Do fans think musicians are rich?

"Most current musician make most of their money from touring and performing live, I paid £28 for a ticket to Bloc Party in 2008; i'm a big fan of theirs so I was happy to pay, but, £28 x 2000? £56,000 for ONE GIG, say they do a tour of 50 gigs.. £2.8 million. Obviously, you'd have to then pay for accomodation, transport, venue fees, extras (food, petrol etc), but that can't be more than £1-1.5 million. And that's a band that were just becoming mainstream when they split up. Imagine if you were the likes of Take That, Lady Gaga and you could choose to charge £50+ per ticket. Millions." 


This is a comment on a blog post in the Independent about how rubbish royalties are on Spotify. 


Sadly most bands don't make a lot from touring, especially at the 100-400 people at a gig point. If you earn £1000 a night but hotel rooms for 6 people and the van (plus advertising, etc etc) are £1200 you have still lost money. Production costs can be high. Most bands need to sell merch to survive. 


Another comment on the same blog:


"oh yeah cuz spotify is how musicians make there money! they can all shut up and stop whining the greedy morons, there absolutely minted in the millions and they complain there not gettin paid enough by a website? new talent will have no problem for the new generation."


Blimey. Thanks for that. Most musicians are really having a hard time at the moment. Another one:


"What are you talking about. Yes they have all those costs to cover, however if a musician is signed to a record label, the label will cover all those costs anyway. Also don't you realize those costs are what they are BECAUSE of the amount the artists are paid?"


Yup people really are that naive that they think record labels cover the costs if you are signed to one. Signing to a record label doesn't make you wealthy, quite often the opposite!


What we need to do is educate the public. Labels rarely pay advances these days (apart from very rare majors) - its just not what happens anymore. 


My music is available on Bandcamp, pay what you want. If you choose to pay for it I will be able to afford to make records, if you don't I won't. This is the reality for musicians these days:


http://mattstevens.bandcamp.com/


I've been very lucky to have the support of an amazing online audience, most people don't have that. 


Thank you for all your support.