You don’t need to sell a million to make a mint, says the Sunday Times.
“On October 14, the Danish singer-songwriter Tina Dico celebrated her 32nd birthday by announcing her latest project on Pledge Music. For €10 (£9), pledgers got a download of The Road to Gavle (inspired by her soundtrack to Oldboys, a Danish independent film) ahead of time, as well as exclusive video blogs, unreleased songs and live recordings,” it says, going on >>>
But there was more on offer. The €300 premium package gave pledgers her seven albums and a Christmas card (all signed), along with a personalised video message and song. Other variations offered signed albums and cards, handwritten lyric sheets or tickets to private gigs. Within 24 hours, she had pledges of €35,000 from only 600 fans. All the premium packages were gone.
That evening, Dico, who has been living in London for the past eight years, sold out the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. At least half of the audience had flown over from Denmark to help her celebrate. An established star in her home country, with a growing following abroad, Dico sells on average 80,000 albums.
Note: “Apart from a brief, unhappy sojourn with Sony, she has always been independent. Her intimate songs are enhanced, not harmed, by relatively low recording budgets, she tours with only two musicians and she has embraced the opportunities technology has given to keep close to her fans on her website (tinadico.com).” [My emphasis.]
Meanwhile, “She controls her own destiny and she makes a good living,” says the Tims, quting her as saying, “If an artist has 5,000 fans willing to spend £40 on them every year, they can have a long career,” says Dico’s manager, Jonathan Morley. “They may not be living in a mansion, but they will be stable financially.”
The hard part, it goes on, “is getting 5,000 fans to buy the album and T-shirt, go to a couple of gigs and still crave more. Best suited are solo artists in a well-defined niche, with a post-credit-crunch financial consciousness and a determination to put in the work, to interact and communicate with their fans. In the Facebook world, staying in touch is not difficult, although websites need to be regularly updated and to reek of reality, not hype.”
The Sunday Times adds >>>
Publishing royalties — whether from advances, album sales or radio plays — are an essential part of Walsh’s income. She has also attracted enough attention to get a “sync”, or backing track, on the hit American television series Grey’s Anatomy, which likes to showcase unknown artists. “The slam-dunk income stream for independent artists is the sync,” says Mike Andrews. “Of course everybody wants to be in Grand Theft Auto, the Cadbury’s Flake ad or a blockbuster movie, which can all be worth £500,000, but there is money to be made on websites, from radio and TV ads and in television programmes.”
The right sync can kick-start a career. The American singer Ingrid Michaelson’s breakthrough hit, The Way I Am, first attracted attention on Grey’s Anatomy. A song played in the background will earn about $15,000 for the owner of the recording copyright and $15,000 for the writer. (However brilliantly your gothic swamp-rock numbers go down in a Brighton pub, you are unlikely to get a sync on True Blood without either a publisher or a specialist sync agent, both of whom will take at least 20% for their services.)
How do you pay for recording, marketing and touring costs without a record company? Pledge Music is one of several business models that helps artists to raise capital from their fans. Benji Rogers, an independent musician, set up Pledge (pledgemusic.com) last year because he was “tired of playing great shows, selling a good number of CDs, and still having no money”.
“I saw incredible talent that would sign to a label only to get dropped, and people selling out shows, yet still broke,” Rogers says.
“I noticed sales for larger acts dropping off sharply, fans losing interest and everybody blaming everybody else for why the music business was doing so badly. There had to be another way. Fans don’t want round plastic discs, they want personal contact. Pledge doesn’t sell CDs and DVDs. We offer fans the chance to go on a journey with the artist, in return for which they are rewarded with exclusive material. Originally, I estimated that the average pledger would spend $50. Our experience is that it is almost double that.”
Colin Smith (colinsmithmusic.com), of the New York-based Irish rockers Mr North, needed funds to master, publicise and tour his solo album, The Wilderness. Looking at his fan database, Rogers reckoned he would be lucky to raise $900. By offering everything from private gigs and answerphone messages to guitar lessons — “The three things I said I would never do” — he raised more than $23,000. Right now, Smith is out on the road, and doubtless relieved that none of his fans offered good money to go shark-diving with him.
Click here for the middle bit. 
Jon Newton
November 12th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
That’s all great stuff that artists can do. We’ve done similar types of things in the past; however it still doesn’t sort out people like non-performing songwriters, session musicians etc.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Tina Dico sounds like the reigning queen of diy. Any chance of getting her on here?
November 12th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
@Indiana Gregg
The answer is in the post. They could do the same thing producers and agents do, instead of relying on copyright come to a contractual agreement with whoever hired them – either a one time payment or a % of profits made off work they contributed to.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
yes sync licenses but, songwriters often write for artists who can’t seem to write themselves. so, they’re to go to one off payments?
