“Bands would need 11 BILLION Spotify streams to match the value of their vintage merch” plus 1 more

Bands would need 11 BILLION Spotify streams to match the value of their vintage merch

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 07:00 AM PDT

There’s a huge demand for original, vintage band t-shirts, with over a quarter of a million people (276,200 in January) searching for band tees every month. But why? And what puts certain bands in such favour for the real deal?

Well, for starters, the industry has changed. Merch’s role within music has become more important, as smaller artists need more support than just a stream to make a profit.

To take a deeper look at the changing state of music, Everpress has sourced monthly search volumes for band t-shirts (for example, ‘nirvana t-shirt’) and multiplied this with the t-shirt selling for the highest price (for that band) on eBay.

Which bands could be making the most from selling vintage t-shirts?

Nirvana could be making the most profit off of their vintage t-shirts, with potential earnings of up to £32,110,620, thanks to the 8,500 monthly searches for ‘nirvana t-shirt’ and their high resale value.

Following closely is the Rolling Stones, with their potential earnings coming in at over £27 million. Despite a far lower monthly search volume for their original merch (3,600), the potential resale value was much higher, with the highest item selling for just under a whopping £8000.

While the top two are definitely in a rat race for the highest potential earnings, the gap grows considerably beyond this point.

Rounding off the top 5 are Metallica, Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden, with potential earnings of £5,543,454, £4,533,264 and £3,625,000 each.

How the money-making machine has changed in music

With CD sales reducing by 27% annually between 2018 and 2020, artists can no longer rely on sales to make a profit.

Streaming services like Spotify don’t help either, with artists only making 0.0028 pence per stream on average.

Nirvana, the table topper, would need over an astounding 11 billion streams (11,468,078,571) a month to match their potential earnings from their vintage t-shirt resale.

This is closely followed by The Rolling Stones, needing 9,714,137,143 streams to equate their potential earnings.

The rest of the top five bands would also need over a billion streams, too. Metallica, Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden all needed 1,979,805,143; 1,619,022,857; 1,294,642,857 respectively.

Are modern artists missing out?

Streaming culture means modern artists rely more on merchandise as a money-making scheme, with some charging hundreds on the initial sale.

The highest potential earnings of a modern artist from merch resale is Eminem, with £576,000 - still over £31 million (31,534,620) lower than that of Nirvana.

This is followed by Billie Eilish and Travis Scott in second and third place, with potential earnings of £530,000 and £323,840 each - 5032 and 1611 per cent lower than their silver and bronze counterparts, the Rolling Stones and Metallica.

Is there a ‘gender pay gap’ in music merch?

Out of the top 50 groups (with the highest search volume for band tees) only two included female musicians - Fleetwood Mac and Bikini Kill.

Everpress’s findings show that the ‘gender pay gap’, in terms of music merch is, £30,732,508 (126% difference)(Fleetwood Mac v.s Nirvana).

Amongst the women, only one group could earn over £1 million from vintage t-shirt resale. Second place Blondie, were only able to earn £304,000 - barely chipping at the armour of their silver podium counterpart, The Rolling Stones (who could make as much as £8,8155 per cent more).

No other women-fronted group reaches the £100,000 mark, with third-place ABBA able to earn just £45,000 from their vintage t-shirt resales.

Alisha, music sales lead at Everpress, commented:

“Anyone can become an ethical listener. By using more fairly weighted streaming platforms, you can help artists keep creating things for you to enjoy.

“Right now, the music industry (like so many others) operates under the might of late-stage capitalism, leading to unethical streaming platforms and bootleg merch skimming the money that artists need to make music and huge corporations sliding in to take whatever they can too.

“At Everpress, we’re partnering with Bandcamp. This means smaller independent artists are now able to sell their merch through Bandcamp, cutting out the powerful organisations that profiteer from creative minds and giving the control back to the artists.”

