- cross-posted to:
- music
For the majority of artists, making music is financially unsustainable. According to a census conducted by the Musicians’ Union, nearly half of working musicians in the UK earn less than £14,000 a year from their craft, while a further half have to sustain their careers with other forms of income. It’s easy to imagine that these are the aspiring performers making tunes in their bedrooms and moonlighting as bartenders, but even household names are turning to alternative income streams.
British singer Kate Nash announced on Thursday that she would start posting pictures of her bottom on adult website OnlyFans to raise money for her tour. The Foundations singer has nearly a million monthly listeners on Spotify, and is playing all across the UK, including a sold out gig in London, but says that touring is a loss making exercise.
She started her “Butts 4 Tour Buses” page in order to ensure “good wages and safe means of travel for my band and crew”. Nash would rather you gawk at her gluteus maximus than listen to Foundations on Spotify. “No need to stream my music, I’m good for the 0.003 of a penny per stream thanks,” she told her followers on Instagram.
For an independent solo artist to make the UK living wage they would need 9 million streams a year. But most artists need far more as revenue is split between bands, with record labels often taking a hefty cut.
While Spotify can provide a reliable if paltry source of income, touring is only profitable for musicians playing big venues to sold out crowds. A survey conducted by rehearsal space network Pirate Studios found that only 29% of artists make a profit from tours. Rising costs and a flailing economy have exacerbated this, and a government report earlier this year found that artists are facing a “cost-of-touring” crisis, with travel, accommodation and food prices all higher than ever.
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With her backside hustle, Nash follows in the footsteps of Lily Allen, who started selling pictures of her feet on OnlyFans over summer. She had the idea after seeing that her feet had a perfect five star rating on WikiFeet, a photo-sharing foot fetish website. Subscribers pay £8 a month to access her posts. In October, Allen claimed that shots of her well-pedicured trotters were earning her more money than Spotify streams – and that’s saying something, considering Allen has over 7 million monthly listeners and more than a billion streams on her top three songs.
- Mr Poletski ( @MrPoletki@feddit.uk ) English2•1 day ago
Eventually we’ll only have female artists, who the hell is going to pay top dollar to see bon jovis hairy sweaty arse?
- OrlandoDoom ( @OrlandoDoom@feddit.uk ) English17•3 days ago
If you want to support artists, try bandcamp, it has streaming but it’s more of a “try before you buy service”, and money goes directly to the artists’ accounts. Mp3/flacs with no DRM or just stream as much as you like. For an old-head like me who still has an SD card and a headphone jack on my phone, it’s perfect.
- apotheotic (she/her) ( @apotheotic@beehaw.org ) English8•3 days ago
It doesn’t quite go direct to the artists accounts except on Bandcamp Fridays. But its a hell of a lot better than the majority of the other options even without that.
- The Cuuuuube ( @Cube6392@beehaw.org ) English7•3 days ago
bandcamp gets the crown for “most least worst.” i’ve even met a few artists who say they prefer fans to stream on bandcamp to spotify or qobuz because they make enough more money per purchase than per stream, and enough streams convert to purchases, that they get paid more the more people are listening on bandcamp
- apotheotic (she/her) ( @apotheotic@beehaw.org ) English2•3 days ago
For sure. I try to buy all the music that I enjoy on bandcamp if possible, because as you say a purchase goes a lot further for the artist than any number of streams I might do over my lifetime.
- OrlandoDoom ( @OrlandoDoom@feddit.uk ) English1•3 days ago
I try and buy albums at shows mostly! They don’t put ridiculous markups on stuff at small shows, but some venues want a cut of merch sales too, which is why I’m assuming some venues you can’t get a band shirt at for less than 30 quid. I could be wrong about this if course, but I have seen it at bloodstock where bands were literally just chucking merch off stage because they would have had to pay hundreds of pounds to have merch up in the festival shop.
- OrlandoDoom ( @OrlandoDoom@feddit.uk ) English1•3 days ago
Well, bandcamp bill their cut later as far as I’m aware, but when you buy an album you are paying into the artists PayPal account, you even see a partial email address. Unless that system is somehow lying.
- Zip2 ( @Zip2@feddit.uk ) English12•3 days ago
Hang on, she’s never going to be able to sell out a big stadium tour, so she’s effectively raising money for a tour that won’t make money….
Am I missing something?
Or is this just purely advertising for Kate Nash’s arse photos as that’s her new and only way of making any money?
The cracks are starting to show.
- Mr Poletski ( @MrPoletki@feddit.uk ) English1•1 day ago
The cracks are starting to show.
SNORT
- apotheotic (she/her) ( @apotheotic@beehaw.org ) English18•3 days ago
People like to listen to their favourite artists live. She is raising money to make that a possibility without having to underpay the people involved or break her own bank.
Not everyone does everything for money. For a lot of artists, musicians included, they do it for the love of the art.
- Zip2 ( @Zip2@feddit.uk ) English7•3 days ago
Thank you, that makes sense. It’s a “I’m just trying to break even” thing.
- apotheotic (she/her) ( @apotheotic@beehaw.org ) English3•3 days ago
Exactly
- slurpeesoforion ( @slurpeesoforion@startrek.website ) English1•2 days ago
So uh… Got a link?
