Jump to content

Net worth of bands and singers

markstanco

By markstanco
in Music

 Share

Recommended Posts

markstanco

markstanco 12586

Posted
Posted

May be an interesting thread.

 

I was curious of some of the bro country bands and looked up a few. I was shocked that Eric church was only worth 14 mil. Luke Bryan is 160 mil and I get that. Florida Georgia line is 60.

 

Old school George strait is 300 mil. Hank jr? 45 mil.

 

Others that I like and looked up:

 

ZZTOP: dusty is worth 60. Billy too.

 

Aerosmith: Steven Tyler is worth 150 mil.

 

Ozzy: 220 million.

 

Zeppelin as a whole is 900 million. Which I don’t get at all where that number comes from.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 46104

Posted
Posted

Why exactly do these numbers surprise you?

For starters, the big money flow to artists has always been songwriter royalties, but in the modern era, "sales" means nada and touring and advertising revenue is everything.  I don't know if the latter means that the split among band members becomes more even than before -- I'd like to think that would be the case.

I'm not sure why you're surprised Led Zeppelin is "only" worth 6X what Steven Fucking Tyler is worth.  The bigger question might be why ZZ Top isn't worth more than they are, and certainly more than Ozzy.  I'll go ahead and posit that Billy & Dusty are well more valuable than a pair of FL-GA Lines.

That said, I have no idea if your numbers are accurate. so oh well.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
markstanco

markstanco 12586

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Why exactly do these numbers surprise you?
For starters, the big money flow to artists has always been songwriter royalties, but in the modern era, "sales" means nada and touring and advertising revenue is everything.  I don't know if the latter means that the split among band members becomes more even than before -- I'd like to think that would be the case.
I'm not sure why you're surprised Led Zeppelin is "only" worth 6X what Steven Fucking Tyler is worth.  The bigger question might be why ZZ Top isn't worth more than they are, and certainly more than Ozzy.  I'll go ahead and posit that Billy & Dusty are well more valuable than a pair of FL-GA Lines.
That said, I have no idea if your numbers are accurate. so oh well.

Oh, you are certainly correct on the number question. Just a few websites from the internet. They may be way off. I just went off in a wormhole and curious about bro bands and their net worth.
  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted

I ain't trying to sound too cool for school, but I have no fucking idea who Luke Bryan is, none.  Never heard of him.  And that he's worth 3x what ZZ Top is, is a fucking crime.  Socialism for shitty country music acts worth that much, now!  Take all his money and give it to Willie and the boys.

One of our VC deals has been dealing with a lot of mid-level bands over the last two years.  Bands that'll fill up a 3-5,000 person venue 100 nights a year.  Sell 50,000 copies of an album download.  Lotsa merch.  And then probably has 1 or 2 songs out there being used for a Hulu series episode or commercial, etc.  These are bands that would be on about the 3rd or 4th or 5th line of an ACL lineup poster.  After touring expenses and management and meticulous recording sessions, even with songwriter rights (publishing rights are the key to the whole thing)...I am shocked at how little these guys take home.  I didn't expect them to be multi-millionaires, but damn...some of them are net negative.  Even if you take an NPV snapshot of what their cash flow on royalties looks like going forward, most are living very middle-class lifestyles.  Probably doesn't help that they like to live in cool, expensive places.  But most have families, their wives work. 

They live pretty fun on the road, but at home---it's a vanilla lifestyle and the ones that open their books to us so we can improve their treasury management and push out their unlicensed content...a band you'd see on a big stage at ACL at 4pm?  The 4 or 5 guys in the band are grossing maybe $150-$250k/year.  Not bad at all, but just not what you envision them walking away with after their encore.  Really, really surprised me.  Bands have gotten much more control over live shows/touring.  That whole promoter industry was about as worthless as a realtor with a fax machine.  But they are still fucked when it comes to licensing and publishing rights.  Very Ripe for disruption, but it seems Luke Bryan has figured it out.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Hate

Hate 20138

Posted
Posted

When I am in the car I'll scan through the radio stations to hear new things that I wouldn't ordinarily listen to.  I have to force myself not to listen to the Grateful Dead or 70's & 80's country music.  I was scanning through the other day and landed on a "new country" station.  I heard the worst song I have ever heard.  Tell me what is "country" about this??  I could probably post another 20 videos of awful fucking songs and 19 of them would be "new country".  I'm sure there is a poster here that likes this, so come defend it.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Paul Wesley

Paul Wesley 3289

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, Hate said:

I was scanning through the other day and landed on a "new country" station.  I heard the worst song I have ever heard.  Tell me what is "country" about this??  

When the longhorn games were on the country station (?98.1), I would often get in my truck the day after a game, and get immediately assaulted by Bro country.  And I’m not even sure that station is especially focused on a younger “country” audience.  
 

I would listen for a minute, then think to myself:  “*This* is the worst song ever written.   And I would open my SoundHound app just to find out who it was.  
 

