#42

Yeah, This is the article I’d read:

For Lewie, Stop the Cavalry still provides him with a good income 38 years later, not least because, as he explained to the Daily Mail: “The thing is, I do everything on the track. I write the lyrics and the melody, so that’s all of the publishing. And because I’m a musician I can do all the backing track, so that’s all the recording royalty. I was a one-man show.”

#43

I think Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know earns them this EXACT amount of bunce per annum.

#44

Maybe a song like Smile by Lilly Allen is closer to that number. I don’t know why I’m writing in this thread though because I haven’t got a clue. How much does Usher make from Climax?

#45

dunno, but he gets about 2m streams a day on Spotify, the Climax video has 80m views and there’s a bunch of cover versions with hefty views on yt as well. I reckon Diplo gets more from Climax than Usher though

#46

Usher’s ‘Yeah’ must still make a shit ton of cash though - they’re still using it on T-mobile ads in the states

#47

Remember that every artist will have negotiated contracts differently with their labels and publishers so it’s never just going to be a case of money from streaming/licensing/downloads going straight to them. The reason Geoff Barrow makes fuck all from streaming is that he probably signed a bunch of crap contracts back in the day and then has to split it three ways + give up cash to whoever he sampled.

I’m guessing something like Intro by the XX, Teardrop by Massive Attack, Are You Gonna Be My Girl? by Jet, etc all make their writers more than enough to live on. They’re songs that regularly get placed on adverts, TV, and are still in the public conciousness.

2 Likes
#48

don’t forget all the samples on their tracks too

etc

#49

A ‘fun’ and sort of related game me and my housemate have started recently is guessing how much musicians/bands are worth or earned in a specific year, then looking it up* using Companies House.

*it’s obvs not gonna be entirely accurate and it depends on the musician or band operating as a ltd company, but it’s interesting how much info you can work out eg James Blake paid himself dividends of £266k in 2016, but only £133k in 2017.

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#50

I was recently doing this with The Knife actually. Very healthy bank balance

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#51

Literally said that in the post m8 but yeah.

Quite often the publishers of these songs will ask for considerable percentages of the royalties which probably doesn’t seem like a lot at the time but comes back to bite you later down the line.

#52

Am i the only person who’s not heard of Stop the Cavalry by Lewie?

3 Likes
#53

sorry yeah, skim read there

the standard is 25% for a cleared sample these days so two samples on a track & that’s half the money gone. Uncleared will end up being 100%…which is what happened to Puff Daddy and why Sting makes such a packet from Every Breath You Take

#54

Quite possibly.

#55

Based solely on its rotation on Kisstory I would say What Would You Do by City High must be in this bracket, and that’s with the Dre sample taken into account.

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#56

Ahaha. I have heard it. Didn’t know it by its proper title. Worst Christmas song of all time. Oompah Lumpah bollocks.

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#57

Post uni, my first job was temping at a gas-pipe company. One of the fellas who worked in middle management there was the former guitarist of 90s alt-rockers EMF. So I can safely say that writing credits on the hit song ‘Unbelievable’ were not enough to comfortably live on.

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#58

Awful, awful shout.

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#59

Four Tet is also doing v well for himself.

#60

Who remembers this?

got to #3 in the charts that did

1 Like
#61
1 Like