We can be an artistic jewel in the desert
As the majority of my writing is framed by an optimistic bent, there remains an obligation to speak the truth.
The joy that playing, writing and performing music gives my life is incalculable.
Currently, the wide gap between the haves and have nots (for lack of a better phrase) within the music industry has never been more evident.
Four weeks ago, I was inspired to write about this after acclaimed Indie singer-songwriter Santigold posted a letter on her social media accounts. A veritable firebomb, her statement detailed the financial burden and mental stress of touring after the COVID lock-downs were lifted.
Artists and fans have been hit by the same economic recession. The rising costs of fuel, plane tickets and vehicle rentals at a time when everyone is trying to tour has exacerbated the problems of a system long in need of overhaul.
“People were just trying to hang on, pre-pandemic,” Santigold said in Rolling Stone. “As the music business has been changing over the years, there’s been hurdle after hurdle for musicians. That includes streaming and us being left out of that equation as labels and everybody else were ready to grab their piece of the pie and basically throw us under the bus. So then everyone said, ‘Oh, well, artists can still make money touring, right?’ We can make money touring, but is it enough money to sustain us? I don’t think it ever was.”
From just a few weeks ago, more artists have come forward to speak about the current working conditions. In a recent newsletter on stereogum. com, Lorde broke down the financial logistics of putting on a major pop production.
“For pretty much every artist selling less tickets than I am, touring has become a demented struggle to break even or face debt,” she said.
Lack of venue availability, coupled with these rising costs, has contrib
uted to lower monetary guarantees offered to touring artists. This is especially impactful to those from the middle class of music, down through the up starts.
Alternative Rapper Cadence Weapon, from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, recently shared his struggles with CBC News. Having around 30,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, his song “Sunrise” has been played over 3.5 million times.
Weapon has been signed to prominent, independent and major record labels like Anti and eOne Music Canada. After winning a Polaris Music Award for his 2021 album, “Parallel World,” Weapon did a “bare bones” tour for the new record. According to CBC News, after complying with COVID testing protocols, self-managing his tour and bringing a minimal crew, he had $20,000 worth of expenses and still lost about $2,000.
“I’m really concerned about next year,” he said. “You’ve got big tours with Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Blink 182 happening. Then, what money does anyone have left in this economy to go see their local band play at a small venue?”
Artists aren’t to blame for this systemic issue. Most of the leviathans of music began as local acts, in small towns just like our humble desert community.
Simultaneously, major corporations are experiencing record profits. Live Nation, has boasted on its own website, that revenue is up 63% to $6.2 billion in the third quarter of 2022.
The year-to-date operating cash flow is $928 million. Ticket sales are up 33% via Ticketmaster, a company it also owns. Meanwhile the biggest streaming service remains Spotify, dominating the market share with more than 150 million subscribers and remaining one of the lowest royalty rates per streaming.
According to an October report by USA Today, “The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers found artists were paid an average of just over half a cent per stream, in 2018, and under a third of a cent, in 2020. The average artist pay rate declined 43% over two years.”
It’s an age-old issue of workers’ rights and corporate greed. The fact that legendary artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Neil Young are selling publishing rights to their song catalogs for hundreds of millions of dollars shouldn’t be overlooked.
Society is facing the collective corporatization of musical culture. A handful of giant conglomerates, tech companies and investment groups are controlling how music is heard and seen live.
While this may seem like a daunting problem, the local music environment we cultivate in our community must not be taken for granted. We are beyond fortunate to have multiple venues for artists, big, small and local, to perform in. If one locally independent scene does well, we all do.
Call me a hopeless romantic but I truly believe our community can be an artistic jewel nestled here in the desert. It is a beacon of light we must preserve lest it becomes extinguished in this increasingly cash-and-carry world.