We dont pay. Sometimes we make money, sometimes we dont. Depends on the venue and how many people come.
Today its venue gets $150, and everything sold after $150 gets split up evenly amongst the bands. Usually we barely make anything. If we're lucky we'll make $100-200. Most of our money comes from Tshirt sales.
I had this discussion the other day, thats why i asked.
my friend who doesn’t really even go to cincerts was telling me bands have to sign record deals to make money and the sole purpose of touring was exposure.
I didn’t disagree that was part of it, but i always thought if you were on a full scale tour, you are basically paying the venue the venue to book it, then if uou sell enough tickets you can profit some off that and some off merch.
Depending on the size of the bands following that could be very little, or a lot per show, but he was saying it like it was impossible to make money touring and the only way to make it was to sign a record deal. Yeah just didn’t think that was as much the case these days
I had this discussion the other day, thats why i asked.
my friend who doesn’t really even go to cincerts was telling me bands have to sign record deals to make money and the sole purpose of touring was exposure.
I didn’t disagree that was part of it, but i always thought if you were on a full scale tour, you are basically paying the venue the venue to book it, then if uou sell enough tickets you can profit some off that and some off merch.
Depending on the size of the bands following that could be very little, or a lot per show, but he was saying it like it was impossible to make money touring and the only way to make it was to sign a record deal. Yeah just didn’t think that was as much the case these days
It's really hard to make money in general, tbh. Record deals are nice because they front the cost of producing an album - but then they take steep cuts from record sales, so essentially you make nothing from your music.
So then you tour. But venues take steep cuts of ticket sales, so your shows don't really make much. So then you need to sell merch, which can be a huge up front cost. If it doesn't sell, you're stuck with a huge stock of merch just sitting there. And if you do sell it, it's usually marginal returns, and it all goes back into the next merch order anyways.
But my point to him was that a good idea is actually not signing a deal, because a lot of time you sign away the rights to the music right? And in the long run you could make more money that way.
Depending on the deal, but yes. There are always positives and negatives. Like I would never be able to book and pull off a national tour. I dont have the connections. I dont have the budget. I dont have the gear. I dont have a van. I dont have the money. So that's where the record label comes in. But then yes, you do risk losing your rights to your music and things like that.
Generally my band just put everything we make back into a band fund. That we can just use it for merch, or ads, or whatever. I do a fuck ton for the band with no compensation.
Lol probably could have made that one too I had no plans until a buddy of mine randomly texted me around 11 asking me if I wanted to meet up with her and drink
Next time... which I don't know when it will be, because the promoter for our next show just cancelled the show because "the last three metal shows didn't draw".
Definitely need to devote time into actually getting the rerecordings done for the first two EPs. Had somebody say "they sound like a high school band. You are definitely turning listeners away with them"
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https://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2022/07/05/quarterly-review-summer-2022-7/
how does that work exactly?
Today its venue gets $150, and everything sold after $150 gets split up evenly amongst the bands. Usually we barely make anything. If we're lucky we'll make $100-200. Most of our money comes from Tshirt sales.
my friend who doesn’t really even go to cincerts was telling me bands have to sign record deals to make money and the sole purpose of touring was exposure.
So then you tour. But venues take steep cuts of ticket sales, so your shows don't really make much. So then you need to sell merch, which can be a huge up front cost. If it doesn't sell, you're stuck with a huge stock of merch just sitting there. And if you do sell it, it's usually marginal returns, and it all goes back into the next merch order anyways.
There's just no money
So now we have nothing planned.
And I 100% agree