Post
by dr h » Mon Mar 28, 2011 11:38 pm
re: Burials money side of things. We know he sells tonnes of albums, but you can break down the £10 retail (or whatever) to quite a few things. The distro will take their cut (30-60%, depending on who it is) then the label takes their share, with the artist getting the final cut. It also depends if Hyperdub has a publishing deal for Untrue too. In which case, the distro/publisher takes an even bigger cut. Obviously it's speculation, but I remember artists used to get about 15-20% of whatever is left over to the label. So if Hyperdub make £6 from every copy of Untrue they sell (and that is a push), then Burial would get about a quid. Possibly more, since Hyperdub obviously takes care of Burial enough for him to stay with the label.
So by that logic, if he sold 20,000 copies of Untrue (and this is a figure I just made up), then it's possible he made a quid for every album it sells. More with digital, since the digital distros take far less of a cut than their physical counterpart.
You can make money from compilations and the likes, as well as licensing for film/tv. Lots of small money earners that gradually make a pretty decent wage at the end.
But yeah, i'd still be surprised if he doesn't have a day job. London living = expensive as fuck. It's also been 4 years since Untrue and obviously he doesn't play live. It's a travesty that artists as big as Burial might still have to work a day job really, but that's the state of the industry, unfortunately.
I imagine in the near future he'll probably start doing live shows. He's gotten so big now that he will be able to get huge sums of money for playing live, probably at the big festivals. He could just do like Aphex Twin does and charge £20,000 per DJ set, playing a couple of times a year, or when he needs the money.
Or maybe he just doesn't give a fuck about money and lives a simple life. All speculation anyway, but quite fun to think about.