and the record company 63 cents.

In 2008 The X Factor contract for the contestants was leaked to the papers and when Simon Cowell was asked about it in the press conference before the 2008 X Factor final he confirmed the leaked contract was authentic.

I don't have a link to the contract but I remember the winner gets 15% of single sales, album sales and merchandising. If the winner headlines a tour they get 7.5% of the profit.

 

Based on that Alexandra Burke has probably made max £1m from her record sales. But if you include all the gigs, endorsement deals etc she's defnitely made more than £1m but not the £4.5m mentioned earlier.

I believe the sales percentages are for the first album. The cut may be bigger for a second album.

 

Simon said at the press conference that everyone's been happy about the contract for years so Leona probably has/had the same contract. and her first headline tour was last spring and if the same clauses were still in her contract she only got 7.5% from her Arena tour.

 

I'm not a Leona/Alex fan so I have no idea if they have talked about these things in interviews so feel free to correct me.

 

 

Also, do artists get any royalties from radio/tv airplay?

 

In the US the royalties from radio airplay goes to the songwriter, the producer and the publisher of the song. The singer doesn't get a penny (unless they wrote the song).

Similarly here in Finland american singers don't get any royalties from radio airplay because finnish singers wouldn't get anything from the US.

Whether this applies to other countries I have no idea.

Simon said at the press conference that everyone's been happy about the contract for years so Leona probably has/had the same contract. and her first headline tour was last spring and if the same clauses were still in her contract she only got 7.5% from her Arena tour.

 

Of course they're happy about the contract, these are people who had to enter a karaoke contest because they couldn't make it in the business on their own merit. Simon Cowell could offer them six magic beans and they'd still sign a contract with him, because it guarantees huge public exposure (in the UK at least) and a chance to sing for a career, which is ultimately what they wanted. If they were in it for the money they'd be better off with a new contract, but very few of them go down that route as ultimately they know their success is related to Simon.

 

This site answers lots of questions: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/music-royalties.htm

Distributor - 63%

Record Label - 24%

Band - 13%

 

 

I really wanted to see that document :(

 

I don't get this quoted part. What exactly is distributor?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/artic...-rich-list.html

 

A chart here of some of the richest British artists under the age of 30 (some non-music related too) Pretty interesting to look at.

Any figures in the press are just guess work. Most money is made from touring & merchandise. The label takes the majority of the profit from album sales & artists are alloted an advance depending on their last album to pay for studio time etc. The more writing credits an artist has the more they are paid. Non writers probably only pocket around 10p from a single sale, coppers from a download & 50p an album. Big money is also made from endorsements & other sidelines like acting,modelling etc.

 

Artists also pay half their promotion & video costs & any other expenses like hotel & entourage costs. So they don't make as much money as we think & the sensible ones realise this & don't rake up huge expenses.

 

I don't get this quoted part. What exactly is distributor?

 

Who distributes the releases. It may or may not be the same as the record label.

 

Will Young recording contract is with 19 Recordings but his cds are released by RCA.

Edited December 15, 201014 yr by truly talented

Bands like take that for example would make huge money, massive selling albums, decent selling singles, massive tours plus they earn royalities from writing material etc in contrast a band like jls wouldnt make as much as they have no royalities from song writing simon cowell takes a huge chunk of their earnings. It all depends on much involvement an act has in their material etc and yes tours are where the biggest profit is and merchandise.

Band like JLS ? Wrong example. They co-wrote 9 songs on the first album and co-wrote 12 on their second album and therefore will earn royalties http://entertainment.stv.tv/music/141173-j...-deal-with-emi/

 

A Hungarian singer even covered their song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1MhXbwoJ-Y...layer_embedded# which I'm guessing they would have been paid for too

 

Plus their not even signed to Syco.. their record label is Epic Records

Some people are confusing what someone has earned and what they are worth. The lists that show what someone has supposedly earned will be a gross figure, before a lot of the costs have been considered, which includes tax, and a substantial contribution for your manager, not to mention an accountant and various other hangers on. With a lot of time spent in hotels or in expensive rented accomodation, paying for security and everything else that comes with the territory. Record companies are very good at spending their artists' money on things they probably don't actually need.

