Is your CD number of 125,000 accurate? Are Pitchfork-worthy indie artists selling even 50,000 hard copy CDs these days?

Strip away that song revenue from the TV spot and add gas costs for touring, there goes another $120,000...

Good chart. Though the Merch Tee sales seems high...

Insightful.

Here's two links every musician needs to read:

1) http://thetrichordist.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/artists-know-thy-enemy/

2) http://thetrichordist.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/why-arent-more-musicians-working-professionally/

wurd.

Do bear in mind that by the time you are beloved of Pitchfork, you'll be seeing considerable international action - if only because the internet is a global thing.

Even if we were only considering North America and Europe, that's already 31 countries to spread your sales around (US, Canada, 27 EU countries + Switzerland and Norway). What about Australia? New Zealand? Mexico, even?

Considering just the countries I listed above, average sales per country only amount to just under 3,700 copies. If we consider that you'll probably get more in places like the US (perhaps "three countries' worth" - ~11,000 units) or Canada and the UK (maybe the equivalent of "two countries" - ~7,000 units each), all of a sudden the aggregate number starts to look feasible.

$15000 per show?  if you're lucky.  plus how about you include some tour expenses in there... you're lucky to break a profit!

There should be some money from sound exchange thrown in. But it probably won't amount to much.

If you can sell 200/125,000 downloads you must be able to get more streams than 200/20,000. What a joke. 

Having lived as an unknown indie band member.. you want to do a lot more than 45 shows a year! And you'd be putting out an album every couple of years or year if you can, rather than 5. Plus streaming returns are a LOT higher!

All you talk about is bands. Easy talk. It seems that you don't know any musicians, dear DMN team.

What about music artists who pursue a music genre that is not possible to make tours like a band?

I think that these numbers are skewed.  There are a number of Independent Artists doing a lot better than this example shows.  To me, this is an attempt to sway indie artists toward some "label" deal that very possibly does not serve them well in the long run....

From what I'm looking at here... the DIY band would break up after a year or two having played 45 shows a year and only seeing that much income. Unless things go their way and they end up in the other spectrum...

...but then again, I agree that the 125000 number is totally unrealistic.

I think this just shows that artists who are committed to other means of progress/benefits/success besides $ will do well. and as long as their music doesn't suck.

Wow. What 'knowledgeable industry execs' broke THESE figures down?

Let's look at your Indie Darling breakdown:

CDs: 125,000 is an unrealistic example. And your $2/CD payment is also not correct, as the label will need to recoup marketing/promo costs before the band sees a dime. (same with the digital download payment, etc, etc.

Commercial licensing: Is this indie band getting a song placed in a cell phone commercial every three years? Did they write it? If so they'll get paid on the sync side as well, and they may have to share the master license side with the label. And don't forget commission to whichever company got the song placed in the first place. (same with film/TV licenses)...

Merch: 250 T-shirts per show?  C'mon.

Touring: Again, unrealistic. And you're not factoring in touring costs (bus/van rental, equipment insurance, crew payroll, per diems, GAS, hotel if in a van, etc.).

Oh, and don't forget commissions to management, legal, and biz mgt.

You guys should do this study over again.

I totally agree. I toured for years had 4 top 30 singles (DIY) and our numbers were no where close... of course there is always the possibility we sucked ;). CDs are totally dead, Spotify etc are a joke and who releases every 5 years? Your career would be over by then!! Friggin hilarious.

Agenda: Sign with a 'darling Indie label'.

Yeah... these figures are incredibly theorehtical and as many other people have said, exaggerated and ignore recoup costs and, to be blunt, reality.

I'd love to know who you interviewed because I've talked to many musicians myself, not to mention looking at my own career, and very few people experience this. As an artist, you're typically fighting to make $30k/year or less, or you're making much, much more after a decade of hard work and assembling the right team to help you maximize every aspect of your career (pitching your songs, booking your shows, etc)... keep in mind a lot has changed over that decade and an artist today can't replicate those results.

I don't know what magical recording contracting those second people signed that gives them 100% of the streaming profits.

This is from 2011, but a very telling....

It's the sales figures for Pitchforks top 50 albums that year.

Might shed a lil more light on the idea of Indie..

http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4316664

Can we deduct their management's 15%?

What about their business manager?

Oh, and their booking agent

And pretty much every other cost a band actually sees..

New York Magazine has boldly gone where they never should have stuck their nose. This is really just a ridiculously general and sweeping overstatement that has little to do with reality.

The P4k band making six figures a year is pretty much a pipe dream, that said, they are the .5%

I agree. This article is misleading and poorly written.

These signed "indie band" numbers are completely ridiculous. I've produced a few of the "successful" bands, and they all kept their day jobs with much lower numbers to show.

Agreed, these numbers look very high.  

Another misleading and poorly written article..... :(

Them stats are just so wrong.

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