Tagged: music licensing
FUTURE OF MUSIC – ARTIST REVENUE STREAMS
Are you like me in that you sometimes wonder how today’s music artists are making a living? I mean, seriously, it seems as if music these days has become ultra-digital and disposable. But one of the key things to remember is that mainstream music SALES may be suffering badly (unless you’re an uber-powerful or popular artist like a Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Rhianna or Gaga). And truthfully, we don’t even know what their bank accounts are looking like these days, or if they’re experiencing the continuous slump. But have no fear…the Future of Music Coalition is here!
The Future of Music Coalition has put together an exclusive case study on the many different ways that today’s music artist can and does make their money. Upon interviewing 80 different musicians and composers, FMC found some information that aspiring artists might want to pay attention to, including 42 different streams of income (potentially) for artists, information from dozens of financial case studies, and whether artists are benefiting from the many advances in music technology.
There’s definitely some good information for artists experienced and aspiring alike to use. But one of the biggest drawbacks here is that there is not much of a presence of how Hip Hop artists make their music. As a Hip Hop head, I’m pretty sure there are artists in Hip Hop that are very much on the DIY tip, trying to make a living out of this music thing, but they don’t seem to be included here. I’m definitely gonna go back through the study to see if this is the case. But if it is, it’s pretty sad.
Other than that, be sure to get your hands on the Artist Revenue Streams study right here. Hopefully it can do something for you and your career in music!
Chicago Music Commission
At this point, the Midwest isn’t known as the most upwardly mobile place to be in the U.S. When lots of people think about cities like Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland and Gary, some of the first things that come to mind are violence, decay and mass exodus of citizens. But there’s still a lot of life left in these and many other Midwestern cities, especially when it comes to music and those that want to make a name in the industry as entrepreneurs, artists and business people. One of the strongest cases that could be made for such a fact is the Chicago Music Commission, a six-year-old non-profit foundation in the Windy City focused on growing and maintaining the music business base of Chicago and growing a new culture of music business entrepreneurship by any means necessary.
One of the biggest goals of the Chicago Music Commission is to grow and transform Chicago’s relationship with its world-class music community. CMC looks to help Chicago, as a music city, thrive and grow on its own terms. This is done primarily through CMC looking to build strong ties between the arts, business, government and music communities with bi-monthly workshops, online podcast discussions and forums, and newly introduced music community programs.
Resources are, many times, exactly what today’s music business entrepreneur both lacks and needs, and the Chicago Music Commission offers a wide array of them, from the CMC Blog to the Musicians at Work Forums ( a free, monthly forum featuring some of Chicago’s most sought-after music biz professionals) to ChicagoFestivals.net, a site where you can find information about all of Chicago’s music festivals in one place.
Need more info on a certain topic of the music industry and don’t know where to turn? You won’t have to look far with CMC! The Musicians at Work Forums are also available online and cover everything from music licensing, podcasting and blogging, merchandising, press and promotion, booking gigs, marketing, Intellectual Property, studio time and a whole lot more.
Again, I can’t stress enough how important information and knowledge are to today’s musicians and artists. The Chicago Music Commission is doing all that it can to make sure that message isn’t lost. Be sure to check the site out and increase your knowledge as a new age music business entrepreneur at http://www.chicago-music.org.
