A revenue stream is a source of income, either through providing a product, or a service. In the music industry, there are many opportunities to provide one of these and have a stable source of income.
Some examples of revenue streams in the music industry are:
- Live Performance – Playing live regularly at various venues as a solo artist or with a band can be a source of income, howeve the pay may vary depending on things like venue capacity, and the frequency of this work will change depending on thing such as your style or if your playing original music rather than covers.
- Music Tuition – Teaching music is a steady source of income for a vast ammount of professional musicians. The pay rate for this role can vary depending on things such as location or instrument, but the price for music lessons generally averages around £25-£35 per hour in most places.
- Record Sales\Streams – For established artists the sales of their music can become a steady form of income. Most artists sell both physical and digital copies of their music, and also upload this to online streaming platforms such as Spotify. Streaming services do not generate much cash for an artist unless they have a massive following, with Spotify only paying out an average of $0.006-$0.084 (£0.0045-£0.0063) per stream, meaning that every 100 streams generates about 45p. Phisical and digital sales however are much more lucrative, with most full albums selling for around £10-£15 a piece, and single songs selling for useually just under £1 each.
- Radio Plays – Having a song played on the radio generates royalty for that play, and this can be a substancial payout depending on the station. Here is what some of the BBC radio stations pay per minuite of play time:
- BBC Radio 1: £37.76 per minuite
- BBC Radio 2: £82.07 per minuite
- BBC 6 Music: £8.06 per minute
PRS for Music – The PRS are a collection society that go collect roylaties for their members and pay them out to the artits. They collect the royalties generated by performances, streams, broadcasts, downloads, plays in public, reproduction (coversof your music), and from use in TV and Film.
- Merchandise – Sales of merch is a big source of income for touring bands and big artists, as the money generated by these sales go straight into the artist’s pocket. This is most effective when being sold at concerts, as most people who go to see big bands want a souvenir to remeber it by.
The potential sources of income listed above are a few of the ways musicians today can make a living.
My specialism in the music industry is my ability on the guitar, and my experience performing live regularly, therefore the revenue streams listed above all can have some part to play in my music career.
Live performance will hopefully be a steady source of income for me in future years, as this is what I most enjoy and actively take part in on a regular basis. I already have about six to seven years worth of live experience as I have been performing live since I was very young, therefore I have grown to be comfortable playing in almost any scenario, and this is probably my favourite activity to do in music. To increase the ammount of paid live performance work I can recieve, I would ideally be performing in several bands, doing a mix of styles with covers and some original music. I could also potentially branch out into session performing, and generate some more income by filling in with already established artists.
Although this is less relevant at my current stage in my career, due to the fact that I currently do not have much of a following, selling merchandise and CD’s at performances is another way I can increase the ammount of money I make from performing live. CD’s are slowly becoming irrelevant due to the rise of online streaming however it could be a good idea to have a small ammount available for those who may want them.
Online streaming is now at an all time high thanks to sites such as Spotify, and for me would be a big asset to my career in regards to my original content. While it does not generate nearly enough money for someone like myself to make a living off, it will however provide an easy way for people to find and listen to the music I am producing and go a long way in helping me to build up a following for future events. Streaming doesnt just have to be the audio files either as most songs these days have a music video to watch along side the them, therefore sites like YouTube can further boost your online presence. This also means footage of your performances can be uploaded too, which will go towards advertising your future live shows, which again will be incredibly useful for me.
This all goes hand in hand with the PRS for Music collection society, as I would then be getting paid the royalties for performing my music on top of the pay I would be recieveing for the actual performances. Currently, I am not regestered to the PRS as I am not yet releasing any original content onto the market. However once I am in the swing of releasing music and performing my compositions, I will definatly be looking into joining them as my presence as an artist will slowly start to grow.
At my current stage as a musician and a student, I do not have the time to be fully focused on starting a live career for myself, although I still do perform regularly. Therfore while I am continuing my studies I plan on starting out as a private guitar and bass tutor as I am already in the loop with several other private tutors, and feel as though I am on a level now where I feel confident in passing on my knowledge of how to play these instruments and the theoretical side of them. I have already begun looking for work in this area, and have started advetising myself for this role. This role for me is ideal, as due I can work my oun set hours, and this will be a regular source of income every week.
References:
Prescription Music PR. (2016). How to make sure you receive the radio royalties you’re owed. [online] Available at: https://www.prescriptionmusicpruk.com/the-prescription/2016/7/22/how-to-make-sure-you-receive-the-radio-royalties-youre-owed [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
Sehgal, K. (2018). Spotify and Apple Music should become record labels so musicians can make a fair living. [online] cnbc.com. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/26/how-spotify-apple-music-can-pay-musicians-more-commentary.html [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
Prsformusic.com. (2019). What we do at PRS for Music. [online] Available at: https://www.prsformusic.com/what-we-do [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].