That “All About That Bass” Kevin Kadish Article

An article got passed around the other day with the main quote being…

“For a song like All About That Bass, that I wrote, which had 178 million streams. I mean $5,679? That’s my share…That’s as big a song as a songwriter can have in their career and number one in 78 countries. But you’re making $5,600…How do you feed your family?”

I agree, this isn’t enough money for the streaming success of the song.

But I want to show you that the main problem isn’t with the streaming services.

Follow me…

Take a fictitious independent band, lets call them The Fun Boys.  The Fun Boys distributed music through a digital distributor called TuneCore…they get it on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Google Play, etc.  

TuneCore takes 30% off the top, deposits the rest into your artist account, and then you or your business manager disburses the funds as pertaining to who owns what percentage of each song.

Based on actual TuneCore data that I have seen with my own eyes, over the course of the last 4 or 5 years, a band like The Fun Boys will NET .4 cents (or $0.004) per stream.  

So if The Fun Boys had a song that garnered 178,000,000 streams (multiply that by $0.004)…that would net them $712,000 after TuneCore takes their cut.

Keep in mind, The Fun Boys are independent, so they don’t have a label (who would likely be taking the common 50%) and they don’t have a publisher (who would likely be taking 25%).

So in order to get to more common ground with All About That Bass, lets say they did.

With the label taking 50% and the publisher taking 25%, that leaves 25% left for the writers of the song…which equals out to be $178,000.

If there are two writers in The Fun Boys (like there are for AATB), they would split that chunk, each getting $89,000.

So in our example, if the two writers in The Fun Boys had written All About That Bass independent of label and publisher, they would have received $356,000 each…or if both a label and publisher were involved, they would each receive $89,000

So why is Kevin Kadish only receiving $5600??? I have no idea.

It’s not because the song isn’t generating way more than that.  Maybe he signed some bad deals along the way.  Maybe he signed some good deals but there are just too many hands in the pot.  Maybe he’s looking at back-end mechanical royalties (which are far far far less on streaming) instead of the actual streaming royalty rate.

My point is this: Streaming is paying.

Maybe $89,000 still isn’t enough per the above example.  But streaming is paying.  And it’s paying much more than the numbers touted in the Kevin Kadish article.

I hope Mr. Kadish makes a lot of money from writing that song. He should.

But writers getting paid vs. the amount streaming services are paying out appear time and time again to be two completely separate problems.

p.s. You need to know exactly where every micro penny of your revenue is going so that when one of your songs gets 178 million streams there aren’t any surprises.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Annoying On Time Guy

Last week I managed a venue for the Americana Fest here in Nashville.

Quite a few really talented bands. Tons of great players.  Even a few exceptional front men/women.

But managing the venue, here’s what I’d like to pass along.

Be on time.

You know that annoying person in your band trying to get the trailer loaded up, trying to get everyone out the door, suggesting you take dinner to-go instead of sitting down so that you’re on time.

Yeah, he’s right.

His delivery might be annoying and naggy, but he’s right.

You might think he’s against you, or against the fun you’re having dilly dallying around, but he’s actually advocating for you and your career.

You need to be on time.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Walgreens: Be Well?

There’s a Walgreens right by my house.  I like that place.  I go there pretty often so I notice when things change.

A while ago I’m pretty sure the Walgreens corporate people had a meeting in a super expensive building to figure out what the cashiers should say at the end of the transaction.  A script for the interaction.  Something every cashier can say so they don’t screw it up.

After hours, days and probably weeks of deliberation and thousands of marketing and research dollars spent…

…they came up with “be well”.

Be well?

That’s the last thing the cashier says every time now when I’m done paying.

It’s super creepy.  Did I just accidentally join a cult? Nobody says that…except for people who are instructed to in order to keep their job, or are trying too hard.

Maybe if it were hippies from the 70’s I’d buy it, but no way.  The only time these people say “be well” is when they’re at work and it’s part of the handbook.

Doing/saying something consistent by command…forgettable and annoying.

Doing/saying something consistent by choice…revolutionary.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Good Players

It’s not necessarily always fun to listen to good players play music.  Depends on the tunes and the vibe.

But it’s always fun to play with good players.  Doesn’t matter the tunes or the vibe.

If everyone’s slammin, it’s fun.

It doesn’t get old.  Feeling the groove, hitting punches, melodies, harmonies, everyone’s ghost notes falling in the perfect places.

You can go for hours.

It’s always worth it to have great players. And to pay for having great players.  It makes life better.  It makes the music better.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

I Have To Check My Email

Email is a small, solvable problem.  

We receive an email from someone asking us something, wanting something, needing a response, needing our attention.  Who me?  Someone NEEDS me??

Instantly the most important thing in the world becomes emailing them back so we can complete the circle, responding to the need presented to us.

And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that.

It feels good.  I did something.  They needed me to respond and I responded.

But emailing (or tweeting, or facebooking) is often times just a socially acceptable way to procrastinate.

Because you should be doing something else, not checking your email.  Email is small.

You should have bigger problems you’re working on.  

You shouldn’t have time to turn around every time someone taps you on your digital shoulder.  At least not immediately.

Again, email is a small, solvable problem. So you should, in fact, solve it.  And you get a gold star (in your brain) when you solve that problem.

But don’t mistake a bunch of gold stars for the gold crown that comes with solving the big problems, doing the hard work, doing the long work.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

I do.

You do.

Everyone does.

That’s why the TV show with Regis Philbin worked.  So many people watched because we all share that desire so we could all sit on the couch and wish it were us up there.

It was a fun show, tons of excitement.  We cheered for the person on TV and wanted them to win because we wanted to win.

If they want to be a millionaire, and I want to be a millionaire…and then because of that they came to be a millionaire, then I think I can too.

But what if the show was changed up.

What if instead it was called “Why Do You Want To Be A Millionaire”

How different would that show be?  Really different.  It would probably be pretty boring.  Lot’s of people just saying “…ummm….hmmmm….it would be fun?”

We don’t all share in a similar answer for that question, if we have an answer at all.

There probably won’t ever be a TV show called Why Do You Want To Be A Millionaire, but it’s still the far more important and valuable question.

And go ahead and relplace Millionaire with Rockstar.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com