How much do SA musicians earn?

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philthom

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Anyone have an idea how much the average SA musician earn or where to get info on such information?

I was at one of those free workshops hosted by Paul Bothner and was surprised to hear from one of the guys teaching that he is a full time musician. This is a local band that does mostly cover songs, so I presumed it's just a part-time thing at most for these guys.
 
That's not a simple question to answer.

It's like asking how much does a race driver earn.

Who do they play for? How often do they tour? Do they do session work? Who is their target audience?
 
Some earn a lot but the market is much smaller so its harder to crack a decent living.
 
Well I was in contact recently with AKING to have them play a private gig. Long story short, you have to pay for their accommodation /transport and pa rental. Came to about 60K. Though I doubt that answers the question
 
I play in a metal band, and in the 9 years I've played in a band I have not seen a cent from any gig I've played. Anything we as a band earn goes right back in to advertising, merch and petrol for our next gig. It's impossible to calculate the average earnings per band/artist of any one particular genre as well, as each band/artist charge different rates as well, so there is no easy way of guessing either...

What I will say though is, most musicians I've met, regardless of genre or status have some form of "day job" that supports their music habit ;)
 
Considering the quality of music in this country? Far too much. There is literally a handful of SA artists that should rightfully be able to walk away from their 9-5's and do music full time. Literally one hand.

The Parlotones were paid R30K a piece when they signed for Universal I believe. Heard that from the one members dad.
 
Inn3rs3lf said:
Considering the quality of music in this country? Far too much. There is literally a handful of SA artists that should rightfully be able to walk away from their 9-5's and do music full time. Literally one hand.
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You obviously have no idea how much hard work it is and how people have no idea of the costs involved for a full band.

The Parlotones were paid R30K a piece when they signed for Universal I believe. Heard that from the one members dad.
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Probably a signing bonus (i.e. once-off), but that info is probably just bad.
 
Interesting how this topic came up today, Whilst taking firstBornMoose for driving lessons earlier, the topic came up of what career to go into one day.... we discussed a friends child who is in Matric and wants to study art next year..... I explained to FBM that it;s nice to go into a field that you enjoy, but it helps you nothing when you hit 50 and retirement is just around the corner and you ain got a dime saved coz your job did'nt provide a good income...

I used a mate of ours, FBM has met him, he is a musician , professional, released two CD's , without mention the band, played overseas in front of 100 000 people.... class act, but that gig only lasted 2 years.... sure he's travelled, seen the world, had a blast.... and is now back in SA, he plays a few gigs a week, and judging from the pics only plays in front of small crowds of about 30 pax. Last gig was a wedding....

Now this guy, has talent, a magic guy, salt of the earth, but there are at least another 10 guys in the country that play the same instrument just as well...... cannot see how he is going to make an income out of playing music..... the market is just so tight....what happens when he hits retirement age?

Food for thought!
 
Inn3rs3lf said:
I know first hand how much it costs, how much time it takes, and how many sacrifices are made.
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Your comment is then a very strange one. If there is no money in the industry it's never going to grow and we're not going to get many top class artists.

There are far too many underpaid musicians (and ones that have had to leave the industry because they couldn't make a living).
 
Mortymoose said:
Interesting how this topic came up today, Whilst taking firstBornMoose for driving lessons earlier, the topic came up of what career to go into one day.... we discussed a friends child who is in Matric and wants to study art next year..... I explained to FBM that it;s nice to go into a field that you enjoy, but it helps you nothing when you hit 50 and retirement is just around the corner and you ain got a dime saved coz your job did'nt provide a good income...

I used a mate of ours, FBM has met him, he is a musician , professional, released two CD's , without mention the band, played overseas in front of 100 000 people.... class act, but that gig only lasted 2 years.... sure he's travelled, seen the world, had a blast.... and is now back in SA, he plays a few gigs a week, and judging from the pics only plays in front of small crowds of about 30 pax. Last gig was a wedding....

Now this guy, has talent, a magic guy, salt of the earth, but there are at least another 10 guys in the country that play the same instrument just as well...... cannot see how he is going to make an income out of playing music..... the market is just so tight....what happens when he hits retirement age?

Food for thought!
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It's a very personal decision. Some people will be happy to die clutching their guitar, others have to hope they marry somebody rich :D
 
Inn3rs3lf said:
Considering the quality of music in this country? Far too much. There is literally a handful of SA artists that should rightfully be able to walk away from their 9-5's and do music full time. Literally one hand.

The Parlotones were paid R30K a piece when they signed for Universal I believe. Heard that from the one members dad.
Click to expand...

I remember even after they played with Metallica they still worked at the bank (They worked at my bank)

Took lots of endorsements before they left their day jobs, even so they are suing their management agent because they cut them out of a lot of stuff and got a bad deal. They make money now because they have album sales and tour a lot. (or did)

I know their are small time guys that make a living out of it, cover bands that will play anything. You get a lot of gigs that way and you work hard, you wont ever really be big but it pays the bills.
You bring some CD's in a box and sell them at the gig, its not big money but if you want to be a musician then that is how to do it.
 
Local musicians do not make a lot of money. Some may earn good royalties from CD sales, depending on how popular they are, but even those sales alone do not offer them a 'decent' livable salary. Our do not have access to the number of supporters, for instance, their US counterparts have, which also leads to less income.

I know of a local band who were taken abroad by a very famous actor and now movie director, but personal problems lead to them splitting up abroad and they never got the 'fame' this actor / director had in mind.

I am sure that everyone of them has some or the other daily work they do, in addition to singing. This is not a big industry in SA. The only people really earning millions are the managers and distributors.
 
I think that some of the top Afrikaans artist makes allot of money. Big market for Afrikaans singers in this country. For example Kurt Darren and others. The more gigs you do, the more money you make. CD sales also helps allot. And most important a very good Manager.

The downfall is the pirating of CD's and DVD's. Illegal copies getting sold on the streets and flea markets.
 
johnstede said:
I think that some of the top Afrikaans artist makes allot of money. Big market for Afrikaans singers in this country. For example Kurt Darren and others. The more gigs you do, the more money you make. CD sales also helps allot. And most important a very good Manager.

The downfall is the pirating of CD's and DVD's. Illegal copies getting sold on the streets and flea markets.
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Yes, they do make tons of money. They generally get paid more than the bands and usually profits get split a lot more in their favour when compared to a band set up.

Pirating doesn't affect local artists as much as you think, at least not for artists with deals with record labels. They hardly see any profits from CD sales anyway as most of it goes to the record label. It will affect independant artists a lot more though as they usually see most of the profits from CD sales.
 
Small bands or low profile artists can charge from R400 to estimate of R5000 while artist like Black coffee gets an average of R65k to R100k per gig
 
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