How much do we really know about music monetization over the course of the centuries?
I guess it's the topic of our time, isn't it?. The end of the physical record buried a business model that has struggled ever since and doesn't really seem to evolve. Although it is undoubtedly true that anybody can make and release music nowadays, monetizing, at all levels, became much harder. At the same time, we never had so many active music artists making a living out of music, given a specific time in history. Therefore, if all that glitters is not gold, it ain't probably that bad either.
The History of Musicians Making Money from Their Art
Throughout history, music has always been a central part of human culture, but the concept of musicians making money from their art has evolved significantly over time. According to some digging I did, for a consistent part of human history, we could say music was no job at all (or at least the modern conception of job). A hint of this? Still today, in several countries (my homeland and the one I'm living in included), if you tell somebody you're a musician, you'll be asked in return "ok but what's your real job?" That says a lot about the current conceptual inheritance we're carrying from one generation to another, whereas this question is probably born by one underlying major assumption: does it provide, to be a full time musician?
Locating ourselves in space and time will give us a wider view of what it's been for most of the time and, perhaps, it might help us resetting our mindset and perspective which are the real barriers to change and adaptation. All historians and musicologists seem to agree that the very first form of support for music and musicians was patronage. In ancient civilizations like the Egyptian (5.000 years ago), the Greek (3.000 years ago) and ancient Rome (2.000 years ago), music was indeed a vital element in religious ceremonies, celebrations and daily life. An artist would be financially supported by wealthy patrons or religious institutions. That means that, no matter how many people were listening and participating to a ceremony or music event, the money wouldn't come from the audience (that today we'd call fans). It was rather one or few patrons who, by recognizing the talent of such artist, they provided him/her the means to live and make music, allowing the community to benefit from it.
In ancient Greece for examples, musicians were often employed by the state or wealthy families to perform at public events and private gatherings. The choice of who to sponsor and who not based almost entirely on the talent, skills and artistic "touch" of an artist. There was no doubt that to aspire to have a patron or contractors, the music artist had to be physic and artistically capable to perform something that no one else or very few others could.
During the Middle Ages in Europe, the Catholic Church became a significant patron of music. Monasteries and cathedrals employed musicians and composers to create and perform sacred music. These musicians were often monks or clerics who received sustenance and shelter from the church in exchange for their musical contributions. Secular musicians, such as troubadours and minstrels, traveled from court to court, earning money through performances and patronage from nobility. In this case, we can say that the former (those hired directly from the Church) were the most similar to today's "established" artists with a safe pay and a stable contract. Regardless of the amount of wealth and social recognition one composer/musician could achieve while alive, at least he/she wasn't probably starving.
On the other hand, troubadours and minstrels were artists who had somehow supported their own studies on their own and, lacking of one big wealthy patron, they tried to carry on gig by gig, assignment by assignment. At a certain moment, one could become the "court minstrel" for example, but in general, it was a much more unstable way of making a living out of music. I also believe these kind of artists would need, from time to time, to accept unrelated extra jobs just to have their needs met.
The Renaissance and the Birth of the Professional Musician
The Renaissance period (14th to 17th century) saw the rise of the professional musician. With the growth of cities and the emergence of a wealthy merchant class, there was an increased demand for music in both public and private settings. Composers like Josquin des Prez and Claudio Monteverdi began to receive commissions from wealthy patrons and institutions. The printing press, invented in the mid-15th century, also played a crucial role by allowing for the mass production of sheet music, which composers could sell. Musical notation had been invented around the year 1000 by the Italian monk Guido d'Arezzo. Let's stop for a while just to better understand what this implied. Before music sheets could even be produced it is fair to say that each performance was unique in its own way. The composition was inside the performer's head that bound him/her to no "original" version of something. Whether it was popular music or own composition, the concept of "origin" version of one given song wasn't at issue.
Musical notations first and then the printing press gave a tremendous boost of spreading works that now could be written and then passed onto multitudes and future generations: the role of the music composer now becomes very important. Both because the added revenue stream (royalties deriving from the reproduction and sale of music sheets) and also because one composer's work could now transcend his/her death. In this era, we begin to have a similar impulse to the well known contemporary one of "producing something that stands out", in terms of sales and public resonance. A patron, whether public or private, would pride to be sponsoring a real time renowned musician or composer and this sparkled up the search for new talents and the attempt to secure those who were profitable and recognized.
