In It For The Money

In it for the money

So you want to become a songwriter to make money? Songwriters are rich right? All you do is sit around strumming a guitar don’t you?

This blog isn’t a rant. It’s not even designed to put you off becoming a songwriter, it’s just to clarify a few of the myths bandied around by people that have little insight into how a songwriter earns money.

This is a long blog. If you’re not thinking of becoming a songwriter, then it may be the most boring thing you’ve ever read. Apologies for this!

The first thing I want to say is that I didn’t get into songwriting to earn money. I wrote songs because I had to. I couldn’t stop myself. I took my guitar on holiday. I was always thinking about song ideas and melodies. I actually got into songwriting to travel.  I worked out that bands play places. Touring is a way to see parts of the world that you never thought you’d see. It’s worked out pretty well on the travel front. I’ve played shows in glamorous places and shows in absolutely terrible dives in the back of beyond. All these experiences gave me inspiration to write songs which gave me the opportunity to travel which gave me the inspiration to write songs which….. you get the idea. But money? It’s not easy to make a living as a songwriter (and why should we really, it’s rewarding enough right?). Here’s how it works.

Songwriters in the U.K make most of their money in three ways.

Every time a song I’ve written is played the radio I get paid.
Every time a song I’ve written is played at a show, I get paid.
Every time a CD (or download) is sold with a song I’ve written on it, I get paid.

Let’s explore this a bit more closely.

If a song I have written by myself is played on the biggest radio station in the U.K (Radio 2), I will receive about £60 for each time it is played.
This can add up to a lot of money if the song gets 100 plays (£6000)! For the smaller radio stations, I would earn significantly less. A few pence, up to a pound.

Best get a song on the radio then!

 Easier said than done. Of the 1500 or so songs that the big radio stations ‘Playlist’ every year only about 10% are written or co-written by songwriters. 90% are written by the band, or artist performing the song.  This leaves all the song writers in the U.K writing or co-writing the other150 songs. As most of these are co-writes between 2 or three writers the revenue will go down. If I was lucky enough to get a song I’ve co written in those 150 songs then I may get a third of £6000 (as I probably co wrote it with two other writers)
Which gives me £2000. Not enough for a helicopter, but luckily I have record sales to bolster the money… Don’t I?

For each CD album sold the writers of the record share 6.5% of the retail price. So the average album in the U.K costs £7 then all the writers share 45 pence between them. Say I’ve got one song on a 10 track album, I would earn 4.5 pence every time a CD is sold. If the record sells a million copies, I would earn £45000! Now I can buy a helicopter! Can’t I?

Unfortunately, only 4 records sold more than a million copies in the U.K last year. Out of the top 50 selling records, only 13 albums had songs written by songwriters who weren’t the artist or band. Out of those top 50 albums only about 50 songs were co written by songwriters such as myself.

Chances are stacked against me, as out of that 50 or so songs written by people like me in the top 50 selling records, about 30 were co-written with the artist or band. It would figure then, that unless you’re in a room co-writing with the artist it’s harder still to get a song recorded. Now, where did I put Amy Winehouse’s number?

Let’s say I was lucky enough to write with the artist and I co wrote a song on the 30th biggest selling U.K album last year (Will Young- 350000 copies) I would earn £7800. Of course if people illegally download the record instead of buying it I earn nothing (sound of small violin being played).

Are you still with me? Sorry, nearly there!

Finally, I also earn money if someone performs my song live. Unless this is on a big tour in big places, I don’t really earn anything as the payment is calculated on the total amount of money through the door that night. I do know that someone did perform a song I co-wrote in front of 35000 people and I earned about £200 from that performance alone so if you write a big song for a big artist then the big money arrives (I see a theme developing here)

O.K, I know that I could get a song in a film, TV series or on an advert and that would also earn money, and there are overseas markets and video games but I hope I’ve outlined the basics above.

The moral of this story is that songwriting can earn you a huge amount of money, and it’s the gift that keeps on giving. If you write a classic radio hit single that keeps getting recorded and played on the radio then you may start measuring out a helipad right now. However, if you wanted to earn the same as, say, a taxi driver does in a year you would probably need a couple of hit singles on the radio and 2 songs on a top 50 U.K album every year. No easy task when there are 10000 other writers chasing these opportunities too! So don’t get into writing songs for the money. Do it because you can’t live without doing it. Luckily, all the people i know that write songs do it because they love the process, the creativity and the travel, did i mention the travel?

Jez x