Music industry on the server and your experience.

[Craazy]

Hello, you might know me from else where.

I'm making this thread to discuss the music industry as it stands on the server. I am the owner of ACE Music Group which currently hosts two record labels, All Cash Empire and Motion 4 Millions.
We've been operating on the server on-and-off since 2021 though we've gone through a variety of name changes and rebranding.

In the past year and a half, we came back really strong and started getting paid by LFM. We were paid $600,000 on our first two months.
Due to us expanding heavily and using up all the money, we asked for an increase to $800,000 for a month. Our rivals at the time fell inactive, which left plenty of artists without a label...

We created a royalty system and asked LFM for just our employees salaries which was about $450,000... and then about $700,000 to $900,000 per month for artist royalties. Each artist would be paid an average of $55,000 a song though of course this depeneded on the performance... like YT views, thread views/likes/comments, and FB likes so sometimes you could even make $200,000 off a single song if it actually performed well.

A few months of this passed before LFM handed the responsibility for business funding to PM, and on the first month... we failed to meet PM's new standards, one of which was to /openbusiness once a week (but record labels don't really open to the public...) but since then, we are being paid again... just far less than before.

PM will only fund you for your views and music though... which is realistic, no argument with that. Except the issue is, we don't have the audience for payments to be realistic.

Let me explain. PM created their own royalty system but the royalty system only pays for views. YT views that cap out at 1000, and thread views that cap out at 500.
When you meet both caps, that's $300,000 but most artists average 100 views on YT, and 200 views on thread... Let's be generous and say they got 300 views on both. They will get paid only $75,000.

Let's compare.

If you remember correctly, I needed $450,000 for employee salaries and spent $900,000 on paying royalties. This means I spent a 50/100 ratio to profit from the company.
This was with around 8 active artists with an average 2 songs (from each) a month.

So now, say an artist takes 10 hours to make a song that PM says is worth $75,000... but I need to make $450,000 from my own artist's royalties by paying them less.
We use the 50/100 split... but, not only do I need 9 active artists who'll drop 2 songs a month... but EVERY SINGLE SONG they post has to have 300 views which is unlikely.

You can argue that "well Craazy, they gave labels create item script so like album sales and you can make money from merch" but do you realize how little people on the server pay attention to in-game artists?  How little money that still is?
We can't have a realistic system when we don't have the population for it to be realistic. Nobody buys merch or albums. Barely anybody pays for artists to perform a gig. Nobody puts the songs on radio stations. This means that there isn't a way for record labels to make money asides from spawned money.

This change in funding from LFM to PM has resulted in many of our artists and leaders feeling unmotivated but some of us have still operated for 4 months, this time at an average of $80,000 a month when we used to get $2,000,000 just 5 months ago. Artists often don't hit 300 views per song either, so they'll probably get less than $40,000 a song which let's say takes 10 hours to fully write, record, and finalize. If you work a LTD script job, you'll make just about the same if not more.

I was told that PM had different royalty systems for different companies, based on their performance or what not. Well, my company as mentioned earlier is probably the BIGGEST label on the server but we get nowhere near enough money to be sustained, so... not sure if we're being paid the most but whatever is being paid is simply not enough. This system is broken.

In my opinion, record labels should be getting paid more. Artists should be getting paid more.
So... have you ever RPed in the music industry? What record label have you RPed with and how was your experience?

Also, I've converted the record label discord into a public one for all Los Santos music (focusing on rap but open to other genres), let's try to get all World artists in here so we can unionize or something lol (i'm joking i swear)
https://discord.gg/svzW3BM7jT

[NOTAGOON]

I agree totally. As a player that’s heavily in the rap scene in the server and arguably the biggest at the moment, it’s crazy how little we get paid despite the hard work and effort it takes to not only make a song in its own but to actually generate buzz and views in-game and on youtube. 

Edited September 18 by NOTAGOON

[Glocknine]

I mean, paying IC money to successful rappers should be bare minimum, I'm surprised they even produce songs at all

[grimlin]

The rap scene is undervalued, every label is told that you can't be major or "what makes you a major label" when artist book shows, concerts etc. It's based on personal opinion rather than the facts. For example, Diamond Casino (this is a random example) pulls about 50-100 ppl an opening but it's still seen as a major casino because of lore, why can't a label which pulls thousands of streams a month be seen as a major label, it just limits roleplay because people don't like the idea PERSONALLY. Artist should be paid a lot more; labels should be given incentives to allow them to create more roleplay. A label is a nest for illegal and especially gang roleplayers to do passive RP, something that should be encouraged. I think this has already been discussed but I'll share it publicly, I think there should also be a tier system for labels, and they should be allowed to function as independent factions. 

 

A label shouldn't be able to start today and get the same pay-outs as a label that started years ago. This would encourage parent labels and even more roleplay, negotiations etc. Like M4M signing to ACE to bump up their monthly bonuses, while ace gets a small bump for having a label partner with them.

 

All these things could be talked out in a day or two.

 

EDIT IMPORTANT: I think we also forget that artist mix and master their songs, produce beats etc which takes a lot of time and effort into making a roleplay server seem more realistic, if anything that should be awarded.

