Originally Posted by Brian Austin Whitney
For me, the better approach is to find 5000 fans yourself and make a living by getting them to give you $20 dollars a year for your creative output. If you can't generate 5000 real fans, the labels aren't likely going to be able to make you famous or help you earn more money than you would on your own.
Brian

I agree, makes a lot of sense!

For example, $20/year x 1000 fans is already $20,000. Nice part-time living, but best keep your day job. But at 5000 fans, that would be $100,000 per year, so that's the start of building a potentially full-time sustainable business.

This could be just one CD sale per fan, per year plus some live shows and maybe some video or other merch sales, etc. Obvioulsy it could also include download sales from digital distribution. If you can include publishing to the equation, you could probably double or triple your sales revenues via various commercial licensing deals, either on your own or through services like Taxi and PumpAudio, etc. That could bring your revenues up into the $200k "ball park" per year. Again, this is assuming a solid fan base of 5,000 people with a mix of CD, concert, merchandise and licensing sales.

Is it any wonder that major labels may want to invest in your "act" once you get to that level? Of course not! If you get that far on your own and if they feel your act has further growth potential, they are likely to make an offer to sign you. The key is to make sure it will be a fair deal for yourself, not just for the next year or two, but for the next 5 - 10 years and maybe beyond!

Michael

There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself. -- Johann Sebastian Bach

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