Home General Chat
If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.

Music Industry Rant

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited January 2023 in General Chat
Okay, so the over the past few months I've been doing a few days work experience here and there with someone within the music industry that I respect hugely. He doesn't do what is perceived as a typical job within this industry, though he works with a large amount of people who do, he does my dream job and films bands on their tour and music videos. In the time that I've worked with him I've met a lot of amazing people, from bands, technicians and other people that work with cameras, but I've also come to realise that there are so many freeloading scum, yes scum, that feed of the success of bands.

The majority of these people are office executives who sit in an office for most of the year and yet they feel the urge to freeload off the bands that make the money for them. This annoys me no end because the majority of bands and musicians, contrary to popular belief, do not make vast amounts of money and their riders are often small with just a few beers and a bit of food for the band and their friends from the tour, and yet the men who sit in an office, have a yearly salary and could quite easily buy the rider at least twice over feel the need to come and take as much as they physically can, despite them doing nothing to have earned this.

This is made all the worse because these freeloaders have so many benefits that the bands do not. They have yearly salaries, insurance plans, bonuses and guaranteed time off at christmas to spend with their loved ones. Bands do not, they put so much effort into touring and playing gigs when they can, and yes, it may seem that when they not touring they have time off but the majority of this time is spent either in the studio or writing new songs for later releases. Within the Music industry their are some of the hardest workers I have ever met but then they have to compete with the freeloading scum that I've come to despise over the past few months. The sad thing is, there will always be people that do this, no matter what industry you work in, the only thing you can do is challenge the freeloaders and show them what their doing is wrong, I haven't done this because it is not my place to say it and i'm only doing work experience. Until I get into a better position to voice my mind i am unable to.


Hope this made sense, just needed to get this off my chest
Post edited by JustV on

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    All of this is why I left the music industry, I was being pushed to be one of those freeloaders, and I've got too much of a conscience to do that!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    To an extent couldnt you argue that its the same with any big multi national firm, where the execs freeload off the work of their minions?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You just learned that now?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    its something that you never really see unless your working with bands or in the industry itself strubs, I know that theres the knowledge of it but theres also the idea that all sign bands are raking in the money when in actual fact their in one of the lowest paid jobs there is. For example The Blackout, who are getting pretty big in the genre that they play and are getting radio day time airplay, are getting paid often below minimum wage.

    And yes, you could G-raffe, but its seen by a lot more people and theres also the fact that their minions are receiving a wage while those in bands are getting money mostly from merch sales and ticket sales, they no longer receive a large amount of money from record sales, it mostly goes to the labels and yet the freeloaders still happen
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yea, maybe I don't know all the dirty specifics, but it is like that if you sign a contract with a label.

    How much do you think the average author gets for his book that sells for about 10 pounds if he is not self-publishing? If he's not getting a flat sum he probably makes about 10-15% royalties per sale, which is about 1 pound a book even tho the whole intellectual content is his. Sometimes it's not even that.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    its the same for me in terms of book sales, I don't know the specifics, but I still feel sick to my stomach seeing some of the hardest working people I've ever met have one of the few privileges that they have earned be abuse by people that can afford to buy the rider at least twice over with no problems what so ever.
    One thing I will say about authors is that they don't have a similar lifestyle to touring bands and artists, sure they sometimes have to do press tours but their life isn't based around this. They have the time off to spend with their family and friends if they so chose, and yes they do often have to spend a lot of time writing books and re-writing but its still not affecting major parts of their life
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Wait a sec? Are we feeling sorry for bands here? I thinking I'm gonna be hard pushed to get my boohoo face on because bands aren't being paid enough.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    People who do a job they love will tend to be willing to do it at unsociable hours for little money. People who have lots of money tend to use that money in a way that makes more money without them having to do a great deal. It's the same in any industry. But that doesn't mean that anyone involved in the more mundane areas of turning a band into something profitable are exploitative or hangers-on.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    curly_boy wrote: »
    yes they do often have to spend a lot of time writing books and re-writing but its still not affecting major parts of their life

    Have you ever had to write fiction (or non-fiction, for that matter) to a deadline? It's fairly time-consuming.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Wait a sec? Are we feeling sorry for bands here? I thinking I'm gonna be hard pushed to get my boohoo face on because bands aren't being paid enough.

    yes I am, I know its there choice to work in this industry and I'm not saying that their not being paid enough I'm saying that in the industry there are people that abuse their position over the bands to freeload and rake in money which the bands see very little of despite it being mostly from their work not the executives.

    And yes IWS, all the people that I've spoken to say that they wouldn't change their job for the world but also the majority have said that they've missed massive parts of their friends and families lives because of it. I'm also not saying that its everyone involved in the administrative side that abuses the power, but rather a few of the very highly paid.

