MTftSB: what song, do you reckon, earns its writer enough for a comfortable* annual income (say, £35,000pa) on its own?

For example: do you reckon the writers of '74-'75 by The Connells earn enough in royalties to not have to earn a second income?

*Obvs £35K pa might be a very comfortable income in some parts of the country and a very uncomfortable income in others.

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No, I really don’t think they do :slightly_frowning_face:

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22 Grand Job by The Rakes

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Do you know them?

I thought we agreed that all incomes make us uncomfortable

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There was an article about a band a while back, can’t remember who they were but we’d consider them moderately successful and it was explaining how they had to work part/full time and take money from their families to keep going.

“A Portrait of the Trequartista as a Young Man” probably nets Gazza around that much P/A

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jeff barrows off the portisheads reckons he’s made about 500 quid off of streaming

You’re right though

After the release of Old School Dropouts , George Huntley left the band to spend more time with his family and begin a career in real estate. Mike Ayers was added in George’s place on lead guitar. Meanwhile, Peele Wimberley briefly played with another band called Parklife, and then moved to Los Angeles to pursue interests in Hollywood and in electronic music. He is currently a member of the Los Angeles band, The Lamps. David, who lost his first wife to cancer, remarried and has a career in landscape painting and art shows, and brother Mike is practicing law in Raleigh. Huntley is now selling real estate and working part-time at the University of North Carolina music department

Parklife :thinking:

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I wonder what the threshold is though? I’m thinking particularly in terms of one hit wonders. I know that yer man from Slade does alright from Merry Xmas Everybody but that’s an extreme case.

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I thought you were commenting on the unnecessary wordiness of my post

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Thinking of writing a hit single and retiring?

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I think the canon of Christmas songs closed in around 1994. People have tried since but it’s typical boomer behaviour, they’ve climbed the ladder and then burned it for the rest of us*

* obvs in this example Brian Harvey is a boomer

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Each radio play gets the writer about £35, a play on TV about £80…

The Darkness must have done alright

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Don’t Let The Bells End is not canon imho

wonder how much Toploader get seeing as it’s a cover.

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It depends whether you include licensing as well as royalties etc.

Christmas songs that were hits before the age of streaming (and which therefore had a higher audience penetration) are much more likely to get repeat plays on the radio, albeit for just a month or two a year. Jona Lewie, for example has said that Stop The Cavalry makes him around £150K every year from radio plays and the like.

I remember reading an interview with The Knack where the two songwriters said that they could live off the royalties alone from My Sharona fairly comfortably.

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Reef - Place Your Hands

Still sells like 700-1000 downloads a week

https://twitter.com/PlaceYourHands/status/1113476234892251145

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