[indigochill]

I've never heard of a musical group or artist who can make a sustainable living on just a local scene (although maybe that's rather the point, since they stayed local to wherever they are). Even for huge artists, from what I've heard merch is where the money is, not ticket or record sales (or today, streaming, which is _ludicrously_ tilted against the artist actually making any money). Admittedly I last looked into this around twenty years ago and my sample is tilted more towards the folk singer-songwriter type rather than, say, DJs.

That's not to diss local artists, though. Some are incredibly talented, and I loved the scene I was in it. Just, if we're talking about investing, making music looked like 9 times out of 10 a money sink you do for the love of it, not an investment opportunity.

[StackRanker3000]

> Even for huge artists, from what I've heard merch is where the money is, not ticket or record sales

That’s not quite true. It’s an extreme example, but Taylor Swift’s personal earnings from her current tour is expected to end up in the billions.

Back in the day, touring was something of a marketing tool to sell records, today the records are marketing for the tours (and they build hype, which yields sponsorships and so on). Merch is an important revenue stream, but a large chunk of that is sold on tour.

[saberience]

That's like saying you should take VC money because you can end up being like Mark Zuckerberg. It's a 1/50'000'000 sort of case or perhaps even less likely.

[StackRanker3000]

I wasn’t suggesting anyone do anything, I was mostly trying to point out that large acts can make a lot of money on touring. Most make very little, if any at all.

[throw_nbvc1234]

Agreed but using examples like Taylor Swift in music is far off from focusing purely on (exited) unicorns when talking about VC. You have to look outside the 99th percentile to find generalized insights.

[StackRanker3000]

If you look outside the 99th percentile, you won’t find anyone living off their music career.

[ipaddr]

Plenty of musical groups make a living locally and not only pop music. If you play a classic instrument you get opportunities for festivals, parades, weddings, local shows. Joining a marching band can pay for your schooling for example.

Many classic rock bands with members in their 40/50/60s perform live, have a local following and make good money without selling CDs.

Cover bands are often local and make good coin without album sales.

Then you have musicians performing children who get paid.

You are never going to be a pop star or a VC rocketship company but few are. But you can make a solid living just performing locally.