Everyone knows Australia’s psychedelic, rock-pop darlings Tame Impala, who are arguably the most successful band to come out of Australia in the past few years. Reaching number four on the Billboard charts in 2015, winning eight Aria Awards and holding 2 Grammy nominations to name a few, Tame’s success has come far from performing in small venues across Perth in 2007. Despite the obvious success of the band, what you might not know is that last year in 2015 Tame Impala were involved in a law suit for the amount of $450,000 USD, against their record label Modular, to which Vocalist Kevin parker claimed
“Up until recently, from all of Tame Impala’s record sales outside of Australia, I had received…. zero dollars. Someone high up spent the money before it got to me” (Parker, Cited in Rettig, 2015).
Now it doesn’t take a genius to realise this is an exponentially shit go, but what it does highlight is an extremely prevalent issue within the Australian Music industry. This being that artists are either A) not being paid what they should and B) aren’t making enough money to survive.
Take another example through Australian Heavy Act Northlane, who are again one of the largest international acts to come out of Australia reaching number 1 on the 2015 Aria charts for their album Node. But, even they fail to even make minimum wage. Recently in March of this year the band took to EBay to auction off exclusive merchandise and gear, in order to simply “Put food on the table” during their off periods of touring, which is quite often the only substantial source of income for many touring musicians (Music Feeds, 2016). The Australian metal scene is however notably different to more popular genres, with record label UNFD holding most of the popular acts under their roster. However, the unfortunate and almost thieving truth of many 360 deals offered from labels to artists is they often don’t end up as lucrative as first thought. Record companies often demand that their earnings come out of gross revenues (unlike artists or managers) while also demanding a portion of an artist’s income from touring, publishing, endorsements, and merchandise sales, in addition to the vast majority of the record sales (Billboard, 2010). I am by no means a financial advisor or a band manager, but to quote E. J James, even I realise that these deals are 50 shades of f***ed up.
This is however only the tip of the iceberg, discussing some of the many issues addressing popular musicians. What about those trying to make a living through gigging and standard performances? Now this one is going to hurt a little.
Results of the Musicians wellbeing Survey published by the University of Queensland in 2015 paint an even worse picture of the economic struggles of musicians. Out of the 204 Musicians interviewed:
- 91% argued they had a ‘precarious’ work situation
- 87% supplemented music with an additional job
- 58% of those surveyed worked over the recommended 48 hours a week
- And the average weekly earnings were recorded to be $776, $547 less than the average Australian wage (Parker, 2015).
This notion of supplementation is additionally supported by Throsby & Zednik (2010), who reach the same conclusion and underline the clear difficulties of ‘guaranteed full-time careers’ as a musician in a highly competitive industry.
What both this study and a similar one conducted by the University of Victoria (2014) establish is that this precarious nature often leads to other issues such as the development of mental health problems like depression, and even substance abuse amongst some circles. Accordingly, both studies include recommendations in regards to direct financial support for individual musicians, the building of appropriate support networks, and the provision of additional and nearly non-existent workplace rights.
What adequately summarises this issues is a quote taken from the Victorian Study in which a participant claims:
“If anyone works in our industry for the money, they’re kidding themselves. We’re all working in this industry because we love it.” (Eynde, Fisher & Sonn, 2014).
This completely encapsulates the whole, ‘do it for the music’ mentality that many musicians hold. However, at either a mainstream popular or undergrounding touring level, there is an obvious need for overhaul in terms of the economic sanctions in place for musicians. After all, doing it for the love doesn’t always bring home the bacon.
-Jesse Max
References
Billboard, 2010, ‘Buyer Beware: Why Artists Should Do A 180 On “360” Deals’, Billboard, 22March, accessed 22nd May 2016 , http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1209534/buyer-beware-why-artists-should-do-a-180-on-360-deals
Eynde, J, Fisher, A & Sonn, C 2014, ‘Pride, Passion & Pitfalls: Working in the Australian Entertainment Industry’, Entertainment Assist , accessed 23rd May 2016, http://entertainmentassist.org.au/vic/entertainmentassist/uploads/files/Passion,%20Pride%20%26%20Pitfalls_Phase%201%20Report.pdf
Music Feeds, 2016, ‘Northlane Are Selling A Bunch Of Gear & Merch On Ebay Because They Need Money’, Music Feeds, 30 March , accessed 23rd May 2016, http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/northlane-selling-bunch-gear-merch-ebay-need-money/
Parker, S 2015, ‘Results of the Musicians’ Well-being Survey Creative realities for music professionals in Australia’, University of Queensland, accessed 23rd May 2016, https://www2.psy.uq.edu.au/~uqspark8/ResultsUQMusicianWellbeingStudy.pdf
Rettig, J 2015, Modular Founder Sued Over Missing Tame Impala Royalties, StereoGum,2nd June, accessed 23rd May 2016, http://www.stereogum.com/1805491/modular-founder-sued-over-missing-tame-impala-royalties/wheres-the-beef/
Throsby, D. & Zednik, A 2010, ‘Do you really expect to get paid? An economic study of professional artists in Australia’, The Australia Council for the Arts, accessed May 22nd 2016, http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/79108/Do_you_really_expect_to_get_paid.pdf
