2014 SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL SEASON
Steamiest Festivals in August
INDUSTRY RESEARCH : ARTISTS
WHAT DOES AN ARTIST DO?
So... hopefully your mind took a little trip down melody lane to a more relaxing place than all this work stuff. ;-( I know the feeling. Why do you think I chose the music industry as my first report?
Now, I think you are all pretty aware of what an artist does and the website www.celebritytalent.net has a great tool to gage their value, but have you ever considered how many people are involved in the supply chain that supports them?
I want to detail the compensations for those folks as well.
Consider that the music industry is a leading indicator for the health of the economy in general. According to a report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis www.bea.gov and the National Endowment for the Arts www.arts.gov, its contribution to GDP is almost 5 percent and employs more than 3 million people with the largest share being motion picture and video industries at 300K employees. In 2013 the government will classify R&D for the National Endowment as an investment and not an expense for the first time in its existance.
Intellectual property patents and copyright account for 5 trillion dollars in USA economic GDP publishers creating, producing, distributing, broadcasting and exhibiting copyright material contributed 1 Trillion dollars in GDP and account for 100-200 billion in exports while employing 5 million workers. Arts and Culture account for 3% of America's GDP according to the National endowment for the arts, even so, it is common for many artists to struggle until they become profitably marketable and signed. The majority of the biggest profits go to a few of the top artists but the supporting and supply chain staff can make still make a comfortable living.
Below are a few of the Bureau of Labor Statistics associated with the music and entertainment industry should the lifestyle of a new artist be less than comfortable...
Code Employment Category # Workers Incomes Hourly
13-1011 Agents, Artists Managers, Performers, Athletes 11,770 088,260 $44
27-1010 Artists and Related Workers 84,990 073,980 $37
39-5091 Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance 1,950 067,580 $34
27-2042 Musicians and Singers 42,100 062,000 $31
27-2000 Entertainers and Performers, Sports Related 489,840 056,890 $28
27-0000 Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, & Media 1,750,130 054,490 $27
27-2099 Entertainers and Performers, Sports Related 16,630 044,000 $22
27-2031 Dancers 11,390 044,390 $22
27-2012 Producers and Directors 87,010 041,680 $21
27-2040 Musicians, Singers, and Related Workers broad 67,050 030,000 $15
27-2031 Dancers 11,390 020,000 $10
research conducted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov
HOW DOES AN INDEPENDENT ARTIST GET PAYED?
A BUNDLE OF RIGHTS has been granted by the United States that include the right to profit from your Intellectual Property creations, so let's explore them...
COPYRIGHTS are the most productive way for an artist to profit exponentially for their complete works until the LIFE of the last surviving author ends PLUS 70 years at which point the work is placed in the public domain. Songs, song books, plays, pictures, images, photos, recordings, lyrics and melodies can be registered at the Library of Congress with as little as $35 usd or expedited ASAP for about $800 usd. The fees cover standard forms for (C) Lead Sheets of lyrics and melody registered as unpublished or published singles or compilations (SR) Sound Recording 30 second hooks or fully mastered recordings on contract from record labels, producers and independent creators (PH) Phonograph Recording with lyrics and music (R) Trademark titles and slogans for a limited time (P) Patent ideas or inventions and literary works.
REPRODUCED (M) Master Record or Master Use license for Music Labels )
DISTRIBUTED ( Lend, Rent or Lease)
PERFORMED (PRO) Performance Rights Organizations License Non-Broadcast Public view
DISPLAYED Publishing rights Mechanicals, Synchronization licenses, Grand Rights for Theater and New Media
BROADCASTED (S) Synch license or Blanket license for Radio, Film, TV, New Media
DERIVATIVES Permission to create derivatives from an original work
UNIONS like SAG, AFTRA, AFL/CIO charge a fee to protect an artist's rights & police the industry.
PERFORMANCE RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS like BMI, ASCAP & SEASAC manage royalties.
PUBLISHERS like Harry Fox Agency Acquire 25-50% of your Rights for 1 yr and exploit the works charging for performance licenses in public or broadcasts of radio, television or new media, mechanical licenses for other artists or companies that want to use the original work for advertising, marketing, printing. They also cover re-recording of the originals on major or independent labels and cover albums. They even represent software companies.
ROYALTIES are Collected and disbursed by the PROs, Publishers and Exchanges.
SoundExchange and SoundCloud have rate cards for Broadcast fees ranging from $49-$2000. BMI, ASCAP SESAC and Harry Fox have Mechanical fees ranging from .09c per 100k printed
Harry Fox has Grand Rights Performance/Synch Licenses fees of 9.1c < 5 min or 1.7c per min
CREATIVE COMMONS is a new way to protect your ownership and rights that allows works to be shared freely. They are beginning to MONETIZE this classification method by using (NC) Non-Commercial use (SA) Share Alike (ND) share with No Derivatives allowed (CC) (BY) to Give Credit to Authors for their work.
