Generally speaking, are artists making albums to get the public to come to their shows or are they playing shows to get the public to buy their albums?

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Or, how duz the musics industry work? Chicken or egg?

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 2 October 2006 04:31 (nineteen years ago)

My impression is that labels profit primarily from album sales, while artists profit more from concerts (speaking very back-of-the-envelope). Obviously once you're selling millions of albums, then the artist and/or composer start to make real money there, too.

― i'll mitya halfway (mitya), Monday, 2 October 2006 05:15 (nineteen years ago)

The Gossip = former
Coldplay = latter

― cosmo vitelli (cosmo vitelli), Monday, 2 October 2006 05:16 (nineteen years ago)

Was there a point in time when the balance shifted one way or the other, though? I mean, people found out about artists back in the '50s and early '60s by going to shows that stopped in their towns and stuff. Albums were made to drive up attendence, right?

Then the Beatles made Rubber Soul and the industry totally flipped on itself.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 2 October 2006 05:42 (nineteen years ago)

If you sell a million records you make money off the record - less than that and you're probably just paying back the record company advance. Embrace make more money off touring than album sales, and their last two records have shifted 600,000 and 250,000 copies respectively.

Of course, you could sell a tune for an advert, or hope for a mega radio hit. Martin Carr still makes a decent amount each month from PRS cheques from Wake Up Boo, and there's the whole About A Boy thing too. Creep bought Thom Yorke his first house. Adverts are what allow Aphex Twin to live.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 2 October 2006 07:27 (nineteen years ago)

They're doing both because they profit from both (eventually) - playing gigs makes more money from albums, making and selling albums means more and bigger gigs.

Surely?

― Andrew Munro (andyboyo), Monday, 2 October 2006 07:44 (nineteen years ago)

Do The Rolling Stones sell as many albums each time as they play to people around the world on tour?

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 2 October 2006 07:47 (nineteen years ago)

Or are artists making records so people will come to their shows and buy the records at the merch stand?

― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Monday, 2 October 2006 07:57 (nineteen years ago)

Records are rarely at the merch stand.

Merch stand = tshirts, badges, programmes sometimes, etc. And, depending on the canniness of the band, more goes to the band percentage wise than from records.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 2 October 2006 08:00 (nineteen years ago)

Merch stand these days also = mouse mats, coffee mugs, babygrows, keyrings...

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 2 October 2006 08:01 (nineteen years ago)

Records are rarely at the merch stand.
Merch stand = tshirts, badges, programmes sometimes, etc. And, depending on the canniness of the band, more goes to the band percentage wise than from records.

-- mark grout (mark.grou...), October 2nd, 2006.

they are at almost all the shows i go to. but those are usually smaller shows (200-800 people, roughly) bands i saw semi-recently who had albums for sale @ their merch table - mastodon, slayer, wu-tang, the liars, subtle (doseone), low, glass candy, the chromatics, etc. the only ones who didn't were the fall, who didn't have any merch whatsover. wu-tang didn't have all their albums, but did have an assortment of preview cd-r's, mixtapes, and a couple recent releases

― 6335 (6335), Monday, 2 October 2006 15:24 (nineteen years ago)

Mark E. is a one man empire what need he the taint of consumerist piffle.

I'd by a Fall mug mind.

― tolstoy (tolstoy), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 09:05 (nineteen years ago)

The question you posit isn't really the way artists think about it - they just make art and hope the marketers and manager types do their jobs well enough that SOME money comes from SOMEwhere.

― matt the queeg (veal), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 13:39 (nineteen years ago)

Records are rarely at the merch stand.

Not true for any of the shows I attend.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 13:47 (nineteen years ago)

when i saw mogwai back in 2002, they were trying to fob off the records at the merch stand for $28 AU a pop. my father, my king may have been about 15 bucks. funnily enough, i remember thinking, "yeah, i already own all these...that's why i'm at the show...plus i paid less for them the first time round."

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 13:48 (nineteen years ago)

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