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Saving for Retirement as a Professional Musician

Posted: 26 Apr 2022 07:00 AM PDT

Image Source: Unsplash

Saving for Retirement as a Professional Musician

Being a professional musician can mean many different things. You could make your living selling records, touring, playing an instrument, or singing. You may not win a Grammy for your work or end up on the Billboard charts, but it doesn’t make you any less of a professional.

No matter what level you’re on, being a professional musician can be a lot of fun. However, it also comes with several challenges and uphill battles you’ll have to face throughout your career.

One of those challenges includes saving for retirement. You might be able to make a living playing music now, but saving for the future is another story.

Whether music is your primary or only source of income, it’s not impossible to save for retirement. However, the sooner you get started, the better! Let’s take a look at how you can make the most of your income, manage your money, and build the capital you need to lead a comfortable retirement.

Managing Your Money

If you have a consistent, day-to-day job as a musician, setting money aside is easy. You probably don’t have to worry about things like tax penalties or even calculating how much you can afford to save.

However, not every professional musician has that luxury. When you’re concert-hopping or living gig-to-gig, it can be difficult to practice healthy money management.

It’s easier than you might think to manage your money, but it can take some organizational skills. Start by creating a budget for yourself. Look at the income you’re bringing in each month and how you’re spending it. From there, you can come up with ways to “cut back” on your spending habits, both in your personal and professional lives.

For example, as a traveling musician, you might spend a lot of money on gas to get from one gig to another. Think of ways you can save on gas, like preserving your car’s efficiency and optimizing your driving. Choose to bring your own food along rather than stopping at fast-food joints, and keep a separate “road budget” so you don’t end up buying things you don’t need.

In your personal life, you can manage your money and decrease your spending by cutting back on things like subscription services and dining out.

You should be budgeting to save, not just to pay your bills now. Whether you set aside a section of your budget as an emergency fund or specifically dedicate some of your monthly income to savings, it’s easier to manage your money when you have something tangible written down.

Taking Care of Taxes

We touched on tax penalties above, but are you aware that some of your savings could actually be costing you money? Taxation penalties are destructive and can take away some of the hard-earned cash that you’re trying to store away for retirement. If you want to maintain and grow your savings accounts, it’s important to be aware of exemptions. Some of the most common tax-exempt savings accounts include:

401(k)s

IRAs

Roth accounts

FSAs

HSAs

You can still be taxed for things like early withdrawal and minimum distributions. However, if you work with an investor or accountant on setting up an account, they can guide you through the process and help you mitigate penalties.

As a musician, you probably pay your taxes every year. Maybe you even pay quarterly taxes to avoid a large lump sum owed at the end of every fiscal year. The last thing you want is to deal with more taxation when you’re trying to get ahead. In fact, you should be looking into expenditures that you can write off and deduct! Invest your time and money into working with a tax professional that can help to ensure financial stability for your future.

Have a Back-Up Option

Whether you’re gigging every night, you’re a “seasonal” musician, or you rely on record sales and royalties for income, it can be hard when things aren’t consistent. Even if you tend to do well throughout the year, you might find that most of your income is going directly to the here and now, just so you can get by.

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to have a backup option when it comes to your finances. Thankfully, there are a few different ways to approach a backup plan.

One is to invest your money.

You don’t have to have a lot saved up to invest, and your return could be something that sets you up for a comfortable retirement. Some of the best high-yield investments include

Value stock funds

Short-term government bond funds

High-yield savings accounts

Rental housing

Cryptocurrency

If you’re not willing to take a risk with your money through investing, consider using a “side hustle” or part-time job as your backup plan. It might not seem very rock ‘n’ roll to have a side gig doing something more consistent, but it will allow you to live more comfortably now while you live out your dreams, and give you the opportunity to have a nest egg in the future.

Whether you penny-pinch to save your money, invest in the stock market, or find ways to avoid tax penalties, there are plenty of ways to save for retirement as a musician. While it’s okay to focus on the fun you’re having now, it’s crucial to recognize that one day you’ll want to sit back and relax. Consider some of these ideas when it comes to making sure you can do so with comfort and ease.

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