Posted by Norm on March 17, 2003 at 11:21:43:
From: The Week Magazine, March 14, 2003:
How Much Money Does A Rock Band Make?
So you want to be a rock star? said the New York Daily News. You won't get rich overnight. Take New York City's "hottest new band, " Grunthead. It's only a mythical group, but its hypothetical earnings are based on "actual figures compiled from industry sources." Gruntastic, the group's debut album, went gold, with 500,000 albums selling at $16.98, for a gross of $8,490,000. Let's say the four-piece hard-rock band, because it has buzz, "gets a 15 percent royalty rate, a few points above the usual amount for a new artist." That means Gruntheat's overall take is $1,273,500. But "packaging deductions," promotional costs, $200,000 owed to the studio that recorded the album, another $100,000 "making the band's first video, which got them on MTV2," and the 4 percent royalty owed to the band's producer brings the number down to $210,340. Then the band's manager and lawyer take their cuts, leaving the four rockers a total of $161,909. "That's not bad money, but it's split four ways, or $40,477.25 each." It's about what a sanatation worker with two years' experience makes, "without health benefits, vacation, and retirement fund. But with, of course, groupies."