The Baroque (1600-1750) and Classical (1750-1820) eras saw further developments in the music industry. Composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven found various ways to monetize their music. Public concerts became more common, and ticket sales provided a new revenue stream. Additionally, composers sold their compositions to publishers, who would print and distribute the music. Patronage was still significant, but musicians increasingly sought financial independence through public performance and publication.
The 19th century marked a turning point with the rise of the virtuoso performer. Musicians like Franz Liszt and Niccolò Paganini became famous for their extraordinary skills and began to tour extensively. These tours were highly profitable, as large audiences paid to see their performances. The industrial revolution also contributed to the development of a music industry, with improved printing technologies making sheet music more accessible to the public.
At this moment, I wish to point out something extremely relevant, before stepping into the 20th century. Concerts and performances were the only way one could listen to music, or at least these composer's music. If we exclude any self taught or non-professional musician who could entertain him/herself or their social circle for a while or the bards on the streets, if you wanted to see and listen a Paganini, Bach, Mozart, Liszt etc you had to pay the ticket to one of their concerts. You could have gone to a performance where the music artists, having bought and studied these composers music sheets, offered his/her version of their music. Still, you physically went to a place where music always existed in its "live format". I absolutely love to make this mind exercise because for us, nowadays, this sounds crazy. We surely can understand it, but the quantity of pre-recorded music we're flooded with every day makes it quite hard to imagine. Besides, the curiosity to see a genius musician performing super virtuoso stuff was indeed a catalyst for people to go and attend concerts. Again, there was no other way then physically go and see the music you listened. Today, we can comfortably watch a video on YouTube, sitting on our home's couch.
The Early 20th Century: The Advent of Recording and Radio
The early 20th century brought significant changes with the advent of recording technology and radio. In 1877, Thomas Edison phonographs invention and Guglielmo Marconi's later telegraph discovery brought to a major revolution: music and musicians are no longer bound to a physical space but the audience could experience and listen to their talent and amazing works anywhere, anytime, repeatedly. They could now reach a broader audience through phonograph records and radio broadcasts. This era saw the rise of the recording artist, with musicians earning money from record sales and radio royalties. Iconic artists like Enrico Caruso and Bessie Smith became household names, and the music industry began to take shape as a significant commercial enterprise. Records and radio coverage catapulted the artist and whoever owned the rights of the recorded music into a whole new world of opportunities and revenues. One artist's reach expanded even further than he/she could physically imagine.
The mid to late 20th century is often considered the golden age of the music industry. The introduction of new formats like vinyl records, cassette tapes, and CDs created additional revenue streams. Record companies played a pivotal role in discovering, promoting, and distributing music. Artists like Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson achieved unprecedented commercial success, earning substantial income from record sales, concerts, and merchandising. Also, let's never forget that music, like any other aspect (and in this case business) in human life, relies on the surrounding economy. After two world wars, the western world is experiencing a moment of growth, fueled by freedom ideals and democracy beliefs. All dictatorships which had shaped Europe ended and the capitalism model quickly took over, generating unprecedented capital flows and morale. Between the 70s and the late 90s, a record deal was estimated to be around 250.000 $. Reaching a sale target of 100.000 copies yielded 1.000.000 dollars. You can understand how massive the return of investment was, back in the day. You do the math for those records that sold millions and millions of copies (not to mention all other royalties generated by radios, concerts and TVs). Yes, we should not forget the TV. After the record and the radio, when the TV starts to spread in people's houses, we have an added incredibly powerful tool: the power of visual and the power of "I've seen it on TV".
To build a superstar you needed a combination of different factors: awareness, which means that a large number of people should be practically aware this artist exists; repetition, which "plants" the seed of something that might go unnoticed the first or second time. Human mind and biology assimilates by repetition so, the moment I can play a song over and over again on the radio and on TV, I have a much more effective way of pumping a message into people's head. The sense of unreachability made us see someone as he wanted him/her to be seen. By putting someone under a spotlight, in movies, TV programs and all sorts of formats, we human beings tend to place this person to a God level, rather than a horizontal one. That's where the worshipping happens. I can't worship someone that I consider at the same or lower level. Whatever "being at a higher level means" you need to create that to sell a star. This era provides all tools to do so, coupled with the old fashioned novelty: everything was new. Both the music, the possibility to listen to radios, the chance to see someone on TV, everything was being seen for the first times. We all know how novelty will always have a big impact on us.
