Music

As someone in the talent management and representation industry, one of the most distressing concerns is the fact that local venues want entertainment. Still, it’s usually the entertainment that gets the short end of the stick, so to speak. As I was talking with my daughter, who is also my client, that reality led to a larger conversation that I’ve often talked with her about: Know your worth and charge tax. You can’t keep performing for free if you need to make income; however, with the advancement of technology, you have to find other means as an artist.

Without artists, the world would be boring, but the consumers don’t care about that; they want the show.

The financial reality for local musicians, singers, and bands is shaped by the need to draw income from a variety of sources, as depending solely on recorded music sales or modest performance fees from small venues rarely offers a sustainable livelihood.

The current state of income and money-making for local artists is generally challenging, but they are adapting by leveraging multiple sources:

Primary Income Streams for Local Artists

Live Performances and Gigs:

Venue Payments: While big acts get large, guaranteed fees, local artists at small venues often rely on a smaller guaranteed fee, a percentage of the door/ticket sales, a percentage of bar sales, or a combination. The profit margin for venues is typically low (around 5-15%), which can limit what they can pay local talent.
Ticket Sales & Door Revenue: This is a key source, but artists still have to cover all their performance-related expenses (band members, equipment, travel, promotion) from their share, leaving a minimal net profit.
Private/Corporate Events: Gigs like weddings and corporate functions can offer more reliable and higher-paying income than public venue shows, providing a crucial stable income source.

Merchandise Sales:

Selling physical goods (T-shirts, CDs, vinyl, etc.) at live shows and online is often one of the most profitable per-transaction income streams for local artists, as they keep a large percentage of the sales.

Music Education and Session Work:

Teaching: Offering music lessons (in-person or online) is a widespread and stable way for musicians to supplement their income.
Session Work: Being hired to perform or record for other artists, commercials, or projects is another significant source of revenue.

Modern Digital Income Streams – The digital age has created new avenues, though the payment per stream is extremely low:

Streaming Royalties:

While platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music offer invaluable exposure and help artists connect with broader audiences, the financial returns are minimal—often amounting to mere fractions of a cent per stream. As a result, it takes hundreds of thousands of streams to earn a substantial income. Still, streaming plays the most vital role in cultivating a fanbase, serving as a gateway to more lucrative opportunities such as live shows, merchandise sales, and other direct-to-fan revenue streams.

Digital Sales: Selling digital downloads directly to fans (often via platforms like Bandcamp or their own website) allows artists to keep a higher percentage of the revenue than streaming.
Synchronization (Sync) Deals: Licensing music for use in TV, films, advertisements, and video games can provide lucrative, albeit sporadic, income and significant exposure.
Online Content Monetization: Generating income through platforms like YouTube (Partner Program) and offering fan memberships/subscriptions (e.g., Patreon) for exclusive content are growing ways to connect directly with and monetize a dedicated fan base.

Challenges for Local Artists

Financial Precarity: Most musicians only find part-time work, if any at all, and must piece together their income from multiple sources. The current average hourly wage for musicians and singers, while potentially high for high earners, masks the financial instability of the majority.
Competition and Saturation: The low barrier to entry for releasing music digitally means the market is highly saturated, making it difficult for local acts to stand out and attract a paying audience.
Touring Costs: While touring remains a key avenue for gaining exposure and boosting merchandise sales, the associated expenses—such as travel, accommodation, and production—can quickly add up. Smaller-scale touring is financially difficult for many artists because the expenses (renting equipment, travel, etc.) typically cost more than the income generated by low-capacity ticket sales.
Industry Complexity: Navigating music publishing, royalties, and legal contracts adds a layer of complexity that can be daunting for independent artists without professional management.

In essence, local artists must function as entrepreneurs—constantly creating, marketing, performing, and managing a multi-faceted business to achieve a sustainable income. Live performance remains a critical element for local artists, serving not just as a revenue source but as a primary driver for merchandise sales and direct fan connection.