 

Young pop stars these days tend to be a lot more savvy than they used to be, but when you are caught up the whirlwind, doing the job you've always dreamed of, it's easy to ride the wave and not make sure you aren't paying for stuff you don't need.

 

Plan B reckons he's not made a million yet, which I don't think is a huge amount if he was planning on never working again, but he says he doesn't want that, so it's a moot point. In his favour he's probably got money already earned, but still to come in, and despite his success he's not the kind of super high profile artist who would need 24 hour security or have trouble going to a normal restaurant or on the tube.

With articles like that, I think they assume how much she's worth; ie how much she's generated through her being an artist; album sales, single sales, merchandise, tours etc. Which is a vastly different figure from how much of that she is actually putting in her own pocket. I doubt she'd have made more than 2 mil max so far.

 

Your estimate of £12m generated is way short of the mark.

 

Leona's sold around 8 to 9 million albums worldwide - call the average price of an album = £6 then you have over £50m generated already. Single sales must be pushing 20m worldwide as Bleeding Love alone is estimated to have sold well over 10m. Plus her recent tour sold 200,000 tickets at average price of say £40. Throw in merchandise, private gigs (where she's known to rake it huge amounts incl. a widely reported 1m for just one gig), perfume range, her song for Final Fantasy XIII, her song for Avatar the biggest grossing movie and fastest selling DVD/Blu-Ray of all time. Songs on other films (Sex and the City II, For Colored Girls), her commercial for Cotton in the States, use of her songs in adverts, TV shows, film trailers, her co-written duet on Italy's biggest selling album this year etc.

 

It's no coincidence that she bought herself a large house in the Hollywood Hills last year.

 

 

I thought this was pretty interesting..

 

The most popular UK tours of 2010 (Best Selling/Most in Demand) http://www.stereoboard.com/content/view/162743/9

1. Lady GaGa

2. Rod Stewart

3. Michael Buble

4. Westlife

5. JLS

6. Black Eyed Peas

7. Simply Red

8. Kings of Leon

9. Muse

10. Florence and the Machine

11. Linkin Park

12. Paramore

13. Flight of the Chonchords

14. The Script

15. Bryan Adams

16. Alicia Keys

17. Pink

18. Rihanna

19. Paul McCartney

20. Mumford & Sons

 

& for 2011:

1. Take That

2. Kings of Leon

3. Usher

4. Justin Bieber

5. Katy Perry

6. Drake

7. Bon Jovi

8. Roger Waters

9. Blink 182

10. Foo Fighters

2011 - Katy Perry is the only lady on the chart!

Ofcourse artists who write/co write their own songs earn more money than artists who don't. But it's not all about that. Look at Girls Aloud for example. They have only co-written a couple of album tracks/b-sides and they have to spilt everything between them. But they have done a couple of huge deals, like the Kit Kat one, had a couple of television shows, released their own barbies and books and according to reports they are all worth around 3 million each, except for Cheryl ofcourse.

Or an even better example, Britney Spears. One of the highest earning woman in pop who has barely written any of her own songs.

 

And another thing, do artists really have to pay their own hotels, airplain tickets, security etc.? I somehow doubt that.

Edited December 16, 201014 yr by Poker Face

Clause 1.41: The contract applies anywhere in the world and solar system.

 

Clause 32.4: The finalists must not make any statement which may be considered unduly negative, critical or derogatory of the Company – including its personnel and, in particular, Simon Cowell.

 

Clause 38.4: Artists booted off the show have to fork out five per cent of all future live earnings to Cowell for a year.

 

Clause 6.1.1: Winner gets £150k advance, 2nd gets £75k, 3rd £50k and 4th £10k.

 

Clause 36.4: You can only sing in pubs for three months after last show – unless gig is being recorded.

 

So, it looks like Diana Vickers has just been handed £10k, can’t say a bad word about Simon Cowell or the X-Factor and anything she earns over the next year, even if Simons record label (Syco Records, a division of Sony BMG) doesn’t sign her up she has to hand over 5% to Simon.

