More than often we imagine the lives of DJs and Dance Music producers as one of supreme luxury, infinite wealth and a couple of additional stupefying perks. Australian DJ and producer Nick Thayer has just provided some transparency to this fallacy and shed some light on how much a producer actually earns-and the figures, we have to admit, our downright shocking!
Through a Tumblr post, Thayer breaks down the earnings and sales from his ‘Like Boom EP‘(2012) and a standard 3 week tour, as he stresses on the harsh realities of being a dance music producer. Insisting that the creme-de-la-creme that we may consider dance music heavyweights may seemingly walk away with the highest earnings and skyrocketing salaries, but a vast percentage of producers can still be included in this rough approximation.
His ‘Like Boom’ EP that released in March 2012
Illustrating through the Sales breakdown of his ‘Like Boom EP’, which consists of 11 tracks, having their own respective sales figures, leading to a grand total of 12,722 total sales in all for the EP. Explaining that on an average the sales per track comes down to $2. However a horde of costs and expenses bring down the potential profit before turning into what looks like a capital investment! With expenses such as $1 to the various sales platforms (ITunes, Beatport etc), 50% towards sample clearances and vocalists, 15% to management, besides costs of mastering, artwork and publicity, Thayer illustrated the shallow end of the money pool that remains left behind for the artist. He further extends the breakdown of a following US & Canada tour he did, consisting of 10 shows over 3 weeks where he explains through various expenses incurred, the artist manages to make a mere $800 for 3 weeks of work!
The North American Tour in question
Such figures provide a keen insight into the difficult occupation of music making. Nick then urged readers about the importance of supporting the artist by firstly, purchasing only legal copies of their music and secondly, spreading awareness of the artist via various platforms across social media.
You can read the entire post here to get the complete breakdown.
Reblogged this on Hamed Khalidi Blogging.