FEATURE: Bands, the industry, and that sweet, elusive money (Pt. 2)

Alas, here we are, folks - the end. This is the second and far shorter half of this two-part article (See: part one, here), which we'll just call, "So just what the fuck do we do about this sticky situation that is the current music industry?"

Well, there are quite a few options. But first, let's address something. Yes, most bands and artists don't do this just for the monetary gains - at least, not most - but sweet baby Jesus does it help if you actually maintain your job by actually getting paid for it. So, let's dig in!

First off, bands, and to an extent, record labels should consider monetizing any and all YouTube channels they have in their name if they haven't already. Whether it's just a couple of hundred or a few thousand dollars that you make per quarter from any music videos, teasers, live footage, and anything else you wanna put up there, can all help a band and the label out. Or at the very least reduce the wallet stress a bit. Just having live footage, shitty 15-second teaser videos and music videos may not cut it, though. So, look to people like Jarrod Alonge and Jared Dines, and other content creators, and take a leaf out of their books.

Like doing cover songs? Cool, do what Against The Current do and upload a ton of cover songs online, as well as your own original material. Start a podcast between band members or with your mates and talk about whatever you fancy. It works pretty well for Shane Told (Silverstein) and Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed), and keeps people involved as podcasting is a big, exciting medium right now. Love your video games? Sick, maybe start doing streams on Twitch or Let's Play and use your own songs in the videos were appropriate.

There's a huge market in the gaming world who probably haven't heard your music before, so go to them. There's no reason why branching out and delivering new content that isn't just musical couldn't work for artists. However, the music itself is just not enough these days, sadly. As Graham Cochrane of The Recording Revolution said in a recent chat with pop producer, Ivan "Ill Factor" Corraliza (found just below), your band's music is not the product anymore. The experience and interaction your band has with the fans and the public is the main product now. You can hate the ever-changing nature of the music industry all you want, but you'll be the poor dinosaur that gets left behind. 

Another avenue many artists turn to nowadays is crowd-funding campaigns. Indiegogo, PledgeMusic, Kickstarter, Pozible - take your pick, really. Some bands do this really well and it can help cover all or most of the cost of recording an album, getting mixed, mastered, pressed; the whole shabang. It can even work for a tour, too. Just make sure that you're clear and up front about the intentions and where the money will really go, alongside posting frequent updates about the campaign, and fans and punters are usually pretty chill with supporting you via this method.

But maybe don't auction off the refrigerator from your own studio, or even the actual recording studio itself (here's looking at you, Papa Roach). Obviously, these campaigns don't work out too well, sometimes, as Prepared Like A Bride found out recently. But that's another can of worms for another time...

Likewise, a Patreon page is also quite viable now. It worked well - at least, so far - for Ne Obliviscaris, meaning there’s a fair chance that it could work for your band. Of course, you'll need, you know, a lot of fans and good music to back it all up, obviously. Now, this article isn't here to debate Ne Obliviscaris on whether this is the right way to go about it, or on who now owns the rights to the music when other people's money is involved, how long it will last, and whether will it provide the band substantial money in the long run. No, that's for people in the grand Court that are the Facebook comment section to decide.

But we digress.

One should look to content creators such as video game critic Jim Sterling (real name James Stanton), who makes a great monthly income through the support of his audience on Patreon. In turn, he releases multiple podcasts, written reviews, op-eds, videos, as well as his main YouTube series, the Jimquisition. Giving more than the usual amount of content back to the audience and fan base that supports you is key, so, in turn, they continue to support you in the long run. While it is sad that a band may have to do so much more nowadays than just write, record, release, and perform their music just to gain and maintain support, it is the way the industry is changing now.

Concurrently, one area that is still very fresh is the mobile app market. Earlier this year, Bullet For My Valentine released a mobile app where any and all things BFMV related can be found, shared and discussed by the fans. Now they aren't the first, as Metal Blade Records, Suicide Silence, and Slayer have their phone apps too, and it's definitely something that more bands should look into we think. Hell, there's even a Metallica app that lets you download and stream a huge amount of their past gigs. Bullet's app is currently a free app for iOS systems, but if artists (or rather, their management and labels) can work out ways in which to monetise or even adapt and evolve these new avenues, whether it be through ads, exclusive content, etc. then the lack of record sales and streaming income could be made up for in some small way.

Now, back in 2014, In Hearts Wake released a free mini game called Earth Invaders, in which you controlled little forest critters with heads of the band members, with the aim to knock back Abbott's bulldozers with Space Invaders's mechanics. Oh, yes, and it was great. Then just last year the band released a blatant Flappy Bird carbon copy called Skyhoppers. Upon completion, the band's song, 'Insomnia' could be heard. Those are some great ideas put into practice for not only your band's marketing but for your fan interaction as well. Again, looking into ways to monetize that without completely pissing off consumers could be a nice income source for the right band with the right music and game. Also, if the gaming and tech industry can truly innovate with the current and upcoming Virtual Reality (VR) technology, then who knows, you may be able to stream your band's live sets to consumers VR headsets as they bum around their lounge room aimlessly. For a small price, of course (and hopefully the pornography industry won't have to carry this whole VR business like it did with VHS).

