You often hear of how much big stars (e.g. Metallica) make and how little small literallywho local bands make, but I always wonder about the 'big in a certain scene but not household names' guys
E.g. bands like Electric Wizard or Sleep are huge bands in the Doom/Stoner scene and probably sell a decent amount of records, merch, signature guitar models etc, but how much do they actually make?
Like are these guys multi-millionaires or are they pulling something like a middle class salary?
Similarly for one-hit wonders like Wheatus, I could imagine them getting into a trap where they're earning a little off royalties from their big hit but not that much, yet not so little that it becomes not worth it to play music, so they just get stuck as poors with a recognisable name
I know for a fact that Matt Pike lives in what most decent white people would consider the ghetto and has to work part time as a cook in a bar to make ends meet. His house has gotten robbed on numerous occasions and had his guitars and amps stolen by local blacks.
Tbf he has addiction problems as I recall, I'm sure that hasn't helped
Where did you hear he was living in the ghetto? I'm sad to hear that. I would have thought Sleep sold enough to do all right
>Where did you hear he was living in the ghetto
High on Fire were in Decibel magazine a few years ago and the author was scared to drive out to his house to interview Matt because it was in a "very bad" neighborhood. Matt also said he was sick and had diabetes from all his drinking and might lose one of he's feet. I don't know what happened to him after that, I later on online where he had to stop drinking or he was going to die from the diabetes.
Lol move to the country instead of in a bughive. What a bunch of fucking retards.
I'm pretty sure he lives in a low income rental because that's what hud will pay for
He definitely has the booze bloat in photos
Alcoholism is a great way to flush your money and career down the drain, I hope things turn around for him
See when Al said something like
>I wrote the lyric 'drop out of life with bong in hand' in Dopesmoker because that for me was kind of a motto for life at the time
I kind of imagined them living comfortably off their music earnings while doing so, not just being poor and smoking weed
I'm depressed now
>15,000 monthly listeners
What the fuck did you expect?
Bands make the majority of their money from touring and merch these days. Sleep released their material in the 90s back when you could make money from records though, so presumably they made more before everything got routed through Spotify
It creates a weird incentive come to think of it - it turns every band into Korn where their real business is concert revenue but they crank out some album no one listens to every couple of years so they have an excuse to go on tour again.
I know Taking back Sunday members were all middle class when touring and they had one or two ‘hits’ before fading out.
I’m thinking they will need real jobs to get ready for retirement.
Now I think it’s just not going t9 make any money as medium sized bands can’t make a profit touring anymore.
It’s the giants as the only viable size.
>It’s the giants as the only viable size.
Yeah it's a weird situation. 'Making it' seemed accessible to maybe the top 1% of bands (in the sense of making it into a viable living that made you moderately well-off at least) in the 90s-00s but now it's more like the top 0.001% make it huge (or already did in the 80s/90s/00s) and everyone else may as well just play for fun
In a way it's kind of nice if you just have bands playing because they enjoy it, but it does seem like you need some kind of 'making it' or other rockstar dream to get kids excited to play. If you don't have that it just dies out
>Like are these guys multi-millionaires
lmao no
one hit wonders are probably making more money through royalties and stuff assuming the hit was big enough
The guitarist from Glassjaw made Merchdirect.com and has like $5M from that. I think he is significantly richer than the singer lol.
It's been said here before but the lead singer of Bolt Thrower works a corporate wagie job, which is fucking depressing
As a teen I never imagined any bands I was listening to outside the context of being a band, e.g. I assumed they were all full-time musicians, but looking back it seems like it was only the top-tier bands doing it full-time and making money from it
If a band has fewer than 1M monthly listeners on spotify then they are not doing well. 1 million listens = $5000. 1 million monthly listeners at lets say 10 listens average per listener is $50,000 per month.
A band like bolt thrower who is in a genre with no hooks and doesn't sound pleasant never had a chance. Not to mention royalties from usage rights. Women tv shows use the most songs from mid level bands. Shows like gossip girl or greys anatomy use contemporaty alternative pop/rock songs in every single episode and each use is like $10-50k
>A band like bolt thrower who is in a genre with no hooks and doesn't sound pleasant never had a chance
True but tbf they had like 20 years of record sales, touring, merch etc before Shartify even existed, so presumably they made some money then at least, if the label didn't rape them.
If you're starting a DM band *now* then I definitely agree though - you make basically nothing from records so your best hope is that some tiktok thot puts the song as the background to a dance that goes viral, or Netflix uses it for something (which is not going to be death metal)
What the fuck do music labels do in Current Year?
Without the need to make and sell physical records I don't understand why anyone would give them a cut of their royalties. Are they just glorified marketing agencies for bands these days?
>Without the need to make and sell physical records I don't understand why anyone would give them a cut of their royalties. Are they just glorified marketing agencies for bands these days?
Google the telecommunications act of 1996. There are 6 media companies. They control the popularity of their artists completely. There are no oopsie doopsies hits anymore. You either play ball or you do not make a living making music. They can choose whoever they want. Talent does not matter because they just have 4 hookwriters and a producer churn out some prole music.
>So.y interviewer asks if Matt is looking forward to the elections being over (2016 or so I'm guessing)
>Matt immediately launches into a rant about the Rothschilds, Zionists, Planet X and paedophile satanists
Now that's based
If you play to 5k people a night in a 4 piece band, play big festivals on the main stages but don't headline, and have one or two songs used on tv/in ads you'll make slightly less than a teacher. If you're in a niche genre where the festivals are fewer and smaller and there's less opportunities for sync licensing you'll have a part time or seasonal job when you're not touring.
>Matt Pike is piss poor and lives in the ghetto
I can't accept this as being true, please tell me this is bullshit