Tom Dunne: Money for nothing? Most musicians are very poorly paid
A recent Musicians Union survey underlined how most people can't make a living from playing music fulltime. Picture: iStock
“Money for nothing and your chicks for free,” a man I spoke to last week once sang.
We band people changed Mark Knopfler’s lyric to “chips for free”. It sounded less, well, 1960s #Misefreisin, and was more realistic. Being au fait with Irish gig fees, a bag of chips – shared- sounded about right.
But that – the bag of chips bit - is not the prevailing view that the public has of their stars. People think that if you’ve been played on the radio or appeared on TV you are probably rolling in it. You are like the Queen of England. It’s not that you don’t have cash, you just don’t carry it.
Yours is a world of glamour, limos, air travel, first-class lounges, video shoots and late nights.
Your facial expression says, “I’m in with the in-crowd. I go where the in-crowd goes. I’m in with the in-crowd, and I know what the in-crowd knows.” You just hope they buy it. Because that is part of the myth-making.
You are a poet, a visionary, a seer. You are not of this world. Things come easily to you: songs, performance, success, love, and something far bigger than the minimum wage.
It’s only when the “seer” has to interact with the real world that the issues begin. When the “seer” is offered a support slot at a major festival that they really have to play. And is told there’s “no fee” but “free VIP parking”. That’s when reality bites.
There are few exceptions. Bowie, in 1971, had to make his way, on foot and in platforms, from the train station to the stage at Glastonbury. Even for Bowie, that was a lot of reality.
It bit hard in the UK this week. A Musicians Union survey did the unthinkable. It asked musicians what they make. It was anonymous. It would have to be.
Most would be too mortified to admit that their “I am a red light from God” manifesto was bringing in social media hits, but little else.
Six thousand working musicians were surveyed. Of them, more than half admitted to making less than £14,000 a year from music.
In Ireland, these incomes are likely to be even lower. This galls even more when you are told that 70% have higher degrees. The upshot: most work in a variety of jobs to make ends meet.
A US magazine recently made it editorial policy to quiz local indie acts on their second jobs. They felt it was a reality that could no longer be ignored. It’s great to make music, vital even, but give us the full picture. There is a price to be paid.
David Grohl in his excellent biography lifted the lid on indie band life before he joined Nirvana. Scream were a hardcore Washington band.
They would tour small venues but it only worked if it was all in a tiny van, sleeping on fan’s floors and being fed by the venue. Not quite living the dream.
When the UK musicians were challenged to lift the lid on that dream they didn’t hold back. They explained that it is hard to be a parent in music.
You’re broke, away from the family a lot and getting a mortgage is hard. The hours are unsocial, rehearsals are rarely paid and all that travel and waiting time is unpaid too!
Of those who did manage to support themselves 100% through their music, the average earnings were just £30,000 a year. That’s still £4k off the average industrial wage and £8.5k off the average graduate earnings. Many are in debt. Only 3% earned over £70K.
Hence, Nadine Shah was Mercury Prize-nominated, played heavily by BBC 6Music and was still living at home.
The Anchoress has duetted with Manic Street Preachers, toured with Simple Minds, and won many “album of the year” awards, but also gives lectures in English Lit.
The reality is that writing and performing is vocational. What you experience onstage, the connection with the audience, is heady and addictive, something you have to do.
It increasingly requires skills in social media, self-promotion, tour management, home recording, engineering, accountancy, and nutrition. Do that, keep writing, stay connected to friends and family, and, oh, look after your mental health.
The artist Jewel, starting out, asked Neil Young for advice. “Once you can fill a room,” he told her, “You have a career. Record companies can’t take that away.”
Fill that first room. The rest, like Taylor’s first billion, should follow.