Then, of course, there is everyone's favourite business venture: the obligatory clothing line. Just look at Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon with his Drop Dead company. Or Attila’s Chris Fronzak with his Stay Sick brand (both a merchandise company and a record label). They both, reportedly, do quite well from these other sources of income, and every last bit helps stock up the coffers of bands branching out into new markets. Yet the public backlash to these ventures is always the same - "sellout". And that brings us to the unrealistic view that some punters/fans have - that it should only be about " the music, man". This is usually followed up by some grammatical abomination of how music was better in the old days and how bands should just work harder/write better music. That, of course, helps but it doesn't quite solve the problem of making money from your work. Nowadays, it helps to be a jack of all trades and have as many hands in as many pies as you can, unless you're Foo Fighters or whatever.

But look, no matter what other business models and ideas you try to employ, sometimes you just have to make it work for yourself, and Earth Caller's Josh Collard knows all about working in different areas to finance the band. As he's done "everything from pick-packing, freight forwarding, bar work, retail, and even things that would not exactly be considered legal." Furthermore, James Tidswell of Violent Soho told us recently, while doing press for their new record, ‘WACO’, of his past employment. Here's what he told us towards the end of said chat.

“I’ve been in the same band in 13 years, I’ve had three jobs to be able to do it and I quit jobs because I needed to tour. I didn’t need a guarantee from anyone because playing to anyone and anywhere was the greatest night of my life. I know people who have sold their houses to go on tour”.

And with Soho's latest effort also came a debut at the top of the ARIA Charts, a sold-out nationwide headline tour and that fabled #1 position on the Australian iTunes charts. All of that is proof of true success and the sign that this could very well become their sole job going forward. Even though, the below video is a few years old now, Tidswell and a bunch of other artists revealed some surprising things about their respective successes in a brief clip titled “The Truth About Money In Music”. It’s worth a watch, for sure. Go on, press play...

Now, if you have the time on your hands (let's face it, you do if you’ve made it this far!) make sure you go suss out Jamey Jasta’s chat with Thy Art Is Murder's residential riff lord, Andy Marsh, in which he more or less dispels what former vocalist CJ McMahon said about earning a measly “$3,000” per year while in the band. All of it is a damn good listen, check it out below.

While we are on the Thy Art topic, fellow Aussie site I Probably Hate Your Band ran an interesting article a while back called “Thy Art Is Impoverishment: How CJ McMahon Is A Fiscal Genius”, which proves that sometimes, you just need to be really smart and careful with how you spend your money while off tour.

Oh, and another thing - pay your bills and your debts on time or as soon as you possibly can. Actually being reliable and holding up your side of the deal actually makes you look good to other businesses and to other people. Huh, who'd have thunk it?

This is something Melbourne's Harbours know all about. They are a band who truly aim to remain self-sufficient. Guitarist Thomas Elliot reached out to us following our publishing of this article's first part, saying that:

"Harbours was started with intentions of being as self-sufficient and DIY as possible. We self-produce all our music, videos, photos and designs. Our merch fund started with a $20 investment, which we used to make our own cardboard sleeves for our Demo CD. We sold every copy at our first show, which then allowed us to invest in T-Shirts. Since then, we've been able tour nationally with no financial strain."

That's how you do it, folks. Know where to spend your money and pay back any debts or investments that you can. Also, maybe don't get a booking agent or manager until you really fucking need to! That's not to say that those people are all bad people and put money in your pocket only to cut it out the next. On the contrary, many industry folks can do some great things for your bands. BUT! Do the booking, the management, and the PR yourself - as there's really no reason why you couldn't - to the point where it takes up much more time and effort than you can actually provide. This is usually around the time your band starts getting a lot bigger. Usually. Or even if it's impacting your day jobs.

"Unfortunately, most bands don’t receive a lot of money and short of subsidizing with another profession, there will not be very much money to even manage in the first place," says Josh Collard. The vocalist also added this gem:

"However, I believe once things such as contracts and heavy touring start to enter the equation; an artist must see themselves as a professional and therefore must be seeking a professional’s compensation for their art – and accept no less than that. You will struggle for a time, you might not get to where you want to be as quickly as you may have wanted to, but once everyone external to your band understands that you won't be accepting anything less than your fair share they will start to treat you differently. Earth Caller have struggled in the past for these reasons, but in that struggle, we have laid the foundation for a future in which those struggles will have been worth it"

There, right fucking there! Know how to manage funds, know when to ask for the appropriate compensation for your work, and no matter what level you are at this moment, think about the big picture. Because you may be in that big picture one day and be up shit creek without a paddle.

Now, look, we know that sometimes shit just happens, and sometimes, shit really just happens. You can get robbed while on tour (like Roam did, recently, among countless other bands over the years), you can be plagued by large booking fees for your band (local Comedian Lewis Spears broke booking fees in a recent video about Ticketmaster and Ticketek's booking fees), and more terrifying, you may be caught up in a horrific bus crash while on tour, like The Ghost Inside were last year. Your ability to roll with those low-aiming punches also helps how people perceive your band and that can make or break live attendance and sales for not all, but some consumers out there.

Phew. Okay, that's it then. We finally reached the end. We hope that this has been as interesting and engaging a read as it was for us to write it. We also hoped that you've learned something, or at least, had something to think about. Also, if you made it this far, here's your gold medal for being able to read more than a single paragraph of any media. If you simply scrolled down and are reading this part; that's okay. There's a pretty basic too long; didn't-read below just for you.

TL;DR: This is a multi-faceted issue, with many different opinions, ideas and solutions, but the time has come for people - on any and all sides of the industry - to adapt and try other avenues other than the typical and long walked paths in order sustain themselves and make some actual cashola. Have an open mind, be smart with your money and just don't be a dick. Cheers. 

*Main photo credit: Ben Clement