WHO ARE THE BIGGEST ARTISTS?
The Biggest artists are those that get signed by a major record label and have the full financial support and expert A&R teams of the biggest promoters like Live Nation or AEG. These mega stars are offered 360 deals for 5-10 years where the label handles every aspect. New artist already signed by a label without a 360 can still work a publishing deal known as a Development Advance and it can range in the 100K-200K usd area. Independent artists under contract with publishers like Harry Fox directly can expect 10k-40k usd in advance and 50% of royalties until the advance is re-couped at which point they get 75% while the publishers still get 25%. These are usually 1-2 year deals with an option to renew.
TOP 20 INTERNATIONAL TOURS
BonJovi, Beyonce, Pink, Justin Beiber, Bruce Springsteen,
Rihanna, CirqueDuSolei-MJ, Taylor Swift, DepecheMode, One Direction
Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Muse, Fleetwood Mac, Kenney Chesney
Roger Waters, Bruno Mars, Jay-Z/JT, Elton John, Cirque DuSolei-Corteo
The number one artist internationally was BonJovi generating $259 million usd across 97 cities and 102 shows Internationally. He was able to keep the price down at $95 usd and averaged a total of 27k tickets per show or $2.6 million gross. Beyonce racked up $188 million in ticket sales while attending to 77 cities. Her average ticket price was $111 usd brought in around 21k fans to every show, for a per show gross of $2.4 million in sales. Bruce Springsteen and CircqueDuSolei both managed to reach the 4 million dollar mark per show by filling their venues to the tune of 39K and 34K fans per event.
TOP 10 NORTH AMERICAN TOURS
Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi, Kenny Chesney, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac
One Direction, Luke Bryan, Zach Brown, Bruno Mars and Beyonce
The number one tour was Taylor Swift as she generated a total of $112 million dollars in ticket sales and toured 47 cities adding a second date in almost half of her cities with an average ticket price of $85 usd and 28k tickets sold per show. BonJovi came in second with $107 million in sales 58 cities visited but only 4 second day additions while his average ticket price was $95 usd he only had 19k fans per show. The most expensive show in the USA last year was that of the Rolling Stones at $226 average ticket price they managed to bring in 38K attendees per concert bringing in a total of $88 million usd for the entire 11 city tour ( an average of $8 million per show )
research conducted using Billboard.com and Pollstar.com.
WHERE ARE THE BIGGEST ARTISTS?
INTERNATIONAL
According to the Pollstar.com 2013 ticket sales matrix the top ten international artists toured Europe in April, May and June. North America through August and Latin America in September and finishing the year down under in Australia through November when most tours come to an end.
Internationally BonJovi, Beyonce, Pink, Justin Bieber, Bruce Springsteen Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Depeche Mode, One Direction and Paul mcCartney took the top ten grossing musical concert tours. Together they averaged 69 cities and 96 shows per artist while the median ticket price was around $94 usd. 154 million was the average gross sales per artist for the year and further segmented into a per show total of 23k tickets sold and 2.3 million in sales.
These artists had many single city/country concerts but most had various events in countries like the United Kingdom, France as well as Germany and Ireland with Australia becoming a great english speaking market for all averaging 3 nights per artist. Latin America as expected had Brazil and Mexico with the most concerts, as it should be in relation to their large populations.
NORTH AMERICA
North American tours tend to launch in March and April just in time for Spring Break and go on till the end of the summer in August. A seasoned artist will have between 25 and 50 shows per year.
Now, for the 2013 American circuit it was Taylor Swift, BonJovi, Kenny Chesney, The Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac taking the top five spots, together they averaged 40 cities and 46 shows per artist while the median ticket price was around $118 usd for the top 5. This was heavily skewed by the $226 usd ticket for the Rolling Stones tour. However, I am using the top 5 not the top 10 as with the worldwide charts but still get a similar $92 million usd as the average gross sales per artist for the year with a per show total of 23k tickets sold and 2.9 million usd in sales.
Anyway, while the cultural diversity and sheer populations of states like California, Florida and New York demands multiple dates it was the Northeast and their 100 million+ audience that was hard to resist for any artist in any genre. The cultural diversity, per capita incomes and large metropolitan centers with college and university concentrations made the North East states a promoters dream. States like Massachusetts and Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, Pennsylvania and DC who welcomed every musical genre from classical to rock and hip hop and of-course good old country.
Now don't get me wrong there will always be a descent market in the South East and Mid Central parts of the country for a little fiddle but traditionally these are states like North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.
