A number of amazingly popular artists/musicians have topped the charts with their singles but continue to turn out lower-than-expected sales, however, they manage to stay afloat by placing their reach into other industries. I'd say this puts the "album dependents" at a disadvantage as artists like Mos Def, Alicia Keys, Beyonce and T.I. continue the trend with their involvement in similar ventures such as acting, producing, forming labels, endorsements, and fashion. My friend even jokes about it by saying he's about to just distribute music for free and get paid advertisements within his lyrics. He calls it Google Rap.
New comers, like Robin Thicke, Yung Joc, Hurricane Chris, T-Pain, and the infamous Soulja Boy, who also top the charts with hot singles, have spread to ring tones and ringback tones. But should artists add value to the music market or should they continue to explore multiple outside-revenue streams?
Besides well to do Beyonce and JT, the most popular artists, in my view, meagerly attain barely-platinum status (T.I., Lil' Wayne, Rihanna, and R. Kelly and Jay Z) after showing sales of 3x, 4x, even 5x platinum in the past. Meanwhile, the film industry begins to recoup from a 5 year dip and another media megatron is soaring. Let's look at the numbers, shall we.
Select top artists:
Rihanna - platinum, T.I. - barely platinum, 50 cent - 1.1+ million sold
Alicia Keys - 800K+, T-Pain - 750K+, Jay Z - 550K+ (with Kingdom Come at 1.4 mill)
Take an average of $12 per unit at a high of 1.4 million, sales top off at $16+million. Unfortunately, many still receive a less than appropriate 15% of this bread which still has to be broken off to producers, sound engineers, and management. With high profile beats that can run you up to $80K per song, you're sure to see just how small that can become, relative to the work put in. That's a seasoned artist. Soulja Boy and Hurricane Chris are seeing numbers range from 337K+ sold to under 50,000.
Select top films:
- American Gangster - $115 mill and growing
- Superbad - $121 mill
- Rush Hour - $140+mill
These numbers have attracted all types of talented artists and advertisers alike, yet they still are no match for their multimedia cousins,
Select top games:
- Halo 3 - 3.7+million copies
- Gears of War - 4 million
- Wii Sports and Wii Play - 11.86 and 6.32 million copies
And overall franchises topping off at 65 million for GTA (Grand Theft Auto), 60 million for Madden NFL and 47 million for Gran Turismo. Not quite getting the picture? Remember, these units can go for $59.99 a piece, and Halo selling at (let's say) 4 million, that would put sales at over $235,000,000, for one game. Sure it has re-use value but doesn't music albums have that as well. I see it waining more and more as music begins to become a less valuable product and more a tool for other industries like advertising, film and-yes-video gaming. With numbers like 65 million copies sold-consistently, each project franchise brings in billions.
This is definitely where artists want to tap into the most. For artists have the advantage, to a degree. They can tap into gaming and film yet the two cannot return the favor. You can't feature a film trailer on an album or video games on an LP but artists can feature in a popular film scene or game as a character or background music. If more artists were to take a 50 Cent approach to this industry by deep involvement, they could grow to sustain each other through cross-marketing and investment potential. I'm not saying music is falling apart, I'm just taking a corporate bird's eye view and making sure you know where the money is. Don't look at me, compare the figures.
