Devil’s in the Downloads: High Cost of Making It in Music
Written by Ana Balashova for Kill the DJ
The idea of “selling one’s soul” has been a repeated theme in the music industry. Many would argue that it’s just a metaphor for sacrificing artistic integrity for fame and money. But can it be more than just a figure of speech?
The expression itself goes back to the legend of Faust, who made a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for knowledge and pleasures. Many musicians were suspected to have similar arrangements: from Niccolò Paganini to blues icon Robert Johnson and rock legends like Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, both members of the infamous “27 Club” (Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse a part of it, just to name few) were associated with dark forces in their music and deaths.
And there are more recent examples of well-established and generally not-considered-crazy artists who made some bold devil-related statements.
Bob Dylan has openly admitted to selling his soul. Katy Perry was pretty blunt about it, and Kanye West also proclaimed that he got a deal with a devil for all his fans to hear.
Even more explicit are performances and music videos with occult themes, like Lady Gaga’s casually swearing to Lucifer or recent “performances” by Sam Smith and Taylor Swift. Many “Swifties” reported that they don’t remember parts of the show after visiting Taylor’s concert, and that left hundreds of people speculating that some kind of hypnosis or programming was used during the tour.
And if you jump into the depths of Quora, you’ll find dozens and even hundreds of questions (and very detailed answers) on how to sell the soul to the devil for fame and money, specifically by aspiring musicians.
As Grammy-winning musician Tim Kubart reflects, “Oh boy, selling your soul. I can fully understand that, but I think it has a lot to do with one’s relationship to it and ourselves. I spent many years basing how I feel about myself on how much money I’m making from my music, how many gigs I have a month, and whether I get recognized on the street or not. I think it’s pretty clear that isn’t the answer to happiness, and when my self worth was based on that, it was easy to “sell my soul.” I was working seven days a week and taking any gig that would have me for a few dollars. I also think, like all entrepreneurial pursuits, you can ALWAYS be working. If you don’t have any job, you can be sending emails trying to find the next one. This is really tough to turn off. The truly unfortunate thing in the industry, though, is if you don’t think this way, there is a downside, and making a living as a full-time musician almost requires you to be not only full-time, but all the time. It’s a delicate balancing act I’m still working on.”
All in all, selling your soul to the music industry is a complex mix of ambition, sacrifice, and, sometimes, literal and metaphorical deals with the devil.
However, this article will not be about who, but rather how that happened and whether there is any way to become famous without soul-wrenching sacrifices.
The struggle is real
The music industry, especially when viewed through the lens of streaming platforms, can be rightfully called daunting for new artists.
Streaming platforms now account for 48.3% of global recorded music industry revenues, amounting to $17.5 billion in 2022. This has changed not just the way people listen to the music but the very economics of the industry, particularly in terms of revenue and contract negotiations.
Caley Rose, a Billboard-charting singer & songwriter, shared her perspective: “With the advent of streaming platforms came a significant decrease in how much money artists can make from streaming. Vanity metrics seem important for artists, so often comparing how many streams and monthly listeners you have on Spotify when, in reality, the amount of income you earn for even 1 million streams is extremely low; the payment for 1 million streams on Spotify can vary, but it is generally estimated to be around $4,000 to $7,000. This can hardly sustain an artist for very long.”
For most artists, the payouts are laughable since streaming companies have the monopoly to decide on the numbers. Take Apple Music, which is generally considered more generous than Spotify. Their payout can be as low as a measly $0.000365 per stream. That’s way less than the hyped-up $0.01 per stream that everyone talks about. And even that is only available when you “made it.” But how about everyone else?
In 2023, artists uploaded music that would play for 871.78 years if played back-to-back. Yet, despite such massive content creation, success remains practically unattainable, as 99% of artists struggle to break into the mid-level tier, let alone reach mainstream or superstar status.
The Knocks, a NYC-based duo of electronic geniuses that has been in the game for over a decade, know the struggle all too well: “We are not going to sugarcoat it. It’s bleak out there. We feel endlessly grateful to be still making music and touring after 10+ years, which in the music industry is certainly not guaranteed. We started out making hip-hop beats for acts like Mobb Deep, Dipset, and other New York rappers and DJ’ing at night to pay the rent for our shitty Lower East Side apartment. Then the dance music boom came and we were fortunate enough to build a fanbase during that era. We sold some tickets, signed record and publishing deals, got a bunch of syncs in tv/film and commercials, and somehow, the industry allowed us to be ourselves and make the shit that we thought was dope. If we were coming up now, we are not sure we could have had the same longevity without sacrificing creativity for the sake of the almighty algorithm. We feel for the artists coming up today! Obviously, the payment structure is objectively unfavorable to the artists and songwriters, but hasn’t it always been to an extent?”
