There is a chance that your next single could go worldwide… maybe not.
If you are an independent/underground recording artist then you may have to adjust your strategy and take a leap from album-based releases to single-based releases. It’s a strategy that’s working for a lot of recording artists that leads to increased organic audience engagement.
This organic engagement increases if the artist continues to put out good music on a consistent basis while marketing and promoting the music to the artist’s loyal fan base while gaining new listeners at the same time. Organic audience engagement is where you get heard and discovered.
To be known organically by your music and establishing a loyal fan base is very rewarding in itself on so many different levels it’s mid-blowing but that’s another article. Being faithfully consistent is the key to keeping fans coming back for more.
Back in the days, an artist actually had to sell albums to earn gold or platinum awards from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). But nowadays, the RIAA finally announced that they’re catching up with how fans actually listen to music which is on-demand streaming, on-demand video and on-demand audio platforms which counts toward gold and platinum status.
In order to reach gold or platinum status, the RIAA has created a new formula: 1,500 streams is now the official equivalent of ten single track sales or one album sale. (Gold status is awarded after the equivalent of 500,000 sales; platinum, on 1,000,000 sales.) Theoretically, if an artist’s single were streamed 1.5 billion times on YouTube, the whole album could be certified platinum.
Gold & Platinum general requirements
The RIAA recognizes the following Digital Single Award tiers:
Gold – 500,000 Units
Platinum – 1,000,000 Units
Multi-Platinum – 2,000,000 Units (increments of 1,000,000 thereafter)
Diamond – 10,000,000 Units (increments of 1,000,000 thereafter)
Units are defined as follows:
– Each permanent digital download counts as 1 Unit for certification purposes.
– 150 on-demand audio and/or video streams will count as 1 Unit for certification
purposes.
MUSIC SALES MEASUREMENT: Nielsen SoundScan
In addition to monitoring radio airplays, online streaming and music consumer behavior, Nielsen SoundScan is the authority in tracking what music people are buying both in-store and digitally. Nielsen compiles data from more than 39,000 retail outlets globally, to help record labels, publishers, artists, artist management and performance rights organizations understand what albums, singles and music videos people are buying, and where they’re buying them. Nielsen’s data serves as a major source for the Billboard charts and is widely cited by numerous publications and broadcasters as the standard for music industry measurement.
FINANCIAL PAYOFF
So, let’s say that you price your album at $5 per album and sell 50,000 copies for one year in which the earnings would be $250,000 and then all of your financial woes would be over. Theoretically, you would have to sell 4,166 copies per month which would be $20,830 in earnings per month! Wow, now back to reality. For an independent or underground artist to at least earn the U.S. minimum wage per month would mean being paid $7.25 per hour and earn $1,160 a month (working full-time at 40 hours a week). Since July 24, 2009, the federal government has mandated a nationwide minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. As of January 2018, there were 29 states with a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum.
Most, if not all, independent artists have another source of income like a full-time job which means the artist is already at a disadvantage because of the time missed to fully market the album and perform live shows. The independent artist has to market, promote and perform part time which is can be very hectic and stressful. I don’t know about you BUT when it comes to earning an income from my own music sales, on-demand streaming, on-demand videos and digital downloads, earning minimum wage sounds great to me if it’s consistent. I would love to market my album and singles by working for myself part time earning the U.S. minimum wage ($7.25/hr x 20 hours/week = $145 weekly; $290 bi-weekly and $580 monthly). Supplementing my income while growing my audience will hopefully lead to my part time job being so successful that it will take over and be my full time career!
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