Yesterday’s post focused on musicians helping non-profits. Today we want to talk about a non-profit that helps musicians — namely, the Future of Music Coalition (FMC). For over a decade, this organization has become a well-respected think-tank and advocate for the issues that face artists in the modern era. They’ve taken strong, informed stands on issues like Net Neutrality, performance rights legislation, and health insurance for musicians. Now, they’re undertaking a serious research project to shed some light on an issue that’s near and dear to our hearts: how artists make money.
In 2009, the FMC published an article identifying 29 different revenue streams that a modern artist could conceivably draw revenue from. Many industry and technology experts herald these diverse revenue streams as signs of the bright, shiny, profitable future that is replacing the old model. But the FMC rightfully asks, “How do these new streams REALLY impact artists’ bottom lines?” To answer this question, they intend to go beyond assumptions and projections, and actually analyze real data from real musicians. This forms the basis for their new research project, entitled Artist Revenue Streams (ARS).
Right now, the FMC is conducting interviews with a wide range of musicians, producers, and songwriters to learn how they’re earning money and how that’s changed over the past ten years, and in some cases reviewing financial data (anonymized so it can’t be traced back to the specific artist that supplied it). They will continue this intensive interview process throughout the spring & summer, after which they will move to a broader survey-based approach. At the moment, they are still accepting new participants for the interview phase. The only requirements are that the artist:
- must be US citizen or permanent resident
- must be 18 years or older
- must have creative or technical credit on at least 6 commercially released tracks – physical or digital. Qualifying tracks can be on one album or on a combination of albums.
If you’re interested in participating in this project, click here to learn more and scroll to the bottom of the page for application information. We strongly support the FMC’s efforts to demystify the cloudy world of artist compensation, and we eagerly await the results of this study. No matter what they say, we’re certain it will be enlightening.
