Alright, here we go. I'm a music student who really wants to become a performing artist. I always knew that it wasn't gonna be easy to make money that way, but the realizations are really starting to hit now.
I had a workshop recently about how to get booked for concerts and the final part was so depressing. The guy who gave the workshop was a booker for a venue and he told us they really want to pay their artists fairly and increase their cut, but it's pretty much impossible. The government doesn't give them any money to pay their artists, and they also have a whole bunch of things they need to pay for themselves. Artists at their place get almost all of the ticket sales, after the venue subtracted their own costs. The venue only profits of of the drinks. The bigger artists get around 2000 euros per show there. Opening acts get 150. If you consider that these artists also have to share these profits with their bandmates, they barely made money for 2 days of groceries. Sometimes they have to pay for gas to get to the venue, or for a hotel ect. And you're left spending money to perform.
Don't get me wrong. Music is my passion. I love being on stage. But I also love eating, being able to pay rent, maybe going on vacation every now and then, shopping for some new clothes and everything else one might need money for. My future just looks so grim now.
In the past, musicians were still able to make money with album and cd sales, but now with spotify that is pretty much impossible. Profits from those sites are pretty much zero unless you have millions of listeners, and then still it's pretty much nothing.
I have no idea where to go from here. Am I doomed to work part time jobs on the side and living in a crappy apartment while countless people still enjoy my art and refuse to pay me for it? Music is such a big part of everyone's life and this reality is crazy to me. Makes me sad I don't have a higher up I can complain to like other posts on here. Unless our government steps up and decides to invest more in the arts, upcoming musicians (but also musicians who are already succesful, releasing albums and touring) are just doomed.