What’s happened to the money, money, money?

THE death of the pop music industry has been predicted for years – certainly since Apple launched a whizzy device called an iPod back in 2001.

The rise of free or pirated music online and the declining sales of CDs has at the same time been wielded as a cautionary tale about the power of the internet. Still, this week’s comments by UK pop star Lily Allen may finally confirm that any aspiring rock guitarists or pop singers might as well pack away their dreams and find a proper job.

Referring to herself singing the soundtrack to a retail stores’ Christmas advert: “Everyone assumes I made millions from the John Lewis ad. I probably made £8000 (about R144000).” The singer’s cover of Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know made it to number one on the United Kingdom charts last year.

Allen, who took a four-year break to bring up her children, has claimed that pop stars now make most of their money from turning up to awards ceremonies and product events.

“Now that people don’t buy music, we have to find other revenues,” she said.

South African record label, TS Records co-owner Thembinkosi Nciza echoed Allen’s sentiments, saying there had been a tremendous decline in music sales over the past five years. The multi-award winning record label has artists like DJ Sbu, Ntando, Zahara, Lungelo, Andrianto, Riot and Nhlanhla in his stable, who have all made a name for themselves in their genres of music.

“Sales have been bad for some time, I’m not talking about any particular artist but it is general. Since 2009, just before the recession, sales dropped,” he said, adding that many folk, predominantly the younger generation, downloaded music for free on the internet. “The piracy element plays a very big role and its hurting the music industry.”

Nciza said many artists depended on shows hosted by government to earn their livelihood.

Soulistic Music artist Culoe de Song agreed there was a decline in sales but said social media could be used to keep artists in business. “We are able to interact with them directly. As the majority of our income comes from music shows and gigs, through social media interactions we are able to market these shows,” he said.

“The music is in the market and now the question is how do we get them to buy the hard copy? We need to come up with ways of getting them to buy, instead of downloading for free,” he said.

Veteran musician, Clive Bruce, said times had changed and these days most artists survived on the proceeds from their shows.

“There used to be sponsors who would help artists but now there are just a few, so we need to go out there and perform. We all need money to stay alive and this is what we love,” he said.

Charts in the United Kingdom that track sales across the entire entertainment industry – albums, films and video-games – put together by the Entertainment Retailers Association reveal the top-selling product in the UK last year was the video-game Grand Theft Auto V, which sold 3.67 million copies, followed by the DVD of Skyfall, the James Bond film, which sold 2.96 million copies.

You would need to go down to ninth place before you hit anything melodic – and that would be Now That’s What I Call Music! 86, which scraped just over one million units. The only other music in the Top 20, in physical or electronic format, is Now That’s What I Call Music! 85.

Only a decade ago – the days when Dido, Coldplay and James Blunt were hit machines – it was not uncommon for an album to sell more than three million copies. None other than pop’s biggest female star, Beyoncé, complained on her latest album, singing: Soul not for sale?/ Probably won’t make no money off this?/ Oh well.

Queen Bey even makes the credibility-stretching claim that she is going to have to work nine to five to stay alive.

The problem is that people just do not buy music in the quantity that they used to. They either pick and choose the odd single, or they stream music on services such as Spotify or YouTube, often free of charge.

But this does not mean that musicians will be forced to become buskers. Indeed, Allen’s candid assessment hints at how some musicians still make a comfortable living, despite falling sales.

Touring has long been the most lucrative way of making money for the big stadium acts, such as the Rolling Stones and Elton John. Now the global recession is over, ticket prices are on the up and new acts, such as One Direction, are cashing in.

And these events are an opportunity to sell merchandise and push the brand.

The days of a Rolling Stone baseball cap are over. Taylor Swift has three different perfumes to her name; Rita Ora, who has recorded just one album, has polka dot shorts, necklaces and an entire range of Rimmel London nail varnish in her stable of merchandise.

Pharrell Williams and Daft Punk not only spawned last year’s biggest single, Get Lucky, but also a brand of Get Lucky condoms.

It is no secret that pop stars can cash in when they are invited to perform at the birthday party of some Russian oligarch or Saudi princess – Lakshmi Mittal paid Kylie Minogue an estimated £315000 (R5.5-million) to sing for half an hour at the wedding of his daughter. Jay-Z and Beyoncé each charge £1-million (R17-million) a night.

One music agent says: “I get these offers coming in quite often – and they are fine for a pop act, who have only a few years to milk it for all it is worth. But for a proper music star, you can forget it. Their fans would never forgive them.” — The Daily Telegraph, with local reporting by Poliswa Plaatjies