In response to yesterday’s post, reader Scott W. solicits learned opinions on music producer Rick Beato’s claims of a Y2K Curse.
For those in too much of a rush to watch the video, Rick observes that a whole slew of bands that hit it big in the 90s fell off the map in the aughts. Right around the year 2000, in fact, almost like someone threw a switch.
- Cake
- Blur
- Live
- Everclear
- Collective Soul
- Blues Traveler
- 311
- Gin Blossoms
- Days of the New
- Our Lady Peace
- Third albums that failed to connect (A member of Jesus Jones told me outright that this is what happened to them.)
- The 1996 Telecommunications Act, which Rick does pin some blame on and author JD Cowan has written about at length.
- False positives – Some bands he cites as victims of the curse, most notably Live, stayed big into the aughts.
- Wild Cards – Other acts that fell prey to the curse owed their decline to issues within the band, e.g. artistic differences, personality conflicts, drug problems, etc. Blur and Oasis were two high-profile casualties of internal drama.
A harsh reality obscured by the glitz and glamor of showbiz is that most acts, even those that meet considerable success, tend to fail. The perpetually stadium-packing supergroup was a Cold War phenomenon whose day is done, except for the few pre-90s megabands that linger on.
Most groups followed a career path that ran from Mom’s garage -> playing friends’ parties -> open mic nights at dive bars -> headlining local shows -> van tours of colleges in the tristate area -> B stage at the county fair.
A tiny sliver of bands got a break and found their way onto the lineup at one of the big festivals or were tapped to open for an A list act passing through town. Most of those bands blew their shot, but the percent of a percent that made good landed the coveted Big Record Deal.
That, according to an eye-opening article musician and author David Stewart passed along, was when our gun-slinging guitar heroes’ problems really began.
All that hard work paid off. With the help of a video, the album went like hotcakes! They sold a quarter million copies!
Here is the math that will explain just how fucked they are:
These figures are representative of amounts that appear in record contracts daily. There’s no need to skew the figures to make the scenario look bad, since real-life examples more than abound. Income is underlined, expenses are not.
Advance: $250,000
Manager’s cut: $37,500
Legal fees: $10,000
Recording Budget: $150,000
Producer’s advance: $50,000
Studio fee: $52,500
Drum, Amp, Mic and Phase “Doctors”: $3,000
Recording tape: $8,000
Equipment rental: $5,000
Cartage and Transportation: $5,000
Lodgings while in studio: $10,000
Catering: $3,000
Mastering: $10,000
Tape copies, reference CD’s, shipping tapes, misc expenses: $2,000
Video budget: $30,000
Cameras: $8,000
Crew: $5,000
Processing and transfers: $3,000
Offline: $2,000
Online editing: $3,000
Catering: $1,000
Stage and construction: $3,000
Copies, couriers, transportation: $2,000
Director’s fee: $3,000
Album Artwork: $5,000
Promotional photo shoot and duplication: $2,000
Band fund: $15,000
New fancy professional drum kit: $5,000
New fancy professional guitars (2): $3,000
New fancy professional guitar amp rigs (2): $4,000
New fancy potato-shaped bass guitar: $1,000
New fancy rack of lights bass amp: $1,000
Rehearsal space rental: $500
Big blowout party for their friends: $500
Tour expense (5 weeks): $50,875
Bus: $25,000
Crew (3): $7,500
Food and per diems: $7,875
Fuel: $3,000
Consumable supplies: $3,500
Wardrobe: $1,000
Promotion: $3,000
Tour gross income: $50,000
Agent’s cut: $7,500
Manager’s cut: $7,500
Merchandising advance: $20,000
Manager’s cut: $3,000
Lawyer’s fee: $1,000
Publishing advance: $20,000
Manager’s cut: $3,000
Lawyer’s fee: $1,000
Record sales: 250,000 @ $12 = $3,000,000 gross retail revenue Royalty (13% of 90% of retail): $351,000
less advance: $250,000
Producer’s points: (3% less $50,000 advance) $40,000
Promotional budget: $25,000
Recoupable buyout from previous label: $50,000
Net royalty: (-$14,000)
Record company income:
Record wholesale price $6,50 x 250,000 = $1,625,000 gross income Artist Royalties: $351,000
Deficit from royalties: $14,000
Manufacturing, packaging and distribution @ $2.20 per record: $550,000
Gross profit: $710,000
THE BALANCE SHEET
This is how much each player got paid at the end of the game.
Record company: $710,000
Producer: $90,000
Manager: $51,000
Studio: $52,500
Previous label: $50,000
Agent: $7,500
Lawyer: $12,000
Band member net income each: $4,031.25
The band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 million dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties. The band members have each earned about 1/3 as much as they would working at a 7-11, but they got to ride in a tour bus for a month.
Repeat this process for the two albums left on the band’s three-record deal, and it’s no wonder why most bands that make gold records go back to playing the state fair.
Or at least they used to before the establishment made an end run around the process and just started manufacturing every popular act from scratch.
And since this blog’s readership leans towards writers, it’s important to understand that New York publishing is even more backward and evil than the record industry.
That 20 grand publishing advance up there? That’s for a book the band’s publisher paid a ghostwriter 40 grand to crank out.
Unless your craving for validation trumps your need to eat, you are well advised to steer far clear of legacy industry gatekeepers. The secret to avoiding the traps that musicians and authors all too often fall into is knowing the value of your skill and never settling for less.
Even if you’re not an artist, you have skills that you can turn into income streams and use to heal the culture.
My best selling author client Adam Lane Smith will show you how. Take his course today!