Re: income (was MySpace Controversy)

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

Some figures: As a full time tour musician I typically did 140 USD  
per gig right into my pocket. Hotel and traveling expenses already  
taken care of by the central booking agency. One full month of  
touring dough added up reasonably. A one week album studio session  
typically payed 1300 USD (before taxes). At a particular session the  
record label was almost bankrupt and asked if we hired studio  
musicians would accept to work on a cut of eventual future record  
sale royalties (the artist was positive sharing his cut - the record  
label did not offer to share THEIR cut ;-). I accepted and was not  
payed the 1300 in hand. Luckily the artist had a hit with one track  
from the album which led to USD 8350 royalty pouring down my mail box  
three months later. But that was just the first royalty period, when  
the hit was forgotten sales went down and I received almost nothing.   
These good figures were just lucky and not at all like the norm. Some  
artistes never have a hit and definitely not instrumental acts as  
typically represented on this list. To make money you also have to  
work within the business, so professional publishers go out to  
negotiate your deals with representatives from other territories  
where releases are planned. But there is also a lot of trouble coming  
with such a "pro" set-up. Personally I did not want to stay in that  
situation, so I quit the pro level and started doing other things to  
financially back up my musical activities. The good side is that if  
you go amateur you can do all the fun and inspiring things... but  
rarely make any money ;-)  Some people manage to hang on at a mid  
level as indie artists, working with indie labels and since a bunch  
of middle-men is cut out there seems to be possible to make more  
money in that set-up.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)
http://tinyurl.com/fauvm (podcast)