Edited September 18 by grimlin

[obie]

As someone who ran an official faction primarily focused on music, albeit rap was never our main focus, I think the main issue with the music industry is that portrayal is completely skewed.
The expectations of players and the reality of being an artist in such a confined roleplay setting seem at odds.

For example, the concept of an artist going from zero to hero after one drop is far too common.

People often expect instant success after their first or second song without building a fan base, crafting a brand, or understanding how much time, networking, and promotion go into establishing a presence, even at a local level.

At the end of the day, most artists on the server are portraying local musicians, not world-renowned superstars, and yet, many players roleplay as if they should be raking in hundreds of thousands, even millions, from their very first release.
This lack of realism can create disillusionment when the system doesn't support those expectations, especially since you simply can’t replicate the dynamics of the real-world music industry.

[Craazy]

1 minute ago, Towbie said:

yet, many players roleplay as if they should be raking in hundreds of thousands, even millions, from their very first release.
This lack of realism can create disillusionment when the system doesn't support those expectations, especially since you simply can’t replicate the dynamics of the real-world music industry.

I agree with you but realism is not what we need as the original post points out.

If I work at LTD for a month, I'll be raking in hundreds of thousands. A minimum-wage job on the server will get you hundreds of thousands. A gun on the server costs $20,000 average.
Prices aren't realistic. Economy isn't realistic. Why should it be payouts for artists be realistic?

How are artists with a fan base and 300+ views per video making LESS money than average LTD joe?
Regular cops on the server are multi-millionaires but the most famous and successful artists on the server aren't.

I can quite literally work ANY job on the server and make more money than the most famous artists.

[obie]

2 minutes ago, Craazy said:

I agree with you but realism is not what we need as the original post points out.

If I work at LTD for a month, I'll be raking in hundreds of thousands. A minimum-wage job on the server will get you hundreds of thousands. A gun on the server costs $20,000 average.
Prices aren't realistic. Economy isn't realistic. Why should it be payouts for artists be realistic?

How are artists with a fan base and 300+ views per video making LESS money than average LTD joe?
Regular cops on the server are multi-millionaires but the most famous and successful artists on the server aren't.

I can quite literally work ANY job on the server and make more money than the most famous artists.

The artists I know and count as proper "celebrities" or "ex-celebs" are all millionaires, live in huge houses and drive fancy cars. 

Just out of interest, who do you count as the most famous and successful artists on the server?

[grimlin]

10 minutes ago, Towbie said:

As someone who ran an official faction primarily focused on music, albeit rap was never our main focus, I think the main issue with the music industry is that portrayal is completely skewed.
The expectations of players and the reality of being an artist in such a confined roleplay setting seem at odds.

For example, the concept of an artist going from zero to hero after one drop is far too common.

People often expect instant success after their first or second song without building a fan base, crafting a brand, or understanding how much time, networking, and promotion go into establishing a presence, even at a local level.

At the end of the day, most artists on the server are portraying local musicians, not world-renowned superstars, and yet, many players roleplay as if they should be raking in hundreds of thousands, even millions, from their very first release.
This lack of realism can create disillusionment when the system doesn't support those expectations, especially since you simply can’t replicate the dynamics of the real-world music industry.

I think everyone agrees with that, but when an artist is established, he/she still isn't awarded. There's a bunch of loopholes to avoid them for even being seen as a "celebrity". 

[Craazy]

Just now, Towbie said:

The artists I know and count as proper "celebrities" or "ex-celebs" are all millionaires, live in huge houses and drive fancy cars. 

Just out of interest, who do you count as the most famous and successful artists on the server?

In the black community? PigGotti or KyBallin.
In the DJ community, I agree they're all probably millionaires like Julian Lewhatever... but that's the issue with the server.

Your celebrities are DJs... they get paid for gigs, they're in high demand.
Our celebrities are rappers and legal RPers don't pay much attention to rappers...

This is where the MAIN POINT of this thread comes into play. We don't have the audience to mimic realism, so therefore we shouldn't have realistic payments.
Rap doesn't have the same audience on the server as it does in IRL.

[KickYourDoor]

I mean, it's wrong to rely solely on LFM/PM funding. There are so many other ways to generate income, like you said—selling out shows, merch, etc. People will pay for shows and merch if you market them correctly. Trust me, I ran the most popular clothing store on the server and sold thousands of items that had no script use to anyone—even when they didn’t have images attached and there was no pawnshop script to list items...

 

The majority of the player base listens to hip-hop/R&B, so saying you won't sell out shows is just a lazy excuse because you haven't tried or you just don't have the negotiation skills to market your artists to the clubs. If you push this music into more clubs, you can easily rack up tens of thousands per opening. And I’m not just making this up—I literally did a rap show in a clothing store with an unknown artist who had only three songs out, and we pulled in over 50 people with no marketing at all, just word of mouth. Now imagine if you have a proper headliner and market it well.

 

I don’t get why you're complaining about pulling in imaginary income when the artists are doing all the work. Maybe you should adjust the percentages since the overall income was lowered so that the artists can make more money. And maybe you should try to get creative and come up with new ways for your artists to generate income instead of complaining. Most jobs on the server don’t get any special support, so getting paid hundreds of thousands out of thin air doesn’t actually sound bad at all.

Edited September 18 by KickYourDoor