November 12th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
@Indiana Gregg
I said one off payments OR a % of the artists future profit from the songs they wrote for them. Just like a producer takes a cut of the artists profit on any records he produces for them. I didn’t include any hard numbers as I don’t know what would be fair, but the concept is sound. I think the % deal is usually better, but there may be songwriters/session players who don’t have confidence in the artist wanting to hire them so in that situation the songwriter/session player may opt for a one time payment rather than a % of 0 profit. Either way, this could easily be handled by contract law, not copyright.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:37 am
Honestly, in an age of artist-fan connection there isn’t much room for “ghostwriting.” Yet there is plenty of room for collaboration. Many successful webcomics have been founded based around a model of “one writer, one artist.” Perhaps if somebody can sing but not write songs, the two of them work together – publicly, transparently, and cooperatively.
See how the digital age forces you to rethink everything? If you made money from it in the 20th century, it’s probably not going to work anymore. This causes all kinds of disruption, changes jobs around, and so forth, but there’s no stopping it. Either one adapts, or gets left behind.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
yes, totally see that. But, there are so many ‘artists’ these days who don’t seem to write themselves. I’ve collaborated on a lot of projects, but, songwriting is one of those less digital things (IMO) where you go into a room and co-write sometimes for artists who may be great performers and singers, but, don’t seem to know how to write songs and, unlike comics or software, it tends to work better when you’re face-to-face (again, in my opinon).
November 13th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Hey, Crosbie, why don’t you call her up and tell her that copyright is an 18th century concept that goes against natural law and shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way of artistic freedom?
November 13th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
This kind of sweeping statement suggests that some of you p2p people have a blinkered view of the situation.
Where is your evidence, Steely? Has songwriting become obsolete? Do people still want to hear great tunes and cool lyrics? If so, then you’ll probably find that people who have the skill to do that kind of thing will be in an even better position to exploit their talents.
November 13th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
” If you made money from it in the 20th century, it’s probably not going to work anymore. ”
As one of ‘you p2p people ‘ I find that statement kind of off as well Steel. The reason sharing doesn’t effect sales is that the fans simply want to support, and thus ultimately pay for what they like, whether it came from one artist, a collaborative effort, or a toothless old dude with a rubber band bass. Anything can work, and no one can really predict or quantify it. That’s why so much of the label stuff falls flat. Too much of it seems to be made by formula and focus group methods instead of just plain good writing and good teamwork. I THINK it was Zappa that suggested that they were better off before with the fat guys that didn’t know anything because at least they were willing to throw it out there and see what ’stuck’. With accountants,lawyers, and guys in suits that ‘know what they want to hear’ running things, ironically that doesn’t seem to come up with much anyone really wants to hear. So as one of ‘you people’ I don’t quite go along with that Steel. One of the crucial things I believe to be fact is that as long as the internet isn’t locked down by bad law, ANYONE can do well.
November 14th, 2009 at 8:36 am
@Dreddsnik
It was Frank Zappa who said that “cigar chompin’” executives, “what is it? I don’t know, throw it out there, if it sells, good” versus people now with their “I know what the people want to hear” and no risk.
November 14th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Thanks Robert, I was eas pretty sure it was Zappa, I couldn’t remember the exact wording but the idea of it is spot on. No risk no reward and that’s a huge problem with not just the music ‘business’ but the movie industry as well. Fear of risk.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:44 am
It’s about building the right business model, folks.
Old model: a songwriter “collaborates” with a big-name artist who turns it into a hit. The songwriter gets a few pennies again and again through royalties.
New model: the songwriter and performer are a team, publicly working together and sharing the income made through performances and sales of unique items.
You might not want to believe it but if the 20th century models were working, we wouldn’t be having these discussions. Trying to clamp things down so these models can still apply is futile. Instead, you need to think about how the leveled playing field can work for everybody involved.
Dredd, I don’t recall ever saying that people couldn’t do well. In fact, I think it’s easier than ever for talented people to “do well.” What I think is foolish is imagining that old job classifications or payment schemes are going to work in the 21st century. Making things like royalties work requires a lockdown that both of us wouldn’t support, even if it were possible.
November 16th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
” Dredd, I don’t recall ever saying that people couldn’t do well. In fact, I think it’s easier than ever for talented people to “do well.” What I think is foolish is imagining that old job classifications or payment schemes are going to work in the 21st century. Making things like royalties work requires a lockdown that both of us wouldn’t support, even if it were possible. ”
You’re right, I misunderstood you. I was looking at your post from the perspective of a musician, and I thought you meant that what worked MUSICALLY 20 years ago wouldn’t work today. From the business model standpoint, I agree. The way my dumb brain works, the first interpretation it came up with was that you were saying something else.
Now, just because the labels won’t risk it, there’s no reason you can’t DIY with very little financial risk. You’re right.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I’m sorry, too, for not being entirely clear.