Today’s post is a mashup of two recent articles that got me thinking.
First, Poppy Reid reports in Australia’s The Industry Observer that Chance the Rapper earned $33M without selling a single record this year.
That places him fifth on Forbes‘ highest-paid hip hop artists list.
Not only is all his music free, but he has yet to sign a record label deal.
As quoted in Vanity Fair, Chance claims:
“My plan was to sign with a label and figure out my music from there. But after meeting with the three major labels, I realized my strength was being able to offer my best work to people without any limit on it…. I make money from touring and selling merchandise, and I honestly believe if you put effort into something and you execute properly, you don’t necessarily have to go through the traditional ways.”
Poppy concludes with:
“It should be noted that all the top earners used hip hop as a stepping stone toward their respective successful business ventures. In fact, Diddy [number one on the list with earnings of $130 million] hasn’t released any new music in the past year. He did however, sell a portion of his Sean Jean clothing company for US$70 million.”
Second, Tatiana Siegel reports in The Hollywood Reporter on Indie Film’s Financial Paradox: More Backers But Less Box Office.
She starts by singling out the weekend of September 22, 2017, when 15 mostly independent films competed against each other at the box office, resulting in no run-away winners.
She then contrasts that with, “Despite the box-office challenges, there is no shortage of funds being poured into indie films” and cites a $50 million epic.
She adds that $30 million in P&A is required to successfully break an indie film; $20 million is not enough.
She concludes:
“Many distributors continue to buy, not because it’s financially lucrative but because it feeds another side of their business or their parent company’s overall strategy. Releasing movies has become something of a side hustle. Many other distributors are really in the VOD or streaming business or have bigger interests that overshadow how their individual films fare at the box office.”
One moment please.
Releasing movies (let’s exclude blockbusters for the moment) is now a side show to the main event? Huh.
My take: I think this speaks to the fracturing of the mediascape. Long gone are the days of orderly rollouts across windows (when) and territories (where). Today there are so many more options available to distribute projects. It’s still the wild west but streaming (how) and mobile (where) are emerging as leaders. Add in Chance’s ‘give it away’ strategy. Combining the two begs the question, what could be the ‘real’ business of indie filmmakers? Hmm. Maybe it’s not the destination, but the journey? Can we monetize that? Ideas, folks?