An EP with 10 tracks = $3673 earnings but...

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Numanoid wrote:
crimsonwarlock wrote:Oh man, people who think slapping Ozone on the master-bus equals 'being able to do mastering' :roll:
It's a start, not an end. It will help make tracks louder which is probably what most artists wants anyway right? :D
It still has nothing to do with 'mastering' 8)
Numanoid wrote:It would be the same mistake to think that just giving a track to a pro master guy and then Bob's yer uncle. Depending on which music you make a certain touch is needed, which maybe not every pro master guy can deliver.
Agreed, but at least you can expect from a 'real' mastering house that they have a professional (and in most cases pretty expensive) listening setup and some mastering equipment that cost about the same as a new mid-size car :D

That's why I don't think 150-200 for mastering one track is overly expensive at all :shrug:

BTW, ever listened to your tracks on e.g. high-end Genelecs (those will set you back at least 10 grand) in a seriously treated room? Believe me you will hate your own monitors with a vengeance from then on :hihi:
CrimsonWarlock aka TechnoGremlin, using Reaper and a fine selection of freeware plugins.

Ragnarök VST-synthesizer co-creator with Full Bucket

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I never listen to speakers I can't afford. It's just soul destroying to know how good it could be, if only I had the money :(
... space is the place ...

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crimsonwarlock wrote: That's why I don't think 150-200 for mastering one track is overly expensive at all :shrug:
Based on the sales return of this release, I think it is.

If I earned $3673 off a release, and had spent over half that money on mastering, I would rethink my budgeting.
crimsonwarlock wrote:BTW, ever listened to your tracks on e.g. high-end Genelecs (those will set you back at least 10 grand) in a seriously treated room? Believe me you will hate your own monitors with a vengeance from then on :hihi:
How many of the people who bought tracks of this release, has access to that kind of audio hardware? It's catch 22 setting such standards when most people are buying bitrate reduced (VBR or 320 kbps or so) releases from itunes nevertheless.

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ZenPunkHippy wrote:I never listen to speakers I can't afford. It's just soul destroying to know how good it could be, if only I had the money :(
Exactly my point :D
CrimsonWarlock aka TechnoGremlin, using Reaper and a fine selection of freeware plugins.

Ragnarök VST-synthesizer co-creator with Full Bucket

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Can someone please explain to me how this mudic/touring business really works. I mean i read it like this: i travell the world for three weeks, work nine nights ( how long is a show, 2 or3 hours?), sleep most nights at a hotel and eat for 30 dollars a day (which i think i quite a lot) and still get out with 800 usd.
I mean i get it: its not exactly travelling for pleasure, but not everyone would call that three weeks of work either. And there might be bills to pay at home as well, which means there might not be much left of those 800 dollars at the end of the month. The artist certainly doesnt get rich, but then most of the workers even in the western world dont.
I am not a professional musician and i have no idea if touring for three weeks is fun or hard work in comparison to an average industrila workers job. I just dont get the point the artist wants to make. It sounds like complaining to me. Did i get that wrong? Can someone please explain?

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I don't think anyone in this thread has taken the side of the artist in this case.

Part of the problem is the hyper-connected world we live in now. Everyone in the media seems to be either filthy rich or dirt poor, not much in-between. I guess the middle ground is kinda boring. You don't read much on mtv.com or in the paper about how a band went on tour and only 30 people turned up to each gig.

Instead we see Skrillex and Aviici playing a few tunes and making mega bucks, DJs getting paid 6 or 7 figures a night for a couple of hours faked DJ set.

Record company execs tell the new kid they'll go far, just sign here and get on the tour bus.

Turns out reality isn't quite like that. Kid finds out. Bitches on blog.
... space is the place ...

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Wildfunk wrote:As an Australian in the US I pay 30% up front on tax too (this is reclaimable but Australia has a reciprocal tax agreement with US so it comes out of the amount of tax I owe here in Aus). So that’s down to $6200 straight away.
In the US, a lot of the expenses listed here can be written off pre-tax.

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ZenPunkHippy wrote:I don't think anyone in this thread has taken the side of the artist in this case.

