An Excellent New Read: "A Brief History Of Why Artists Are No Longer Making A Living..."

In the old days, touring was considered part of record promotion. The record companies paid for all expenses incurred, which were deducted off the top of the gross from album sales, the artist/band receiving no royalty checks until the debt had been repaid. Those expenses involved not just the tour bus, hotels, food, drugs (yes, in some cases they were provided for hard-partying bands), etc., but also all advertising and promotion for the shows. Artists/bands also paid for all the advertising done for their record, including any payola. Oh yeah, they also paid for all the recording costs, as well as record production---LP, tape, and CD. All of that was also taken off the top. The album producer is paid off the gross profit, not the net like the artist/band. That’s why Last Waltz "producer" Robbie Robertson made a fortune off the movie and album, the other four members of The Band not a dime.

Touring was always done at a loss---it cost more to tour than the amount of money ticket sales brought in. All the money an artist/band made were off record sales (and for songwriters from radio play, as miniscule as that income was). Now that album sales generate little or no income (unless you sell a LOT of them), artists/bands go on the road to eat and pay rent. Ticket prices reflect that reality! A ticket to see any show at The Fillmore, The Carousel Ballroom, or Winterland (all in San Francisco) in the late-60’s/early-70’s cost me $3.00/$3.50 (but the weed was free ;-). Hendrix, Cream, Jeff Beck, The Kinks, Elton John, Albert King, the doors, Quicksilver, Big Brother, you name it, $3.00/$3.50. No one sold merchandise at shows back then, whereas now a band may make as much (or more) from sales of merchandise as from ticket sales.

But musicians working for peanuts is nothing new. When Commander Cody had a big hit on the radio ("Hot Rod Lincoln"), his guitarist, the great Telecaster player Bill Kirchen, complained in an interview that he was making less than a Berkeley (where the band was based) garbage man. Longtime Wings drummer Denny Seiwell has said McCartney was paying him $150/wk in the early 70’s. When McCartney’s current drummer, the phenomenal Art Laboriel, Jr., is off the road, he is teaching (giving music lessons). Musicians are like priests, they take a vow of poverty. Here’s a deep, dark, not-very-well-kept secret: many musicians (even pretty successful ones) rely on their girlfriend or wife for support.

Here’s a story told by a band member whose name (and band) I have forgotten. That he and they were very well known I DO remember. The band was in the middle of recording their next album, and a record company executive visited the studio to see how things were going. The band took a break, and the executive said "Hey, let me bring in some pizzas for ya’ll". They finished the album, it was released, and when their first quarter accounting statement came in, they saw the executive had charged the pizzas to the band! One thing I liked about the early Rappers was than when they came into a meeting with record company execs, they would sit down and put their piece on the table, telling the execs that if any of them scr*wed with them (the artist), there would be dire consequences.