Artists Are Making More Money Than Ever Before
Artists have so much money now
Earlier this year, I got into a heated debate with an artist manager on a panel at SXSW in Austin. She was adamant it was nearly impossible for artists to make money in the new age of streaming.
Her evidence? Her award-winning band couldn’t afford to buy a house in Sydney.
The issue is, data is not on her side. Music is now bigger than the entire global movie industry. Recorded music jumped to a staggering $45.5 billion in 2023, which makes it 38% larger than cinema.
While the critics were writing music's obituary, it was busy outgrowing Hollywood.
There is more money in music now than there has ever been in human history
Not being able to buy a house in Sydney has nothing to do with the music industry; most people in most professions can’t afford a house in Sydney.
And just because an artist with a lot of awards isn’t rich, it doesn’t mean there isn’t money in music; it means most awards aren’t correlated with commercial success.
Plenty of artists have a trophy room full of awards and a bank account full of IOUs.
I know multi-millionaire artists who've never won an award and several Grammy winners who live paycheck to paycheck.
The lesson here is, if you want to stay broke as an artist, make winning awards your number one goal.
There is a lot of money in music now; it should be the most optimistic time to be working in this industry than ever before.
Let me break it down into terms of then vs. now. For context, then = pre-streaming and social media.
1. Global Superstars
Then: Private jets
Now: Private jets + billion-dollar empires. Taylor Swift’s net worth is $1.6B, the first musician to hit billionaire status primarily through music.
2. Middle Tier Artists
Then: Comfortable living
Now: Very rich (with a favourable record or distribution deal), not so rich if you’re grossly unrecouped on a record deal where you only get about a 20% royalty.
3. Long Tail Artists Without Mainstream Support
Then: Day job required
Now: Potential six-figure income.
Let's run the numbers: An independent artist with 10M monthly streams on Spotify generates:
Streaming revenue: $600,000 ($0.005 x 10M x 12)
Less distribution & collaborator costs (35%): -$210,000 = Net annual: $390,000
There are thousands of artists you've never heard of making real money. No fame is required, just fans.
Artists making $100k a year might not be able to afford to buy a house in Sydney, but they can make a living without fame. This wasn’t possible before the streaming era.
In the clip below, Canadian artist BBNO$ explains that he generates $5k USD / day from his 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
That means your favourite smaller artist, whom few people have heard of, is making a living.
If we look at two artists that I love below, and assume they get five streams for every monthly listener they have, and that they keep 65% of their revenue, we can make the following assumptions:
Marlon Craft (1.5mil monthly listeners) - $292,500 net annual Spotify revenue
Brother Ali (300k monthly listeners) - $58,500k net annual Spotify revenue
Note that these revenues are just from Spotify alone, you can probably double these numbers when you account for revenue from all other platforms such as YouTube, Apple Music, Amazon and SoundCloud.
Most people reading this article wouldn’t have heard of Marlon Craft and Brother Ali; they’re not famous but make incredible music, and have found an audience and a living.
4. ‘No Fanbase’ artists
Some things haven’t changed. Previously, no fans meant no album sales and now it means no streams. Talent alone has never been enough—it needs to find an audience.
No person is entitled to money despite how talented they are. Artists need to find people who actually want to buy what they are selling.
Reality is a harsh mistress.
Geography is Dead
Emerging markets are becoming serious players for the first time. For instance, Mexican artists earned $350 million in the US market in 2023—that's $200 million more than they would have earned on the same streams back home.
No longer is your market your own country. Australian artists like Vacations and Dope Lemon are far bigger in the US than they are in their home country, despite not living abroad.
Before the streaming era, breaking into an international market often required relocating there. The new music industry doesn't care where you live - it cares where your audience is.
If you aren’t making money now, you likely wouldn’t have made money then
The old music industry sold records, the new one prints money.
There have never been more artists living off of their music than right now.
Paid subscriptions to streaming services have exceeded 500 million globally, driving consistent revenue growth; while long-tail artists are making more money now as a collective than ever before.
Does this mean every musician is rich? Of course not. But it does mean there are more paths to a sustainable income thanks to streaming.
The fact the music copyright market is now worth nearly double what it was in 2014 ($25 billion then vs. $45.5 billion now) isn’t just a statistic—it’s a clear indication that money is flowing into music at unprecedented levels.
It’s time to rewire your brain to the new massive opportunity in music.
Artists: Focus on audience building, not award-chasing.
Managers: Ensure your artists can make a living off their music even if they only achieve moderate success. This is all about the types of deals you sign and the business plan you develop.
While the pessimists blame streaming for their failures, the optimists who are focused on growing their audiences are collecting checks.
Stop saying there's no money in music. There's never been more of it; you just need to find an audience.
Some right things, some wrong things, but hey, what do I know?
Hi Luke, do you have a link to your panel at SXSW? It sounds like one that should be available to check out. Thx