Part of the problem is the hyper-connected world we live in now. Everyone in the media seems to be either filthy rich or dirt poor, not much in-between.
I think at least in the U.S. we better prepare for more of this across the board :shrug:
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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Reading this, i just realize that there has been a dream hidden in my brain. The dream that one day might be writing a hit song and making biiig money. That dream just popped. :neutral:

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blaubär wrote:Can someone please explain to me how this mudic/touring business really works. I mean i read it like this: i travell the world for three weeks, work nine nights ( how long is a show, 2 or3 hours?), sleep most nights at a hotel and eat for 30 dollars a day (which i think i quite a lot) and still get out with 800 usd.
I mean i get it: its not exactly travelling for pleasure, but not everyone would call that three weeks of work either. And there might be bills to pay at home as well, which means there might not be much left of those 800 dollars at the end of the month. The artist certainly doesnt get rich, but then most of the workers even in the western world dont.
I am not a professional musician and i have no idea if touring for three weeks is fun or hard work in comparison to an average industrila workers job. I just dont get the point the artist wants to make. It sounds like complaining to me. Did i get that wrong? Can someone please explain?
i agree w/you. and 12,000 sales is not a lot in the world of the working musician who's making a living on his/her music. i mean.. it's a nice chunk of sales... but obviously is still just peanuts. i'm sure the music is on torrents etc and in a perfect world maybe he'd have another 30,000 sales but we don't live in that world.

what it comes down to is beatport charts don't mean shit. his music isn't popular enough or he doesn't have enough fans. i'd never heard of him until his blog post went around the forums. maybe he needs a better label deal.. maybe he needs to do more shows.. but why can't he do more shows? is it because there's no demand?

whatever.. this is the same scenario we've all read about for years and years. the fact is it's hard to make a living on music and always has been. you have to pay your dues and get lucky and be really good. these things don't happen for everyone under the best of situations.

perhaps he needs to write even cheesier music to become more popular? ;)

anyway.. i get the overall sentiment he's pushign here "support the stuff you like" all well and good.. great..

but you know.. sleeping on couches and living on $30 a day is only putting a toe in the water in the great vast sea that is paying your dues. be punk rock FFS. nut up and be a pro. no one wants to hear your problems.

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Man, dayjob, you just said all the things I was waiting for in this thread. :tu:

-Surprise kid, Beatport isnt shit.
-You are on Skrillex's label. 12K isnt huge.
(And really, its 3K on his big 'hit' track. Not 12K copies of the whole "EP")
-Man up, music is a hard living.

Although, Id argue the music is nearing peak cheese already.
So, he does have that going for him. :wink:
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JD Salinger once told an aspiring author to "Write but never publish."
He seemed to be saying something about the art not being compromised by commercial distraction. He never published anything again after 1963 but wrote obsessively every day in his little log cabin until his death in 2010. What JD Salinger had discovered was a deeply existential philosophical truth... True art and therefore happiness lies in the process of creation. Once a thing is finished it's gone and so is the thrill. The great thing about music is that you can reconnect with that feeling when performing live... relive the creative process as it were.
The paradox is that we have to be able to pay for that luxury and I think that that is what the OP is trying to say... I don't think he's complaining, he seems to want to just give an insight into the realities of the music business in the noughties.
It shows a great deal of artistic integrity that he is willing to spend a relatively large amount of his income on mastering and covers.
So! Thank you for the insight and honesty. I'm sure this information will be food for thought for those of you who are looking for fortune and fame instead of happiness in a log cabin.

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kelvyn wrote:So! Thank you for the insight and honesty. I'm sure this information will be food for thought for those of you who are looking for fortune and fame instead of happiness in a log cabin.
As long as the log cabin has good internet access and decent restaurants and concert venues nearby, I'm good.


Making money generally requires a lot of hard work, unpleasant bullshit, and worry. I don't want to associate making music with hard work, unpleasant bullshit, and worry. My dream is to win the lottery and retire to a life of music making, not to make a living at music. They're about equally likely. :hihi:

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Interesting... looks a little bit sad, but well with costs cut down, there would be a bigger benefit. For artwork there are so many talented graphics designers out there, which could had done the same but for much less money.

Mastering, up to 200$ for a track is pretty high.

Royalities to the vocalists - well take vocal samples :D sounds in first line maybe silly, but could be saving up to 50%. And there are a lot of great vocal sample libraries on the market.

And well 12k sales, isn`t sooooo much. To stay on the top20 of the major mp3 shops you need +2k sales daily.

But the positiv impression from this article - a single track generated 500-1500$. Isn`t that bad i think. Many small musicians getting in the end of the year a royality report with maybe 100 $ overall...

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foosnark wrote:
kelvyn wrote:So! Thank you for the insight and honesty. I'm sure this information will be food for thought for those of you who are looking for fortune and fame instead of happiness in a log cabin.
As long as the log cabin has good internet access and decent restaurants and concert venues nearby, I'm good.


Making money generally requires a lot of hard work, unpleasant bullshit, and worry. I don't want to associate making music with hard work, unpleasant bullshit, and worry. My dream is to win the lottery and retire to a life of music making, not to make a living at music. They're about equally likely. :hihi:
:)

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