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"Finally
Getting Some Daylight"
On
April 18, the day before radio stations across the United States
would decide whether the newly remixed song "Daylight" would see
the light of day, singer/songwriter Mike Errico sent an appeal to
his fan base via his Internet newsletter.
"This
is a big day," Errico wrote, "and competition is tough, as always,
with Pearl Jam and Matchbox 20 also looking for spots. Please help
us out by calling in to your local station and requesting 'Daylight.'
Your call-in vote REALLY counts, believe me. They love to know that
they're playing what you want to hear."
What
fans want to hear is Mike's sexy, ironic, sometimes biting, always
soulful music, influenced by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Curtis
Mayfield, and Ani DiFranco.
Mike
Errico isn't a household name or a millionaire yet, but he's "signed"
with a record label, and fans recognize him on the street. The New
York-based artist has played at Woodstock, Sundance, and several
artist showcases, in addition to writing the theme to VH1's "Pop-up
Video." His contract with the Hybrid record label means he gets
an advance, royalties, at least one more recording after his debut,
Pictures of the Big Vacation, and an expense account that, among
other things, lets him stay in decent hotels when he's on the road.
To keep expenses down, Errico travels solo, taking advantage of
his range of musical talents and his love of solitude. In his set,
Errico sings and plays two acoustic guitars, harmonica, and a percussion
instrument inspired by an African tongue drum. In the studio, Errico
works with session musicians, performers who specialize in playing
on other musicians' recordings.
"It's
amazing how little changes when you're signed," he said. "I saw
this MTV 'Behind the Music' show with Mötley Crüe. One of the guys
said that if you calculated all of the time they put into the group
and the money they made, at an hourly rate, they probably would
have been better off working at Burger King."
Not
Easy To Become a Millionaire
Gig
fees: college circuit. According to Jen Cohen, a young, Nashville-based
pop and blues vocalist who travels with a band, a group in the top
tier in the college circuit can charge up to $1,900 per show if
it's a standalone act, with discounts for multiple gigs in one trip.
But for the performer who does not travel alone, there's a lot of
overhead cost. Band members get $200 per gig, plus a $15 per diem.
The agent gets 15 to 20 percent.
Gig
fees: nightclubs. Bands tend to lose money on nightclub gigs,
which pay $100 to $500 per show on average, according to Josh Dodes,
founder of the New York-based Josh Dodes Band. Out of that fee,
the band must pay expenses such as rehearsal space, transportation,
and publicity. One mailing to fans can cost $200. But club gigs
can build an audience, which helps a band work toward its goal of
getting signed.
CD
sales. A good performer can sell CDs at shows to about a third
of the audience, with an average audience of 30 people, Cohen said.
If the CD is self-produced, the artist can keep the whole amount,
breaking even after selling about 1,000 CDs. Performers who are
signed keep somewhere between 9 and 20 percent of the suggested
retail list price of CDs, depending on the label and the artist's
popularity. But rather than selling a few CDs after a show, signed
artists mostly rely on the vast distribution network available to
the record label. The Internet has not yet transformed the music
distribution system, although listeners can download songs in the
popular MP3 format by both Mike Errico and the Josh Dodes Band.
Cohen, Errico, and Dodes all use the Internet to market their music.
Where
else can you get money as a musician?
"The
days are over where you can say, 'I'm an artist; I don't do commercialism',"
Errico said. If you're signed, you can get money from touring, sales
of CDs, merchandising, fashion, publishing songs, and writing television
theme songs (Errico still gets royalties on the "Pop-up Video" theme).
If you're not signed, you can do some of those things, but like
Josh Dodes, you might just keep your day job. Dodes temps at an
investment banking firm in New York City.
Where
do you get your material?
Quitting
your day job takes you out of the circuit that can feed the human
need to be around other people and provide fuel for the songwriter's
fire. Errico, who is in his early 30s, said that after temping at
advertising agencies and law firms, proofreading lyrics for a major
label, teaching guitar, and being a side man for other bands, he
now loafs around a local café all day, ingesting too much caffeine
and intently writing notes about the people who pass by.
It's
no surprise that so many rock-and-roll songs are about the lifestyle
of a performing artist, since life on the road more or less offers
its own material.
"Chicks
are this dividend you're supposed to get," Errico said. "But there
are lunatics out there."
After
a recent concert, Errico met a painter who said she kept the ashes
of her ex-boyfriend, who had died of liver failure, in an overnight
delivery box in her closet.
"She
admitted that she was going to mix paint with the ashes and be Eve
in the Garden of Eden. And she told me that to prepare herself to
work with the medium, she had eaten it. We had theater tickets for
8:00."
So
did they go on the date?
"Yes
- after all, the tickets were $25."
See
how long it takes a rock star to become a millionaire with Salary.com's
Millionaire
Maker.
-
Johanna Schlegel, Editor-in-Chief
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