The Digital Age: A New Paradigm
The late 20th and early 21st centuries brought the digital revolution, which dramatically changed the music industry forever. The advent of the internet, digital downloads, and streaming services transformed how music was consumed and monetized. Many of the reasons that determined the golden era explained above (physical records, radios, TV, novelty) and that manifested an astounding amount of money (thus, investment power) were rapidly hindered, if not killed (like record sales) in a few years. We shifted from a 4:1 average return of investment ratio to pennies, whenever the digital stream came in. We should not forget that, hadn't the streaming made its appearance, illegal downloads (thanks to the introduction of the mp3 format) were leading to preventing people from buying records they could easily download through piracy.
Regardless our opinion on the matter, no business behave well on the short term if its revenue streams plummet radically. I shall add (and I consider this ain't just my opinion), the peak of the golden era also triggered its downfall. According to human history, whenever something becomes so thriving and too much money and power are involved, corruption and thirst of more and more power always arise. So, if I'm sure there was a time in which capitals were put at artists' disposal in order to create, empower, break boundaries and expand our minds, those same capitals, as they skyrocketed and became ludicrous triggered the exact opposite pattern. An environment in which the vision gets replaced by the performance, the hunger for discovery by greed, networking and connection by control and submission. Considering the latest unraveling allegations against Diddy and the whole circle, I guess we all understand what this all means.
Is the end of an are the end of all things? No, not at all! I specifically wanted to write an article about this matter so that we can all touch base with one very important aspect: music always existed and always survived. Like the famous quote by Prof. Malcolm in Jurassic Park "life always finds a way", so music will. Have no doubt about it. For my mentoring program "The Aware Artist", I did a small research about the current figures of music artists in the world. They don't mean to be super accurate but they surely give us a hint of the bigger picture. We can roughly estimate that, to the present date, there are at least about 10.000.000 active music artists in the world. The 11% of these is making a living out of music. The multimillionaires are nothing but a bunch, probably not exceeding 200 in total. That is fascinating because if we look at the music business in terms of percentage, it surely isn't that good. Only an 11% of all those who try wouldn't definitely be considered good odds.
However, we can look at the same figures in absolute numbers: to date, there are around one million people in the world who are making a sustainable living out of music. I don't know if you agree, but to me this is amazing! One million people. There was no way back in the day, even during the golden era, all these musicians were able to live off their passion and love for music. You either were "making it" through the traditional business model (label investment and record sales) or music was just a hobby.
The present is finally the moment, the gateway to build a more horizontal business, one which I'm sure will increase both the absolute number, thus the percentage. As I wrote in my article about the "non-viral multiverse", we are not trading one business model with another but it's more likely that the present and the future of music monetization will embrace different sources, not necessarily all at once. The concept of patrons for example is already back (think about some platforms like Patreon, Kickstarter etc) whereas direct support from fans and patrons will grant artists the means to make music.
One thing is sure and about to stay: the concept of community. Regardless what your source(s) of income will be, your primary goal is to think in terms of brand, expressing values, set up a vision and build a community around it. The internet is an unprecedented route to achieve that. Yes, one might never be able to play in front of thousands of people, for a bunch of different reasons; yet, your music and art can be seen and listened by thousands, millions. We might experience crazy paradoxes, like having millions of followers and not necessarily being economically rich; like performing Instagram or TikTok live feeds in front of thousands and then not being able to sell enough tickets for a physical concert. All these paradoxes can and will coexist.
Yet, the major breakthrough for me is this: now we CAN make music independently, which opens up the doorway to our authenticity, to our healing and therefore, to ease other's. Earning a salary from art ain't a birth right and, as we saw it, it's never been easy. Feeling entitled to it is a very superb and self-centered attitude. My personal experience says and proves that if you make yourself bearer of values that are also, not only, expressed by your music, thriving is inevitable.
I hope you can embrace your journey with such mentality and vibration because it's definitely what the world needs most.