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If an artist posts a track on beatport for $1.99 or the more common $2.49

How much does an artist ACTUALLY make off a track like that? I have no idea how that system works....

Not much unless you're in the top 10, even then....

50 bucks is a lot to make innit? i thought the artists usually gets like 50 cents max per purchase

Dunno about dubstep, but in techno the deal is often a 50/50 split between label and artist after Beatport's fee (can't remember off the top of my head but I think it's around 30%). The top 5 or 10 sell thousands, but a few hundred would be considered pretty good....

I think the breakeven point for vinyl is about a hundred, right? To cover pressing/artwork costs only?

Juno is a very flat standard 50/50 of what you set.

Beatport I believe is flexible, they offer alot of 'give it to us exclousive' and 'participate in our sales' incentives...

Beatport and Juno take 50% it is highway robbery but you have no choice. I only know with my label but Beatport and Juno make up approximately 85/90% of our sales. The distro get a small cut after that. The label receives a bit less than a dollar. 50/50 split with the label is pretty standard. I give 60% so the artist still make around 50 cents per copy. To make any serious money yeah you have to make it into the top 10 but not only that the big tunes usually make return trips to the charts even years later. That one hot release can make you in this business. Closest I have come personally was #9 on the Juno charts. Barely made the Beatport chart tho. Probably get a disappointing royalty check, me thinks my hit is still on the way.

When I looked into it they were saying they want 50%. When you look at vinyl everyone wants a bit so you have left with nothing as an artist

People selling mp3s on beatport at lucky to sell a 100 unless you are a big name. You are competing with a very large number of producers now days and its so easy for people to bosh a track together on their PC and have it out there.

If you are looking to make money from it you are in the wrong game.

A record shop would take half from a vinyl release as well so 50% is probably about right to be honest

justanotherdj wrote:A record shop would take half from a vinyl release as well so 50% is probably about right to be honest

Fail.

abZ wrote:

justanotherdj wrote:A record shop would take half from a vinyl release as well so 50% is probably about right to be honest

Fail.

You cannot just put your vinyl in a record shop as they often have deals with distribution companies and like to work direct with them. So the distribution and the shop both want a cut of the money so you are left with roughly fuck all if you sell 500 (?). If your track sells out fast(unlikely unless you are a big name) you can then get a repress done and make up the numbers to about 1000 copies or more. If that happens then you may make about 50p and a can of Pepsi:)

Fail? I don't think so mate...

serox wrote:

abZ wrote:

justanotherdj wrote:A record shop would take half from a vinyl release as well so 50% is probably about right to be honest

Fail.

You cannot just put your vinyl in a record shop as they often have deals with distribution companies and like to work direct with them. So the distribution and the shop both want a cut of the money so you are left with roughly fuck all if you sell 500 (?). If your track sells out fast(unlikely unless you are a big name) you can then get a repress done and make up the numbers to about 1000 copies or more. If that happens then you may make about 50p and a can of Pepsi:)

you can just walk into a record shop and they will take them off you on a sale or return basis, for every record they sale they will keep half and they will give you the unsold records back. You don't need a distributor, Ive done it plenty of times.

justanotherdj wrote:
you can just walk into a record shop and they will take them off you on a sale or return basis, for every record they sale they will keep half and they will give you the unsold records back. You don't need a distributor, Ive done it plenty of times.

Where? when I asked shops they said they do not work direct with artists/labels unless you have given them records in the past or have released on a label that has sold. I am in London.

also doing it that way means you dont get your record into many places seeing as there are not that many shops around. If you want your music to reach other country's you are going to struggle to get it in the shops. Even if you do get it in the shop you have a long mission of keeping on track of where all the units are and tracking down the money or the returns. If you need to post them to shops you will need to pay all costs to send and return.

-√ of fuck all

I've walked into uptown, blackmarket and release the groove with a box of records and asked if they will take them in sale or return, they will normally take a listen to it and first then say they'll take 20 or so off you and see how theydo.

justanotherdj wrote:I've walked into uptown, blackmarket and release the groove with a box of records and asked if they will take them in sale or return, they will normally take a listen to it and first then say they'll take 20 or so off you and see how theydo.

Release the groove? is that near BM? when did you first do that? had you anything released previously?

I used to just press up 500 get 300 or so in the shops around London, 50 in htfr, then save the rest for a rerun if they sold well. Wasn't really looking to get the records worldwide

justanotherdj wrote:I used to just press up 500 get 300 or so in the shops around London, 50 in htfr, then save the rest for a rerun if they sold well. Wasn't really looking to get the records worldwide

and you could sell 300 in the UK alone?! that seems quite a high number. What year are you talking about?

Well the stores here make about 2 or 3 dollars off of a 12 dollar record. That is not including any stock that doesn't sell. That is -9$. So you need to sell 3 records just to make up for one that doesn't get purchased. These figures aren't accurate but you get my point. Also why there aren't any records stores in the states anymore, at least none that carry dubstep. Anyway record stores are actually doing something for any return they get. Beaport does shit for their dollar per tune. Server costs wooo! A couple employees yikes! They probably don't even need that many employees anymore because the distros are doing most of the work for them. It come down to this - do you want to sell some 320's or not? Because at this point it is really difficult to generate sales without them. I really hope something develops to change this.

Release the groove is near rainforest cafe, I'd never sold anything in there and managed to get them to take 20 off of me...
We sold about 400 in the uk this was about 2007 I think, it got in the one extra top ten and got played on kiss and radio 1 so it was quite a big record at the time. It wasn't dubstep btw.