The Future of Artist Revenue Streams

     As we pursue our dreams in this Digital Age, the Internet has equipped artists of all kind with the power to accomplish their career goals in Music, Art, Fashion, and Action. Crow-funding sites like KickStarter provide emerging artists the opportunity to acquire the funds necessary to fuel their passion and develop their craft. Corporate company cast-offs focus beyond brick-and-mortar and open up shops on Storenvy, Etsy, Shopify, and Big Cartel. Also, the torrent of streaming music services has erupted, with Spotify and Pandora creating a digital distribution platform for musicians and entertainers. Although there are many options for sourcing revenue, The Yacht Club Company specializes in providing quality artist merchandise as a fundamental tool in establishing a brand and growing your network.

     Listeners have flocked to this easy abundance of an all-you-can-eat model for music, but many musicians have been far less enthusiastic. According to Billboard and Canadian Business, a musician penned a frustrated screed noting that his BMI Royalty check showed that three song writers received 21 cents for 7,800 plays on Pandora and $1.05 for 5,960 plays on Spotify. That works out to per-stream royalties of $0.000027 and $0.0000176, respectively (Peoples, 2012). So for a small monthly fee or the occasional annoyance of advertisements, music lovers have access to a vast collective record library, which most likely includes your favorite artist. Forcing artists to rely less on record sales and focus more on building a brand and revenue stream through artist merchandising.

     As CD sales continue to decline, music merchandise is becoming an increasingly essential piece of artists’ revenues. According to Rolling Stones, Arena headliners like Tom Petty and Mötley Crüe get multimillion-dollar advances for signing deals with merchandising and apparel companies to manufacture their items. Concert tees, especially black ones, remain the best-selling products for artists (Hiatt, 2006).

     We have had the unique opportunity to create artist merchandise for several local artists, including Ariel Hill, Laura Reed, Alex Saad, KDSML, SOSA, White Noise, and many more. We are committed to providing excellent quality in all that we do while maintaining our environmental integrity throughout our screen-printing process. In our effort to bring people together to experience something so much greater than the individual, we encourage artists to create a tangible asset to their music and build a brand through artist merchandise.

Feel free to visit our website to learn more about our company and mission to impact the world through Music, Art, Fashion, and Action. If interested in artist merchandising or apparel printing, please contact us at ContactUs@TheYachtClubCo.com.  

Barmak, S. (2013). Can't stop the music. Canadian Business, 86(1/2), 67.

Christman, E. (2013). Pandora's Bigger Slice. Billboard, 125(26), 4-6.

Hiatt, B., & Knopper, S. (2006). The Big Business of Rock Tees. Rolling Stone, (996), 10.

Peoples, G. (2012). The Myth Of The Penny Pinchers. Billboard, 124(44), 10.