In an extraordinary piece by Zoe Heller for the New York Times Style Magazine, Rolling Stones front man and financial overseer Mick Jagger talks about (among other things) the business of rock & roll.
“[Jagger's] beady oversight of the Rolling Stones’ financial affairs has, famously, helped make the band one of the richest in rock ’n’ roll history,” Heller writes. “When he is on the road, he has been known to keep a map in his dressing room, indicating the city at which the tour will go into profit.”
And that’s how the Rollings Stones make money. The A Bigger Bang tour, from 2005 to 2007, was the highest-grossing tour of all time raking in $558 million. “The band has also been ahead of the curve in recruiting sponsors, selling song rights and flogging merchandise. ‘The Stones carry no Woodstockesque, antibusiness baggage,’ Andy Serwer noted approvingly back in 2002 in Fortune magazine.”
Is Jagger crying about free downloads and declining CD sales? Nope. “There was a window in the 120 years of the record business where performers made loads and loads of money out of records,” Jagger says. “But it was a very small window — say, 15 years between 1975 and 1990.”
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Why scrape for a $2 cut of a CD when you can sell a $2 T-shirt with the band logo at the concert for $30?
$30?? When was the last Stones show you saw? I think 1999 was the last time I saw the cheapest shirts at $30. In 2002 during the Licks tour the cheapest shirt was $35 and they’ve only gone up since then. Sadly the Stones shirts are of low quality that even I as a die hard fan will no longer buy them at the concert at the prices they charge.
All that aside I get your point and it’s true.
For real, for most bands you could buy their entire discography for under $75. But can you buy a single ticket to the same act? I wonder what kind of metric we could make that equates price per entire collection vs ticket price.
“We’ve got to find a cheaper oatmeal.”
“Let’s start with the fundamentals – playing a burning guitar with your teeth.”
“Hey, you, get offa my cloud.”
“Hey Mc’loud, get offa my ewe.”
Golly, considering the disproportionate profit margins for concerts and official swag, it’s almost as though musicians don’t need a copyright on the CDs for the production of popular music to be economically viable.
Lets not even begin to talk about all those Rolling Stones cover bands, too!
The Rolling Stones were originally a cover band – in fact many of the acts they covered later toured as their support bands. If these blues artists made any large amount of money through music, it was mostly as a result of British bands (e.g. Stones, Yardbirds, Bluesbreakers, Cream, Led Zeppelin) imitating and popularising their work.
IIRC, Jagger studied Economics in college.
Did you know that Brian May, the guitarist for Queen, was an astrophysics student when the band took off? The band’s success interrupted his academic career, which he then completed with a PhD a few years ago. True story.
Similar story for the front man for The Offspring, Dexter Holland. He has a PhD in Molecular Biology (I’ve heard, anyway…)
Greg Graffin of Bad Religion received his PhD in Paleontology/Zoology from Cornell.
LSE, until he dropped out because he was making too much money in rock ‘n’ roll.
You don’t have to be an economist to know that nearly $200 million/year in revenues isn’t a bad shake.
Oh that’s great. Is it really possible to make money like this. I did not about this. Thanks for sharing.
It is a helpful post.
Thanks
Music is a big money business and has been for a long time. It doesn’t surprise me that Mick Jagger would be involved in the money side of things, he’s been doing this for a long time and as stated has made a pile of money doing in. More power to him
Interesting post! Regarding Phinn comment about brian May besing a astrophysics student. This is true, i seen this on tv a few months ago, very odd i thought?
Wow. That is an amazing perspective on the inside of the business. And to see band member (known for their artistic and creative talents) to speak so intelligently on the subject is really cool.
Pretty interesting, thanks for posting. I actually just read an article about Mick Jagger on OurStage, check it out: http://www.ourstage.com/blog/2011/6/3/a-super-heavy-supergroup
Great post. I love Mike Jagger and his music.
It sure is a small window but a big door to the bank compared to their royalties back then LOL!
Yes Mick Jagger is and still is great.I have always love the Rolling Stones. I too have been around a long time. Any one out there that would like to make some money, I have 10 free e-books to help you… http://www.systemnewbiefree-ebook.info/ Thanks Eric
Imagine if Bernanke bailed out the major record labels instead of banks. Music would be a lot worse than it already is.
But the whole idea of “stealing music” and intellectual property is just too old. The internet is forcing musicians to figure out other ways to sell their brand of music. The free market is working. Take a look at Bandcamp and some of the “1000 true fans” case studies. Or, check out Topspin’s presentations on how they’re selling some big artists.
Unfortunately Jagger’s greedy nature has spilled over into the quality of their merchandise as well. The quality of everything from the leather jackets they sell right down to the stickers are of very low quality and way over priced.
Jagger is correct when he says there was only about a fifteen year period where artists really made money off of recordings. The Rolling Stones are the quintessential touring rock ‘n roll band. It is perfectly fine that they should make millions if they are still at it at this point! I hope they do something good with their money when they die, because they couldn’t possibly spend it all.
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