A Tiny Percentage of Artist Income Comes from Copyright

[Magic]

digitalmusicnews.com

According to a study conducted by Peter DiCola of the Northwestern University School of Law, artists are now, on average, deriving a relatively tiny percentage of their income directly from copyrights. The rest is coming from activities like live performances, session work, merchandising, or teaching. None of these categories are directly tied to copyright protections (if at all), and the benefit of tightened copyright control wouldn’t impact these revenue streams.

“A hypothetical boost in revenue from more effective enforcement would only increase the average musician’s total revenue by a small amount today, in the short term,” DiCola assessed in the finding. “Stronger copyright might provide them incentives to move up the income ladder in a winner-*take-*all kind of market.


In the end, DiCola realized that the ‘artist’ is actually an incredibly complicated beast, and tough to reduce into averages and sweeping generalities. Radical differences not only exist between genres, but different levels of success within those genres. But the broader point may be that current copyright debates frequently have nothing to do with the artist at all, and almost everything to do with the companies surrounding the artist – record label, publisher, estate, or lawyer.

 

[LG]

Publishing empires have been buying control of artists works for centuries now.

I don't think the music business will ever see the golden days of the 60's-80's again when despite the lopsided arrangements with record labels they sold enough albums to live comfortably without touring.

Now it's work your butt off or get a real job and play music as a hobby.

Trent Reznor figured this out before he started, as far as I know he controls everything with Nine Inch Nails. A few others are in similar situations but the majority of artists it's a struggle and they sign anything to get their music out there.

I still hate i-tunes and what they've done to music. Albums were fun to explore, sure the single might get your attention at first but it's the rest of the record that brought you back over and over again. When Alex Lifeson from Rush says they might not bother making another album as the market shifts to singles on i-tunes instead that is something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime.