17 Indie Artists on Their Oddest Odd Jobs That Pay the Bills When Music Doesn’t (not a poll)

plenty of lumpen mid-tier indie bands were given big advances by pseudo-indie labels in the 1990s before being unceremoniously dumped a couple of years later, this is still what some people expect to happen in 2019

well quite, mistaking a bubble for the natural order of things

fortunately most working class people have easy access to a range of non-precarious jobs with great terms and conditions so the parlous state of popular music as a career in 2019 is obv some sort of anomaly

It's also caused a decline in the amount of music of real quality because no one can be arsed, but that's a whole 'nother conversation.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, April 9, 2019 12:09 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this isn’t true

simon otm

turrican a huge dumbass in this thread as always

It's also caused a decline in the amount of music of real quality because no one can be arsed, but that's a whole 'nother conversation.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, April 9, 2019 12:09 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this isn’t true

― jolene club remix (BradNelson)

i think that's just textbook trolling... that statement is so cliche that I find it impossible that he didn't make that comment with some degree of self-awareness.

who are we talking about here

The music industry discovered a host of ways to hoard even more profits and pay artists even less, is mainly what happened.

David Arditi's iTake-Over: The Recording Industry in the Digital Era takes exactly this position, and argues it fairly convincingly: that the industry's owners haven't suffered much at all by virtually eliminating their overhead and distributing music through platforms that pay royalties to labels instead of songwriters, unlike radio, and are compensating artists even less than before. In his view, the narrative of the 'crash of the music industry' has been used to push for even more regulatory protection to favour capital over labour in this industry.

This article doesn't necessarily make a compelling case for the troubles of artists, though.

An interesting enough article, but – and I'm not having a go at any of them – I've never heard of any of those people in my life apart from Cass McCombs. So while it's possible I just don't have my ear pressed to the ground hard enough, it s equally possible that most of them are obscure types who are never going to sell enough records to e.g. buy a house.

McCombs himself: "This is a shitty thing to say, but maybe musicians don’t deserve to make a living. Maybe it should be a hobby. But if that’s true, I don’t want to see some talentless pop stars making what they make, while quality living museums of folk-music knowledge get paid nothing. That’s not cool."

In the UK the dole and the art college grant are to thank for a huge chunk of the arts & culture we produced between the 60s and the 80s, some would say our only real success as a nation at that time, or since.
Can't imagine trying to persuade Americans that that's the way to go, though, and hard disagree with McCombs, hobbies are only for the already comfortably off.

I might be able to agree with McCombs in situations where no one is making a profit from the music.

(Emphasis on "might" btw. I'm not even sure I'd agree in those cases, esp when waiting to hear back about a grant application.)

McCombs himself: "This is a shitty thing to say, but maybe musicians don’t deserve to make a living. Maybe it should be a hobby. But if that’s true, I don’t want to see some talentless pop stars making what they make, while quality living museums of folk-music knowledge get paid nothing. That’s not cool."

what

Cass McCombs (born 1977 in Concord, California) is an American musician, best known for releasing 9 albums since 2002.

i don't know who wrote this wiki lede but it made me lol and i tip my hat to them

Oh yeah, that's the guy who put out 9 albums since 2002.

a pub quiz classic

not to be confused with gaz mccoombes

Gaz McCoombes also has strong opinions about talentless pop stars

Hold on, Cass McCombs is a man? Who was I confusing him with then?

Mamma Cass ?

mama cass, obv

fuck, beaten to it

No, Mama Cass never put out 9 albums.

ahem

The Big 3

1963: The Big 3
1964: Live at the Recording Studio

The Mugwumps

1965: The Mugwumps

The Mamas and the Papas

1966: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
1966: The Mamas & the Papas
1967: The Mamas and the Papas Deliver
1968: The Papas & The Mamas
1970: Monterey Pop Festival (Live)[43] (recorded in 1967)
1971: People Like Us

being the flamekeeper of "real music" and doing a job to pay for your neaps + tatties is a tough bloody gig, but those McCoombes boys are Made oot o' pure tough stuff!

neaps

it's 'neeps' u savage

lol soz!

