People like Erykah Badu, Maxwell and D'angelo for example are not exactly huge stars and they certainly don't record very often. How do they survive? Does the record company give them an allowance to live off or something?? Just curious.

Touring.

lilgish said:

i was just about 2 say that

paisleypark4 said:

These people are still touring?

girlfriends

dancerella said:

if they arent touring..i suppose loans and shit or like stax said various gf's?

dancerella said:

Touring.

Plus consider that whatever initial success they had to begin with, if they were smart about the bigger money they made in their "heyday", they probably have financial investments and a really diversified financial portfolio to keep a steady stream of money coming in, though not enough to get them on the Forbes list ...also take into account that as writers of their own songs, they get publishing royalties, a coupla cents everytime somebody spins their tracks on commercial radio. Also as artists they have representation and union benefits that ensure they are paid for tv performances or anytime past peformances are shown in a visual media in part or its full entirety. Then lastly if you think about how many guest appearances they do on other folks' projects, though not Top 40 style money, it still counts for something; if for example any of my hubbies (past and present included) work as session musicians, they make as a freelancer anywhere from two-six grand per project which can last from 3-10 days... and when one is actually producing on an album or being a fairly acclaimed guest singer on a project I would think that they get a bit more, so, once you're an established entertainer, I think it's a pretty fair bet that you can maintain a moderately comfortable lifestyle and keep your bills paid (even without being in the public eye) as long as you keep yourself immersed in commercially released projects...

Do these people still tour?? D'Angelo's last album came out in 1999...has he really been touring all these years?

I guess they must be doing okay financially,since they're not really in a hurry to release new music

session work is a good gig if u can get it

sometimes i wonder about alot of rap artists that had good records in the 90s but never went gold (which is alot of em).

or people that don't rap anymore, i wonder what they are up to. Greg Nice and Smooth Bee can't be coastin' on album sales, yanno?

CinisterCee said:

last i heard greg got a day gig up in westchester somewhere. and smooth from what i heard through cats i used to run with..smooth been in and out of lock up sooo

TheRealFiness said:

this brooklyn kid I know said he saw Smooth B walkin around Manhatten (this was in 2001) lookin like times were hard.
[Edited 10/7/05 7:11am]

CinisterCee said:

well u know greg and smooth werent the best rappers in the universe,actually greg's style was weak as fuck..if u go back and listen

make it rain motha... yeah yeah make it rain motha wtf?

TheRealFiness said:

haha you know anything sound hot with the 1977 echo chamber styley though.

I, take you, to the hotel (tel)
You, take me, to the motel (tel)
Like a rocketship I will excel (cel)
When you do a crime you go to jail (jail)

CinisterCee said:

Lmao...i gotta give it to em tho' they got out there wit that shit.

TheRealFiness said:

I remember when MTV had a report on the music business & they interviewed Nice & Smooth & they we're saying that the record company would do favors for them but when they got their checks it was barely nothing & their contract probably wasn't too big to begin with.

i wonder if the doco on doyle bramhall and eryka will cover this part of it..

interesting tid-bit o info.....

i was chatting with doyle's sister (who's boyfriend was a hornplayer for pacifico)..i told her something about how cool it must be that her big bro flies her out to his shows and she corrected me and said, "big-sis in law".

all this time i figured doyle was making better money then wendy and lisa cause he is the one still in a record contract..but i guess not.....

i think wendy and lisa make bank doing their filmscores and session work...wendy mentioned in an interview how sheila is the one that taught them that you can make more money doing session/film stuff then being an artist..

but then sheila wasnt really a singer/songwriter so i assume she probably isnt the best example.

I dont think all these artist make much money!

They tour small clubs!! most ppl dont pay a whole lot to see them.

Plus the cost of touring ( traveling ,staying , bookin costs, cost of having band)

I think they travel is small vans to save on travel


you should remeber when u r artist ur expenses go up!!

Even when they sell CDs they dont make much money

Only ppl at the top of thier game in music make any decent money


being an artist isnt very6 lucarative


but i could be wrong

This is a really interesting subject. I always wondered how do artists surivive without touring and also making any music. Making cds off of their craft alone doesn't pay the bills. I always assumed they make their money off of touring or performing alone. Also some artists go to acting because they make more money and plus they don't have to pay advance.

From their royalties and their publishing. If an artist writes their own material, then every time their album sales, depending on how many "points" they have in their contract, they get paid royalties. Everytime their song is played on the radio, or their video is shown, they they get paid from their publishing. They recieve a check every cycle, which is every 3 months. They get a certain percentage if they have just an artist deal. If they're the artist AND the songwriter, then their publishing and royalties check will be much bigger. That's where the money is, the songwriting. Take Smokey Robinson. He's not suffering when it comes to money, because his catalog (songs he has written) is in constant rotation on the radio, around the country and the world. Everytime u hear a Motown song, 8 times out of ten, it was written by Smokey. That's what pays his bills, today. His royalties and his publishing. He's just an example.

sosgemini said:

I always assumed Wendy and Lisa makes more money than Doyle because they do gigs where the money is at which is film/TV scoring and session work. I am not saying W&L are millionaires but hell they don't have to do a 9-5 like some once well-known artists that i heard are doing. I got the feeling performing gigs are Doyle and Susannah's major bread and it seems that they struggling some but then I don't know much of their financial status. It seems Wendy and Lisa are doing so good in film scoring that they probably performed shows for fun and the love of music not for the money.

Even Dr. Fink is doing pretty well these days and because he writes and performed music for video games.

So I noticed that more artists do more these days to get paid because having a great singing voice alone don't get you fed.

blackguitaristz said:

Go Smokey. And also Prince too.

Yep you are right songwriting is the money at. And also some airplay depends on how many time the song gets play.

Korn just signed a contract that gives the record company a % of their touring revenues. That's a bad sign for artists.

andyman91 said:

umm..what does a label do to earn that? but they might be financing the tour...then i can understand.

sosgemini said:

Must be. Bands have usually had sponsors for the tours. But it's possible that they sinply want a cut based on the fact that Korn couldn't have a successful tour without a successful record--the result of a supportive record company.

But the reasoning in the article was simply that cd sales are down and record companies are looking for ways to make money, simple.

andyman91 said:

be afraid..be very afraid.

Stax said:

But they branch off into other businesses too. Doesn't Erykah own a club in Houston or something? Not that it brings in a whole lot but I'm sure it's gotta be something to float on between albums/soundtrack songs/touring.

I would hope their doing a decent amount of writing for others too but I dunno. Do they get paid if they write a song that doesn't appear on an album?

CalhounSq said:

isnt it like 90% of clubs fail?

Club business is very tuff i dont think its easy to own a club. I am sure the clubs prince owned were costing him a pretty penny. Plus u cant get into a business without knowing anything about it.

Korn has a deal which gives them money upfront!! something like 20mil i am sure the guys were broke and they wanted to cash in.



Tours are good if u can sell out decent venues not small clubs that wont do u much good!!