Welcome back to Country Music 4 Ever! Today, I will take a break from my "Debut Single" series, but don't worry, I will resume it shortly. The reason I am taking a break from that is to share something with you that I have been working on for a while. Something I have always been curious about is how the music business works behind the scenes. We always think as soon as an artist releases their first single that the radio plays they become millionaires and are set for life. However, that's far from the reality of how the music business actually works. So, how does it work? Well, there is a lot that goes into the behind the scenes details of the music industry, so today, I will be breaking it down for you. This is the longest post I have ever done, so let's get started.

STREAMING

Streaming has become one of the most popular ways for people to listen to music. I will be using Spotify for my explanation today, but all streaming services operate in a similar way. Spotify collects money from premium subscriptions and ads. They keep 30% for themselves and the remaining 70% is divided up amongst Spotify's "successful" artists. I'll explain what I mean in a moment. An artist's pay depends on the percentage of their total streams compared to everyone else. Big stars take the biggest cut of the money, leaving smaller amounts for lesser-known artists. A song must get at least 1,000 streams each year to get any money at all from Spotify. If a song fails to do so, that artist's money stays in the bucket to be distributed to other artists. Spotify does not work directly with artists however, they send the money to the artist's record label or digital distributer, who then takes a cut of the money before paying the artist. Unless you are a well-established artist, you are not making that much from streaming.

RADIO AIRPLAY

In the radio business, it has always been thought that artists should not get paid when their song is played on the radio because it is "free promotion," which helps with album sales. This is still how the radio operates. However, if the artist also wrote the song, they do get paid. The songwriter and publisher split the royalties from radio airplay, but the amount varies based on the size of radio station and if it is played in a big city or small town. It also depends on if the song is played during rush hour or in the middle of the night. Even though the songwriter and publisher has nothing to do with any of that, it is still calculated to determine how much of a payout the song will get. On average, a songwriter gets between six and twelve cents each time their song is played on the radio. If a song was written by multiple people, the six-cent payout is then divided between all of the songwriters. When a song becomes a hit and is played all day long across the country, that is when those few cents can add up to big payouts for songwriters.

ALBUM SALES

Major labels loan their artists' money for studio time, music videos, and marketing. Until the artist makes enough money to pay their label back, all of the money goes to the label. After an artist pays their label back, the artist starts taking home money from album sales. However, they only keep between 10, and 20 percent and the label keeps the other 80 to 90 percent for manufacturing, shipping, and their own profits. Independent artists pay for all of the album costs. Once they make enough money to cover the cost to make their album, they keep almost 100% of the remaining income.

TICKET SALES

When a ticket is sold, Ticketmaster takes their cut, which is the fees they charge on top of the ticket price. The venue then takes their cut and the artist is left with about 85% of the ticket sales, which sounds like a lot of money, but they have to pay for everything and everyone involved in the show, such as speakers, lights, video screens, tour bus rentals, semi-trucks, flights, hotels, truck drivers, sound engineers, their manager, booking agents, and countless other things that go into making a show possible. After all of that, the artist usually takes home about 30% of the original ticket sales. If it is a lesser-known artist playing a small show, the venue typically takes a small fee, and the artist is promised a flat rate regardless of how many people show up.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The reality is a lot of local artists you would see at a local fair or bar have day jobs because there is not a lot of money in the music business when you're first starting out. However, a lot of artists have to leave their day jobs to pursue music full time. So, it means a lot to them when people support them in any way they can. Every superstar started out at the bottom and made it to the top with support of their fans.

Thanks for reading. I'll be back soon!