Monica Tucker

Monica is the founder and publisher of Black El Paso Voice. She is an advocate fighting against racism and embracing positive community involvement. She is a lover of God, Puerto Rican cuisine, and the greatest defender of her family. She also enjoy House Music and swears it’s the best music on the planet!

blackelpasovoice.com

It has become a common practice for event organizers to employ jazz musicians and focus exclusively on jazz music for occasions that commemorate Black History or celebrate Black culture. Those occasions include events like Black History Month, Juneteenth, and Black Music Appreciation Month.

While jazz music is a significant part of Black history and culture as it pertains to music, to relegate the acknowledgment and appreciation of said history and culture through only jazz music only places it in a box.

To understand the foundation of Black music, you must first understand the foundation of Black culture, which was during slavery. Back then, enslavers would repress and restrict enslaved Africans from their culture as a form of control.

The resistance of enslaved people from this control led to the retention of African culture and the birthplace of practices and customs of a new African American culture. One of the main points of this newly developing culture was music, specifically spirituals.

Spirituals are songs that at the time, were often sang during religious and communal gatherings. People passed down spirituals orally, and although some spirituals were songs of worship, pleading, and storytelling, others served as coded messages of resistance and escape.

Many defining aspects of spirituals, such as polyrhythms, “the shout,” and “call-and-response,” evolved into Black gospel music.

During the 1930s, Black gospel music started to reach larger audiences across the U.S., At the same time, jazz music was beginning to take off to new levels, quickly evolving and expanding in different subgenres and styles every decade.

We also start to see the emergence of genres such as blues, which evolved into rhythm and blues, and then eventually rock and roll music. As history progresses, so does music, with genres such as soul and funk.

When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, Black musicians began crossing over into other genres, making names for themselves in pop, psychedelic rock, and even classical music; this brings us to the modern day and the point of this article.

Black music and musicians have evolved and expanded much farther than the roots of jazz in the 1930s. Not acknowledging that when talking about Black music is to place us in a stereotypical box of jazz music being all we’re known and good for.

Of course, we cannot ignore the place jazz, and Black jazz musicians have in our history, as its foundation was rooted in the resistance against Western European norms. Many Black jazz musicians had to fight for their rightful place on the stage and airwaves, from segregated bars to major stages like Carnegie Hall. However, we must look at history and see the other genres of music that became the resounding anthems of not just Black culture but Black resistance from the Civil Rights era up to the modern day.

I remember one specific occasion when organizers approached me to perform at a Black History Month event. However, because the event’s theme was centered around jazz, I was restricted to performing only jazz music.

There was such irony in having a Black History Month event where jazz music was the only thing allowed on the program because the theme for Black History Month was Black Resistance. Jazz music is not the only defining music genre of Black history, culture, or resistance.

And to be completely transparent, jazz music in the modern day has taken a backseat in terms of the music highlighting civil rights and injustice towards Black people.

To have music events to “acknowledge and appreciate” Black music, history, and culture, but the only music highlighted is jazz, is a slap in the face in various ways. It shows a lack of care to think beyond the scope of jazz music when thinking about Black music and musicians.

It also gives off the message to Black musicians who are not involved in the jazz scene that we are forgotten and not thought about. We are more than just jazz musicians.

We’re even more than just R&B, gospel, and soul musicians.

We are classical performers.

We are musical theatre performers.

We are country singers.

We are indie artists.

We are Rockstars.

There are Black musicians in every genre of music, and it is important to acknowledge that. So, for Black Music Appreciation Month, appreciate the Black artists in pop, punk, country, metal, musical theatre, etc.

And if you want to celebrate and acknowledge Black music and musicians by hosting an event, I encourage you to seek out Black performers from across ALL genres of music, not just jazz.

Read the White House Proclamation for Black Music Month

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/05/31/a-proclamation-on-black-music-month-2023/