Math in the Music Industry?

  How many of us has someone who is going to be the next big name rapper like Eminem, or is going to be the next big record producer?  You know the one!  So know the question for them is "Do you know how math is used in the music industry besides making sure your manager is not ripping you off" when they tell you they don't need the math.

It turns out there is a fair amount of math contained in the music industry.  There are so many ways to make money with in the field.

There is a great article on Quartz that addresses some of the issues with radio vs spotify and the royalties involved.

This article from NPR which looks at what it costs to produce a record album for a singer such as Rihanna.  It starts with the cost of writing the songs all the way to the finished album and includes the studio time, the musicians, the backup vocalists.  Everything!  This is quite an eye opener for anyone who thinks it takes just a couple dollars to produce and market the song.  I was amazed!

The Wall Street Journal has a great explanations on how much royalty is payed every time a song is played.  It turns out it is very very little so most people are not going to make much on it.  Its a really good piece.

Then New York Entertainment has a wonderful piece showing the amount of money various bands are going to take home pay for three different bands.  The information includes the amount made off a CD, Itunes, spotify, merchandising, film, video, and other sources of income.  This can provide a real eye opener as to  what the costs are.

The Tech Dirt site has a wonderful infographic on how the money is split and it turns out the band makes the smallest chunk.  Apparently for every $1000 of music sold, the average musician makes only $23.40. That isn't much, is it?

Just think what kind of project kids can do with this information.  They could even follow up on the song mentioned in the NPR article to determine how many albums were sold, downloaded, etc to get a better idea of how much she makes in royalties for the song.  This is a topic the kids should enjoy exploring.