 

The DailyMail (UK Tabloid) has said:

 

The winning act receives 15 per cent from single and album sales, and must sign with agent Modest Management in a deal which has the potential to last 14 years.

 

Sony BMG also has the final say over tracks for albums, and can choose producers and single releases.

 

Sony BMG responded by saying:

 

No one has ever said the winner walks away with a £1million prize. That is the value of the record deal which includes paying producers and video directors and covering recording and marketing costs.

The prize is a record contract with Sony which you would not otherwise have.

The contract which all the finalists sign is a very fair, standard employment contract.

 

And finally, Simon Cowell responded to the leak today at a press conference by saying:

 

Look, it is a £1million commitment to the winner. The winner gets £150,000 in prizemoney, but £3-500,000 is spent on recording the single and album, around £200,000 is spent on the video, £250,000 on advertising and then about £150,000 on actually marketing the act.

To be honest, I am even surprised that the second, third and fourth act get something. And you have to remember to all get around 100k for the tour aswell.

The only thing I really don't understand is why they have to pay Simon 5% of their income from the first year even when they are not on his label, like JLS and Diana.

A Hungarian singer even covered their song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1MhXbwoJ-Y...layer_embedded# which I'm guessing they would have been paid for too

 

:lol: Not a fan but that's EPIC :wub:

 

Anyway I don't have anything much to add, but this is a really interesting thread, thanks guys. And the Lounge think we're boring :rolleyes:

And another thing, do artists really have to pay their own hotels, airplain tickets, security etc.? I somehow doubt that.

 

Pokerface, the label gives the artist an advance to cover all costs involved in producing an album which has to be paid back when it starts making money, minus any agreed expenses. So if those expenses don't include airfares, hotels etc. then yes, the artist does have to fork out for them when the 'loan' is eventually paid back.

 

I recall Pete Waterman saying he made a huge loss with Kylie because he agreed to pay all her expenses. Victoria Beckham was the 'money' person in the group and would ask exactly what expenses they were responsible for.

 

If a newbie hasn't hacked out his or fully understands what he does and doesn't get, then they are probably in for a huge shock :lol: I recall Will saying how he had spent a whole day with accountants and lawyers going over his contract and how he was shocked that Gareth had admitted he hadn't read his contract.

 

As has been said those lists are just guess-timates based on record sales and tours. They have no idea of what investments etc. the artist has or how many private gigs they do nor how much is paid out in overheads. Expenses, insurances, accountants,lawyers, etc. etc. etc. which are paid out annually and have to come out of annual earnings.

 

It's quite telling that labels are now offering 360 degree contracts and wanting a share of tour profits and merchandise in return, because they are losing profits from record sales.

Edited December 16, 201014 yr by munchkin

2 years ago there were reports she was broke. Obviously, that's fake.

Only female artist swith 200m+ are madonna, mariah and celine, janet is also close. Obviously longevity and constans succes is needed. That's according to forbes magazine.

Rihanna is never on any of forbes' lists, not even on top 20 young money makers. You see taylor, miley... but no rihanna. So i guess she doesn't make that much money at all.

 

This is very interseting topic.

So artist gets paid for a concert and concert promoters earn from ticket sales? I guess a performer get some percantage of those sales as well?

Then there are contracts with label per each album and royalties.

I know Michael and Celine had the biggest royalties, they received 20-25% of what their music sold. So i guess if album is 10$ they'd earn around 2$.

 

Also, do artists get any royalties from radio/tv airplay?

 

Maybe I'm cgetting confused with what she's worth rather than how much she has. She's definitely worth over $200m, and I heard she isn't on the forbes lists because she doesn't submit her earnings

 

& she definitely earns $400k per concert, plus if she sells over a certian percentage of the tickets then she'll get a portion of the ticket sales too http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/rihann...-400000-concert

 

& if the thing about the x-factor contract is true then Alex will be a millionaire too! :) 4m records sold, she'd have to be AT LEAST a millionaire by now, plus her endorsement deals, modeling contract & her new 2kx company :)