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Just earlier this year, weekly album sales hit an all-time low. On top of that, we’re starting to see digital music sales dropping as well. It seems that with streaming’s takeover, music is no longer something that many people feel a need to purchase and own, and this is affecting professional musicians in a very real way. In an interview with Digital Spy, La Roux shared her outlook on the situation and her personal experience with the changing industry.
On how little money there is in music:
“I think it’s very important that if you decide you like something, to invest in it. Having all the music in the world for a set fee, I hope one day it works and benefits the artist as much as I think it should. I think that’s what all those services are hopefully trying to work towards, but at the moment it’s difficult and there is so, so little money in music. I’ve never made any money from record sales, and we sold nearly 8 million records if you count all the singles. There’s something not right about that.”
On not breaking even from touring:
“I spent two years on Trouble in Paradise and I most likely won’t make any money out of it. The only money I will make is from radio play. All the money I’ve had up until now is from radio. I think people find this really, really, really hard to believe. It’s not a lie, it’s just the way it is. It’s fine as long as people don’t think you’re a millionaire, which people sort of do. Until you start getting to much larger venues, if you’ve got a five-piece band like I have, you find it very difficult to break even. We don’t break even.”