- Zip2 ( @Zip2@feddit.uk ) English2•2 days ago
You can here, but I couldn’t find them.
- slurpeesoforion ( @slurpeesoforion@startrek.website ) English1•2 days ago
Sexy
- apotheotic (she/her) ( @apotheotic@beehaw.org ) English8•3 days ago
More power to these ladies, sex work is thankless. I do wish the music industry was in a better place to where people didn’t have to subsidise it with a secondary gig, even as heavily established professionals in the music industry.
- JokeDeity ( @JokeDeity@lemm.ee ) English6•3 days ago
Corporations are vile and cruel, more at 11.
- Dudewitbow ( @Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip ) English12•4 days ago
I don’t necessarily say it is or isnt spotifies fault, but how I see it is music kinda changed due to the digital age. Before the digital age, most people mostly needed to get into, or the eyes of a record label to get anywhere, and that had its fair share of dirty laundry (e.g whats happening with P Diddy). The digital age flipped the book around, where being able to publish music nowadays is extremely easy, but the problem is you’re competing against a wave of other users. It’s also significantly more expensive to do live concerts nowadays too (which is completely separate from spotify) as more and more concerts are getting canceled
- smeg ( @smeg@feddit.uk ) English3•3 days ago
What do record labels actually do in this day and age? Artists don’t need their capital to produce physical media anymore, so is it just promotion? Are artists able to make promotion deals with the likes of Spotify so they can at least cut out one of the middlemen?
- frazorth ( @frazorth@feddit.uk ) English1•3 days ago
Spotify is the labels and the middlemen.
- smeg ( @smeg@feddit.uk ) English1•3 days ago
The article implies otherwise
- Wanderer ( @Wanderer@lemm.ee ) English11•4 days ago
Don’t know why sexual content is so distained.
Thought with the liberty movement in the 70’s, near 50 years later no one would be bothered.
- mannycalavera ( @mannycalavera@feddit.uk ) English10•3 days ago
According to a census conducted by the Musicians’ Union, nearly half of working musicians in the UK earn less than £14,000 a year from their craft
Interestingly just under the income tax threshold. So you could quite easily set yourself up as a Ltd with you as the director and sole employee, claim the full income tax threshold as the employee and live off the dividends as a director whilst saving tax there too.
I wonder if these musicians have considered a more tax efficient route for their craft? What a crazy idea. Of course musicians are famous for assiduously paying all the taxes they can.
Someone with more time than me might be interested in looking up the holding companies for Kate Nash or Lilly Allen and checking out their finances. 🙃😄.
- BeardedGingerWonder ( @BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk ) English1•21 hours ago
I’m lost, if they’re under the threshold why would you need to set up a company to make yourself under the threshold?
- mannycalavera ( @mannycalavera@feddit.uk ) English1•18 hours ago
That’s not how it works. It’s not about setting up a company to make yourself under the threshold. They’re only under the threshold because of how they’ve structured their finances.
- Set up company.
- Be director of company.
- Also be only employee of company as a separate legal entity.
- Get people to pay the company for any work the employee (i.e. you) does.
- Pay the employee (i.e. you) a maximum of just below the threshold for income tax each year.
- Anything else starys in the company.
- The company pays the director in the form of dividends (i.e. you) at a reduced tax rate any extra money it may have collected.
- You’ve saved income tax entirely and you’ve reduced your tax liability on anything else.
Here’s Kate’s registered companies which are free to look up online by anyone. Whilst Kate the employee scrapes by under the tax threshold and has to graft on Onlyfans, Kate the director is in charge of a company that at the year end 2023 owed £164,586 (2022- £172,382) to the director (i.e. Kate).
- BeardedGingerWonder ( @BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk ) English1•16 hours ago
Sorry, I’ve misunderstood I thought you were talking about the average musician earning £14k.
- badelf ( @badelf@lemmy.ml ) English8•4 days ago
Anyone who listens to Shitify, even if they don’t pay is supporting the royal ripoff of artists. I pay for a service that offers a much higher quality stream, and actually pays royalties.
- apotheotic (she/her) ( @apotheotic@beehaw.org ) English2•3 days ago
What service would that be?
OnlyFeds - new instance funding model: Admins gone wild. The feddit.uk one would be a bit like Calendar Girls meets Austin Powers.
- Fleur_ ( @Fleur_@lemm.ee ) English2•3 days ago
Ughh another women forced into sexual acts wrapped up in empowerment and feminism story.
- NigelFrobisher ( @NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone ) English2•3 days ago
I already avoided this step by simply wearing arseless chaps onstage.
- Dagwood222 ( @Dagwood222@lemm.ee ) English5•4 days ago
[off topic?]
Andrea True was a porn actress who achieved success as a disco singer.
- Blackmist ( @Blackmist@feddit.uk ) English2•3 days ago
If anything it should be a warning about signing bad record contracts. If I make something at work and they sell it, I don’t continue to get paid if I do no more work.
She’s a millionaire from past work. She doesn’t have to sell her body on Only Fans. She’s doing that for a laugh. Frankly it makes a mockery of the platform for the people that do use it to make a real living.