    No frankie I've not, and like I said my knowledge of it isn't nearly as in-depth as it is on the music industry but in my view they still don't have the same time consuming lifestyle that bands live in, and yes it may be down to a matter of choice for jobs but as I've said above they miss out an huge parts of their lives because of it. For example they often lose the friends that they feel are closest to them because it appears that they are making new friends the whole time and the older ones feel no longer needed or back off to allow them to spend time with the "new friends" who are really just their as fair-weather friends
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think that's they way a lot of businesses work, not just the music industry, though musicians have more unsociable hours and time away from home than a lot of other jobs.

    Take the CEO of a company, lets call it X, (s)he sits in the office and earns a nice chunk of money. The people working on the shop floor, and even the shop managers, get a much smaller money:work ratio than the CEO of X, even though arguably they are the ones doing longer hours and running around the shop floor and promoting a good image. Bonuses, if they get any, are a fraction of their wage, whereas the CEO gets a considerably larger %. It's the way corporate stuff works. Like it or not unfortunately. (nb I do realise that with a 'bad' CEO then the company could go under and all are affected with losses, so yeah maybe you need to attract the best people for the job, but the wages are very large and that is my point I'm using).
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's just like the model of venture capital. If you don't want to pay out of your own pocket, you get someone else to do it for you, but then this certain someone cashes in for you, even when you are making enough money to fund yourself. It's like that when signing to labels and the musician knows that, or should. They just want to make their music and don't assume risks.

    And I don't know if I got you right there, about the "they have to tour and be apart from their families." obligation kind of talk. I guess that's what a musician strives to do. Go on a tourney and play live. That's the very essence of making music in my opinion. You made that sound like "they have to take the trouble of touring onto them and someone else cashes in."

    You can keep all your earnings, if you publish yourself, but then you are not just making music, but running a business, and I don't think many musicians want to do that.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    StrubbleS wrote: »
    It's just like the model of venture capital. If you don't want to pay out of your own pocket, you get someone else to do it for you, but then this certain someone cashes in for you, even when you are making enough money to fund yourself. It's like that when signing to labels and the musician knows that, or should. They just want to make their music and don't assume risks.

    And I don't know if I got you right there, about the "they have to tour and be apart from their families." obligation kind of talk. I guess that's what a musician strives to do. Go on a tourney and play live. That's the very essence of making music in my opinion. You made that sound like "they have to take the trouble of touring onto them and someone else cashes in."

    You can keep all your earnings, if you publish yourself, but then you are not just making music, but running a business, and I don't think many musicians want to do that.

    when i mentioned touring, its where most of their, not the labels or the executives, money comes from, the majority of record sales goes to the labels, not the bands. and I don't mean to sound like they take the trouble but if they want to continue on with the success that they may be seeing then touring is the essential part of doing so, they have to reach new audiences and the only way of doing so easily is by doing live shows to them. I guess this is just something that I've taken away from seeing part of the music industry, its not put me off it but definitely made myself more wary to the types of people that I may encounter in my dream job if it ever comes about (Not a musician but someone that gets to film their tour and music videos)

    I defintely don't mean to sound negative, everyone that I've met in while doing work experience has been massively positive about it but they have pointed out some downfalls of their live styles while on tour and I got to thinking about the popular assumption that any signed band will be making massive amounts of money, when in reality their not and fair-weather friends feel the need to scrounge anything they can off them! I see how that can be seen as negative but most of them accept it as a part of their lives and deal with it in the most positive way they can
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Looking at the comparison someone made to a CEO above, what for example is the difference between the music industry and someone who has built their business (owns it) from the ground up? Yes I agree that the music industry is possibly one of the worst places for it, but do the bands have any chance of sucess if they dont have the money to put up front?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I honestly believe that decent bands have a chance of getting somewhere if their willing to put the effort into it, this isn't a common conception after shows like x-factor have come about because it seems that the effort put in relatively low, yes some is put in with the coaching towards the latter stages of the show. Reality is if most musicians what to get somewhere they can't just walk into they have to take as many gigs as come their way and write their own songs. It does help to have money so they can afford management and recording Eps but once they get to a certain stage they should, and the amount of unsigned bands I've seen not doing this is stupid, be putting a certain amount of money they get from ticket sales of their gigs into a band account and using that money for the above.

    In regards to what the difference between someone that has built up their own business, its not huge but the business owner gains the respect from a lot of society where as people in bands are often seen as layabouts, which often isn't true. I'm sure that both sides get taken advantage off but I've never worked for someone that owns their own business in that respect only those in the music business which is where I've got my point of view in my original post from
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It seems to me that many struggling musicians are suffering from a somebody else's problem field in that they're unable to perceive the need to market themselves and negotiate for the terms they want.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    thats definitely right in a few circumstances, musicians and bands that don't know how to market themselves will always struggle to get anywhere. A few may get somewhere but the majority will always fail, not because they can't play or be an act but because they fail in one of my most important aspects of the music industry, they don't make a name for themselves through lack of decent marketing. Would attempt to write more but I just got back from pound a pint at the SU so safe t say that I'm a bit drunk, will try to remember to write more tomorrow (thank god for auto correct on macs :D,hhopefullt this will make sense)
Sign In or Register to comment.