Us British get embarrassed talking about cash However as the owner of a large and successful music studio, I see a lot of people, on a regular basis, who have made a lot of cash over the years. The problem for many of them is that all the cash they made, or at least the vast majority of it, was made for someone else. I've got a lot of mates in bands that were big in the 1960s,70's and 80's and the number of such bands, that you assumed did very well financially and were set up for life, only to learn that they are skint is really quite shocking. Many tell fables of unscrupulous management and record companies, that dished out contracts which meant all that the artists ever saw was pocket money.
There are also plenty of people who were in bands that were massive, but were not songwriters and so got a fraction of the monies that the main players got. It is quite upsetting, on occasion, when you meet someone you think must've done OK out of their career in music, only to find they are making ends meet giving guitar lessons. As the owner of a studio, I have to maintain descretion and so I can't go into details or name names, but there are some truly sickening stories out there.
Oddly, there are a few musicians who have done extraordinarily well, who's financial success baffled me, until I learned they wrote hits in the USA or had their music used in film and TV. There are some who got extremely lucky and then played their cards right. A few of years ago, a customer was chatting to me about their publishing catalogue. They had a few minor hits in the 70's and 80's and they had been approached by a company looking to acquire the rights to the songs. I was intrigued and said "Do you earn much from them?". The response was "No, I get a few quid in royalties every year, but not enough to write home about and certainly not enough to justify the amount they are offering". I was intrigued. He then said a couple of the band mates had signed over the rights and got a decent payout. The payout was against future earnings. I asked, is it a complete buy out? The answer was yes. It was full and final settlement. He said "What would you do?". I asked if the company were in a hurry to conclude the deal. He said "Yes, they said they want to 'tie up the loose ends'. At this point, I said "To me it sounds like they know something is in the offing. I'd wait. If they just want a catalogue of new wave songs, just in case, they won't be too bothered and you'll be able to cash in whenever.
I didn't think too much about it. A few months passed before I saw the individual again. He gave me a bottle of scotch and said "Thank you". It transpired that the company who was acquiring the rights, had got a whiff that one of the bands songs was going to be used in a major film. The rights to that song alone were probably worth ten times the offer. The other musicians involved had signed their rights away, but he hadn't and he was getting massive royalties. The matter had caused a degree of friction amongst them, as he was now significantly better off than the rest of those involved, who felt the whole thing to be most unjust, even though they'd all been happy with the payoff. They suspect that he had a tip off and had kept schtum. The problem with most musicians is that we are not good with money and we are not interested in contracts. Even people who have been around the industry for years, have been caught out. I learned that the very best music lawyers are probably the best lawyers on the planet. The sums involved in music are huge. There is an old customer of mine, who has two sons are adults. He jokes "One is a musican, the other has a career in music". The musician as a modest house and a fairly normal lifestyle, the other is a music lawyer and has a massive house, expensive car and all of the trappings of wealth. He started doing law, his younger brother joined a band that was reasonably successful. When they got offered a deal, the younger brother got the older brother to 'have a look'. He was horrified and realised that he was in the wrong line of law. There was big money to be made looking after artists. He is very good at it.
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| My next gig, please come along and help feed four starving musicians! |
I was chatting to the Dad, who has been coming down for a long time and is a musician and a property lawyer himself. He joked that his biggest regret in life was not figuring out where all the money was in music when he was 21. The music industry can be a very cruel game. Having said that, it has given me the best moments of my life, so I would never dream of complaining. Someone once said to me "Why do you do it still?". I replied "You know that buzz that you get when you score a goal at football? Well it is that, but you can still score when you are 80" (I am sixty two).
Having said all that, I'd dealy have loved to earn a few more quid over the years, I quite fancy a holiday in the Bahamas!
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