Thereis There is an interesting article in Time magazine about how much money a young band is spending to break it. Let’s meet a small New York band, ‘Two Lights’, fronted by two brothers, Abner and Harper Willis; they may just have about 756 followers on Facebook, and 94 on Twitter, but in just over a year, they have accomplished a lot:
‘Our first single has played on major radio stations in New York City’ and our ‘hometown of Portland, Maine. A Fortune 500 company wants to use our music for a marketing campaign. We've gotten notice and good reviews in the indie pressin New York and abroad.’
‘We've been mentored by former British rock stars, posed for photo shoots, hung out with models, worked with Grammy-nominated producers and rocked some of the top clubs in New York (places like the Mercury Lounge and the Highline Ballroom), opening for some of our favorite bands.’
How did they do that? First they took a good manager (who has helped break artistsl ike Blur and The Smashing Pumpkins), they took a booking agent, and from this they listed for the Time all the expenses they had to go through to launch their career:
-Training, guitar, piano and voice lessons: $30,000.
-Rehearsal: renting a space in Brooklyn is not cheap: $3,000.
-Gear: $25,000.
-Recording: $6,000.
-Performing, for taxis and traveling: $1,000.
-Promotion: $1,000.
-Lost wages, mostly lost hours put into band-related work: $25,000.
-Living in New York City,since this is where they want to break: $18,000.
Total(estimated) cost to date: $109,000!!
This got me thinking,… is this the price to pay to make it? This is incredibly unaffordable for most people, how are these guys finding this kind of money? One is still at school, the other one is a freelance writer, the only explanation I see is rich parents? A la Lana Del Rey?
The only song I listened to on their facebook, ‘Summer’ is fine (although it reminded me a little bit Coldplay at the beginning), but they are trying really hard to be rock stars. They seem to believe that success can be bought, and they actually rely very little on the potential value of their ‘indie’ music.
Only time will tell, may be they are totally right, may be there is a huge price tag on success in these days and age, and in this case, this business sucks!