Everything on the Interwebs is true:
http://en.mediamass.net/people/steve...hest-paid.html
Everything on the Interwebs is true:
http://en.mediamass.net/people/steve...hest-paid.html
I would have to imagine at this point in time Justin Bieber has more money than Jon Anderson. Plus, this list seems to focus on only American and UK performers. I'll bet there are at least a couple wicked rich Asian singers.
Really? I'd be very surprised if that was so. Pop stars seem to make a lot of money very quickly, but there are a lot of ways to soak up that money before it gets into Bieber's hands. I see that he's smart enough to get his name into the writing credits, though, so maybe he isn't as green as some of these youngsters, or has someone protecting his interests.
One per-center! Burn Him!!!!
High Vibration Go On - R.I.P. Chris Squire
A friend of mine, Adam, was Stefan Lessard's college roommate. I always kind of thought it was B.S. until the day Stefan called the store we worked at and asked Adam if he wanted to be on the guest list for their show in Camden, NJ. Adam got me on the list as well and we went down and got the full rock start treatment. Parked right in front of the main gate, gave the guy at the door our names and got all access passes to the green room, back stage and 5th row center seats. After the show, we went to the after party which was on the loading dock behind the venue. There was a large trailer that one of the busses towed that opened up into A MARTINI BAR. Any kind of martini, as much as you wanted, free. There were also waitresses dressed as flappers passing through the crowd taking drink orders. I met most of the rest of the band briefly. I saw Dave, but didn't get to meet him. NOBODY gets to meet Dave, I guess. You either already know him or you don't. The guy who was enforcing that rule was one of the biggest human beings I've ever seen.
We went and hung out on Stefan's bus for a while. He had rented it to the Pussycat Dolls for their tour and they had it redone in pink and black leather, but it was still AMAZING. Yes, each member has his own bus, but they all rent them out when they're not on the road. The band also owns all of the semis (ten or twelve, I think) that move the gear, and all of the staging and lights. They rent that stuff out, too, so it's a constant revenue stream when they're not on the road.
Smart guys, mostly really friendly, GREAT players, but I really don't like their music.
My point exactly. And I get the impression most successful musicians who "live comfortably" do so from the publishing revenue, as opposed to record sales, etc.
And publishing revenue is apparently one of the main reasons why a lot of successful bands break up, ie the rest of the band figures out the one or two guys who are writing most of the songs (or at least whose names appear in all the bylines) are seeing more money than they are. And that can cause problems, especially when there's hit singles involved. Then the entire band starts fighting over whose song gets to be on the next single (apparently, that was a big issue with the members of Queen, for instance, it's been suggested that John Deacon "broke his vows of silence" at some during the A Night At The Opera to register the point that he really wanted You're My Best Friend to be "the next single" or whatever).
I remember John Entwistle suggesting that he started writing songs for Roger Daltrey's voice rather than his own, as means of getting more songs onto The Who's albums. I think it was less a matter of him believing his songs were as good as Pete's (actually they were usually as good as Pete's, and in the case of Face Dances and It's Hard, better than most of Pete's songs on those albums) and a more a matter of trying to get more publishing revenue.
And of course, if somebody covers a particular song, you see some revenue from that too. In the instance of Venus, Robbie van Leeuwen isn't just seeing money from the Shocking Blue version, he's also seeing money from the Bananarama version, as well as any other recording that exists of the song.
This is also the real reason why some bands list all the songs as being written by the entire band, not because all four or five band members jointly write everything, but because if everyone's sharing the royalties and therefore quells the "He's making more money than me" argument.
I recall an interview with Gregg Allman about this very thing. They were all hanging at his place in the early days, when someone found a $9,000 check uncashed and just laying there. Gregg didn't seem too concerned, until he found out he was the only one getting checks like that. He changed writing credits from there on.
Granted, I read that interview more than 20 years ago, so some details might be off.
All this is very true--publishing is a "BIG DEAL" and I aways make this clear with bands doing new albums. It may not be a massive deal at the time but if anyone biggish in terms of sales ever covers you or you have a "fluke" success, then it can become a real can of worms depending on how its registered for publishing. Record royalties are usually a shared experience unless their is a main guy and he pays the others as "session players" --but publishing always goes to the songwriter/s and/or composer. Ive dealt with several bands who had not registered it at all and had no comprehension they were losing around 0.45p a CD and extra for gigs etc. Thats why there can be hugely varying circumstances between band members. Writing the material is where the moneys at for the lucky ones.
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