That happened so often that if a stranger were to look at my search history on the app, they would conclude that I have a strong affection for modern country that has loops of sampled drums and auto-tuned white guys singing about trucks, blue eyes, and the praises of simple people in small towns. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted (edited)

I don't see how Luke Bryan has amassed more than  1/2 of what King George has in their respective careers.

I couldn't tell you one Luke Bryan song.  It's not transcendendent at all.  Even casually, most people  can name a hit song from different genres

Either Bryan has a better management team/ agent or Strait basically worked for free early on.

Edited by slorch
Link to comment
Share on other sites
DalTxHornFan

DalTxHornFan 3116

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Lobo said:

I ain't trying to sound too cool for school, but I have no fucking idea who Luke Bryan is, none.  Never heard of him.  And that he's worth 3x what ZZ Top is, is a fucking crime.  Socialism for shitty country music acts worth that much, now!  Take all his money and give it to Willie and the boys.

One of our VC deals has been dealing with a lot of mid-level bands over the last two years.  Bands that'll fill up a 3-5,000 person venue 100 nights a year.  Sell 50,000 copies of an album download.  Lotsa merch.  And then probably has 1 or 2 songs out there being used for a Hulu series episode or commercial, etc.  These are bands that would be on about the 3rd or 4th or 5th line of an ACL lineup poster.  After touring expenses and management and meticulous recording sessions, even with songwriter rights (publishing rights are the key to the whole thing)...I am shocked at how little these guys take home.  I didn't expect them to be multi-millionaires, but damn...some of them are net negative.  Even if you take an NPV snapshot of what their cash flow on royalties looks like going forward, most are living very middle-class lifestyles.  Probably doesn't help that they like to live in cool, expensive places.  But most have families, their wives work. 

They live pretty fun on the road, but at home---it's a vanilla lifestyle and the ones that open their books to us so we can improve their treasury management and push out their unlicensed content...a band you'd see on a big stage at ACL at 4pm?  The 4 or 5 guys in the band are grossing maybe $150-$250k/year.  Not bad at all, but just not what you envision them walking away with after their encore.  Really, really surprised me.  Bands have gotten much more control over live shows/touring.  That whole promoter industry was about as worthless as a realtor with a fax machine.  But they are still fucked when it comes to licensing and publishing rights.  Very Ripe for disruption, but it seems Luke Bryan has figured it out.  

I'm with you on Luke Bryan --- never heard of him and don't care.  I have clients and friends in the music business.  They write and perform to satisfy their artistic talents and such, but what they are really interested in is having stuff that they've written used in commercials, movies, or TV shows.  That's where the money is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Don Johnson

Don Johnson 4755

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Why exactly do these numbers surprise you?

For starters, the big money flow to artists has always been songwriter royalties, but in the modern era, "sales" means nada and touring and advertising revenue is everything.  I don't know if the latter means that the split among band members becomes more even than before -- I'd like to think that would be the case.

I'm not sure why you're surprised Led Zeppelin is "only" worth 6X what Steven Fucking Tyler is worth.  The bigger question might be why ZZ Top isn't worth more than they are, and certainly more than Ozzy.  I'll go ahead and posit that Billy & Dusty are well more valuable than a pair of FL-GA Lines.

That said, I have no idea if your numbers are accurate. so oh well.

I actually am surprised Steven Tyler is only worth $160 million.  Aerosmith has sold as many records as the Rolling Stones, with him being the primary songwriter (minus their only #1 song - that song from Armageddon).  Plus he does a ton of advertising and TV appearances, American idol etc.

Maybe he pissed a lot of it away on drugs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DalTxHornFan

DalTxHornFan 3116

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, Don Johnson said:

I actually am surprised Steven Tyler is only worth $160 million.  Aerosmith has sold as many records as the Rolling Stones, with him being the primary songwriter (minus their only #1 song - that song from Armageddon).  Plus he does a ton of advertising and TV appearances, American idol etc.

Maybe he pissed a lot of it away on drugs.

“I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol and wild women. The other half I wasted.”  ― WC Fields

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Deej

Deej 76897

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Don Johnson said:

I actually am surprised Steven Tyler is only worth $160 million.  Aerosmith has sold as many records as the Rolling Stones, with him being the primary songwriter (minus their only #1 song - that song from Armageddon).  Plus he does a ton of advertising and TV appearances, American idol etc.

Maybe he pissed a lot of it away on drugs.

He pissed it away on scarves. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
CooterBrown

CooterBrown 18022

Posted
Posted
I don't see how Luke Bryan has amassed more than  1/2 of what King George has in their respective careers.
I couldn't tell you one Luke Bryan song.  It's not transcendendent at all.  Even casually, most people  can name a hit song from different genres
Either Bryan has a better management team/ agent or Strait basically worked for free early on.

Did George write any songs? A quick Google shows 7 song credits to his name. No singles.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, CooterBrown said:


Did George write any songs? A quick Google shows 7 song credits to his name. No singles.