Solo albums u savage.

too soon for Neepsy Hussle arguments, please

Everybody's gettin' fat 'cept McCombs, Cass

no neepsy hussle hassle, counsels noodle

I don't want to nitpick the folks in this article bc they all seem fine and some of them I am even fans of, but I lol'd at this bit in one of the blurbs:

I moved back home with my family just to take off the added stress of making rent [...]I don’t have a rich dad funding my career.

I mean... you literally do have a parent funding your career?

the Algiers blurb made me sad as they're one of the best bands currently going. glad I picked up both LPs when they came through but it's time to find a hoodie of theirs or something.

I was mildly surprised to see the guy from Budos Band on there, I would have figured that they do ok, but then I remembered that there are like 9 people in that band so touring is probably murder.

"Art teacher in a NYC high school for 17 years" is another one that seems like a stretch as a "side hustle".

btw, being a living museum of folk-music knowledge is it's own reward, right?

I like the guy who notes that being a webmaster for a group of old-school Seattle socialists doesn’t pay very well.

hmmm, sounds as if it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll

I've no trouble believing that it might be worse now but are we working from the premise that second-tier indie musicians did not need day jobs in the pre-Napster days?

― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Wednesday, April 10, 2019 2:13 AM (twelve hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, yes, mediocre indie bands making mediocre indie music for a cupboard full of their friends may well have found it difficult to get the necessary break that would enable them to quit their day jobs and move into a full-time career recording and touring their music. I'm more talking about the wider picture.

And as much as Brad protests, it has had an effect. It's all well and good for people to spout hippyish nonsense like "well, people who feel the drive to make music will always want to make music", but if there's no money in your chosen profession then the idea of chasing after a career in music becomes less and less attractive. It's led to more people becoming totally apathetic about a career in music or even wanting to make any music of real quality. The artists currently making the big/blockbuster releases are either already fully established or are moneyed enough to do it. There's far too much music being made with a "this'll do" quality to it, because they can't be arsed, and because Spotify places any new release by Mr. Joe Experimentalbollocks-from-Coventry on the same pedestal as something of real quality, they don't feel any great need to be arsed. The amount of shit music I've heard this decade has been utterly embarrassing.

boy, "permalance" sure is a depressing term

maybe stop listening to shit music idk

man I remember the Napster days and how everyone on it was like "this is awesome, I'd gladly pay for this if I could"...like, this was the era of the $17.99 CD with one or two good songs on it, massive amounts of re-issues and greatest hits, etc etc. tempting to blame the consumer but you can't really fault us for feeling ripped off. like you can't really blame people too much for streaming a boxing match when you're charging $99.99 for pay-per-view. I used to think that the industry punting the digital side for a decade-plus was the big culprit, but now that we have Spotify where an artist gets paid a quarter per 100,000 plays, I'm starting to think capitalism might be the real problem here

what is ADP

― blokes you can't rust (sic), Wednesday, April 10, 2019 12:25 AM (seven hours ago)

probably about 30% - 40% of workers in the US have their payroll or (at least w-2s) processed by ADP -- in the company's own words:

"We are a comprehensive global provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solutions that unite HR, payroll, talent, time, tax and benefits administration, and a leader in business outsourcing services, analytics and compliance expertise."

lisa germano used to work at Whole Foods in WeHo like 10 years ago maybe i saw her there but not being really a fan i wouldn't know. but it would be nice to think she sliced my bread or packaged up my scallops or something

― velko, Wednesday, April 10, 2019 12:29 AM (seven hours ago)

I think my ex's brother worked at that Whole Foods around that time???! (not that you would have confused him for Lisa Germano ... like, maybe they were co-workers)

How far we've fallen since the '90s.

speaking of the 90s, the thing that's most "odd" to me about the jobs listed here, is that none of them are strippers / sex workers -- that was way more common in the 90s.

man I remember the Napster days and how everyone on it was like "this is awesome, I'd gladly pay for this if I could"...like, this was the era of the $17.99 CD with one or two good songs on it

I dunno, I kinda blame the consumer. I remember having that debate and hearing that line back in the day from friends who were students, working shit jobs, etc. And now 15 years later many of them have houses and good jobs and can afford a $17.99 CD or ten, yet they seem to have changed their tune on this point.

