More than One Way to Make Money in Music
November 29th, 2005 . by Jilly
I came across this BBC article on Prefix.
Do you remember Looper? They are a little known, electronic side project of Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart David. They did something that I think is really cool. They’ve given up on selling their music to consumers after making 500,000 pounds from one of their songs being used in TV commerical and movies. The band says they’ve made enough from the song to support themselves for the past five years, and can now just give their music away to fans rather than worry about selling it. So while labels try to make money by distributing rootkits, some bands are pursuing other strategies.
From the BBC article…
“The four of us have been able to live on this song for the last five years.”
The band are currently working on an album which fans will be able to download from their website for free.
“I am pleased that Looper didn’t take off in a big way – it’s not good for you in the long run, I don’t think.”
Their songs have been used in a Xerox commercial and in the movie Vanilla Sky. Some people may look at using their music for commercials as selling out, but I don’t see it that way. They found a way that they can quit their day jobs and make music. They’re living modest lifestyles if the 4 of them could split the 500,000 pounds and live on that for 5 years (that averages to about $42,000 a year per member).
Hearing all this, makes me love these people even more.