Did Luke Bryan write any...( real ones)

 

But yeah, good point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ztejas

ztejas 43528

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 8/12/2021 at 10:44 PM, markstanco said:

Zeppelin as a whole is 900 million. Which I don’t get at all where that number comes from.

Any artist that went multi platinum in a short span - even just 4-5 million globally - and had a radio hit or two pre 2005ish is a millionaire or was or could have been. Very easily. Probably even without songwriting credits. As jimmyjazz pointed out in the first reply, the equation has drastically changed since people quit buying CDs - and especially post iTunes.

Led Zeppelin has sold over 200 million albums. Wiki actually lists the range as 200-300 million. Most if not almost all of that was pre streaming era. They're also probably one of the most 5 radio played artists ever and I'm assuming they did well to keep their songwriting and radio play royalties mostly to themselves. 

I'm not sure how one exactly rates a band's net worth - but if you had asked me what I thought Plant or Page were worth I would have said 200+ easily. Sounds like it might be more than that. 

Edited by ztejas
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ztejas

ztejas 43528

Posted
Posted (edited)
17 minutes ago, Underdog said:

You have to wonder how many artists have been screwed over by their agents and lost a shitload of money like Willie, BJoel, etc... 

So, so many. 

And then you have people like Prince and Diddy that are ruthless businessman that turn it upside down and fuck over the labels and agents. 

Also people like Kanye that are mentally ill and terrible with money but somehow parlay their influence into multi billion $ shoe deals. 

Edited by ztejas
Link to comment
Share on other sites
billfromlaketravis

billfromlaketravis 11522

Posted
Posted
On 8/13/2021 at 9:21 AM, markstanco said:

When it comes to bro country, he is their king. 

202 million views: 

 

Yes Luke Bryan is Bro Country, but women are listening to his music. 

I saw Bryan at the Houston Rodeo and it was a completely unremarkable performance. As we were walking out my wife turns to me, and she said, "I figured out why he's so popular. His songs are easy to sing along to." I think she nailed it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Aqua Buddha

Aqua Buddha 14600

Posted
Posted

I've said this relating to other genres and industries and I'll say it again.  A list celebrities and athletes in America are significantly wealthier than the average person understands.  Sure, Joe and Jane Jerk Off know they're rich, but they don't understand how rich and part of the image of average A lister is to downplay that.  It's one of the subplots to the Scarlett Johansson/Disney lawsuit right now.  Disney is airing the dirty laundry about the level of money.  While she's not quite woman of the people, she doesn't want it known she was going to make $50M until they picked her and and she comes in with the FUPM.

Another good example is Megan Markle.  People wondered why'd she'd give up "all that" but in reality she could make 10 times more.  An A-list actress can easily make hundreds of millions of dollars through salaries, endorsements, business deals, back end residuals, etc.  Jennifer Anniston is easily worth $500M.

The more interesting example is pro athletes.  Twenty years ago, they made good money but not YUGE money.  Now, Chris Paul has already made $330M and by the end of the next contract, he'll be at roughly $440M.  He likely makes $10-$20M/yr in endorsement deals.  Bron is another tier higher.  Hell, even Dak Prescott makes $30M on the field and another $30M off.  

As for these music guys, the real money was made back in the day in regards to album sales, especially with the classic rock crowd.  A lot of them sold the same album on record, tape, CD, and then download.  Never ending stream on the same songs.  Now it's tiled towards touring so there's a bit less money involved but if you're dumb fucking lucky enough to translate cross channel, then that's where the real money is.  Blake Shelton makes $26M per year and has for awhile.  Kelly Clarkson is something like $20M.  Some spare like Luke Bryan tours a lot so he's prolly pulling down $20M depending on how it's structured.  However, in country, is VERY important to maintain that "man of the people" bullshit.  That matters there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Not a cat

Not a cat 5688

Posted
Posted

How in the hell would anyone have any idea on an entertainer's net worth?  I mean, they could figure out how much money they likely earned but a lot of artists don't tend to be the best savers/investors. And they're not government officials or officers of publicly traded companies that have to do filings about their holdings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gil Bang

Gil Bang 26000

Posted
Posted
On 8/13/2021 at 7:33 AM, Hate said:

When I am in the car I'll scan through the radio stations to hear new things that I wouldn't ordinarily listen to.  I have to force myself not to listen to the Grateful Dead or 70's & 80's country music.  I was scanning through the other day and landed on a "new country" station.  I heard the worst song I have ever heard.  Tell me what is "country" about this??  I could probably post another 20 videos of awful fucking songs and 19 of them would be "new country".  I'm sure there is a poster here that likes this, so come defend it.

 

More like Sam Cunt, amirite? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
trza-hawk

trza-hawk 269

Posted
Posted

The vast majority of musicians in human history made no money at all. The period of certain musicians making money is a small part of musical history. Like for a very brief moment in time a handful of musicians made money. Then most of them spent it all or were cheated out of money or did too many drugs and lost it any way they can. Its like athletes who play professionally and then two years after their career ends more than half of them are broke.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...