"Whole Foods is the he best dead end job in the world" is a joke I've heard among musicians.

The artists currently making the big/blockbuster releases are either already fully established or are moneyed enough to do it.

otm. It's actually become frustratingly difficult to find exceptions to this.

I remember an old interview about Interpol where Paul Banks talked about how he would take dead, deader, dead-i-er end office jobs so that he would be forced to make his band successful. I don't recall if he was a rich kid where that action plan actually had no consequences.

Interesting to see Cass McCombs here. He averages 1.2 million Spotify listeners a month. I was under the impression that the payout for that was around $7000 or $8000; not enough to be rich obviously, but would seem to support some kind of middle class lifestyle when combined with other revenue streams that come from being a musician (merchandise/physical record sales, syncs, money from touring if any).

Honestly, if so many artists are making nothing from 1 million g'damn streams a month, then I wish it were possible to organize some kind of recording strike like in the early 1940s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942%E2%80%9344_musicians%27_strike

I was under the impression that the payout for that was around $7000 or $8000

*I should clarify that I meant monthly payout for the streaming number, as obviously 7 or 8 thousand a year would be woeful.

This is honestly so interesting!

I have some imaginary comedy sketch in my head where a group of musicians from different parts of north america are talking about funding and grants and one ends up pointing a finger and exclaiming "but you're subsidized.. BY CANCON!!"

Sarahell, def otm about the jazz stuff.

At one point I got really sick of doing jazz gigs because it felt irrelevant, was often musical wallpaper, etc. Now I love doing them because you get paid and it doesn't matter if anyone comes or if they listen, and the free food and drinks are way better than playing original music in a diy space.

I can see the transition from the paying for a copy business model to the paying for usage business model reaching a climax
when they finally get the chips planted in our heads. Music lovers, who have songs floating in and out of their consciousness
all day, will have a hefty bill to pay at the end of the month.

a chilling vision of the future

https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/

this is through 2018. Adjusted for inflation, the 1999 peak is $21+ Bil., with 2018 revenues at $9.5 Bil.

people must've been downloading like crazy in the 1970s

i think it was due to the changes in British currency?

lmao

lol

the real winter of discontent: huge threepenny-bitBerg of '71 causes greatest threat to sterling since some numpt bought too many tulips and ended up eating them.

https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/

this is through 2018. Adjusted for inflation, the 1999 peak is $21+ Bil., with 2018 revenues at $9.5 Bil.

That's helpful, thanks. It seems that the industry is back to about inflation-adjusted 1985 profit levels, which is not disastrous by any stretch, and if artists are being compensated or treated worse than they were at that time, that would be a shame. The CD boom of the 90s was something of a bubble.

Ringtones still raking in a cool 25 mil.

Karlheinz Stockhausen working as an *accompanist to a stage magician has to be up there in the oddest odd jobs department.

(*not assistant, sadly)

When I heard that Philip Glass and Steve Reich both worked as movers before they were able to make a living off their music, I invented a "joke". I pictured them moving a heavy wardrobe up a flight of stairs. Philip says, "Steve, you're always moving slightly faster than me and we're getting out of sync." Steve said, "Phil, that's the twentieth time you've said that and it's getting tiresome."

wow lol !

yeah, that's a really good joke! I may steal that one

i laughed irl

spectacular
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tacularspec
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cularspecta
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larspectacu
arspectacul
rspectacula

lol

LOL!!!

:)