Richest drummers, I'm no on it... :-)

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Odd-Arne Oseberg
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Re: Richest drummers, I'm no on it... :-)

Postby Odd-Arne Oseberg » Sun Sep 02, 2012 1:55 am

People like Vinnie, JR, Abe, Manu and so on probably make a better living than most musicians, but my guess would be that they're not even close to the list. I would also think that their priorities with their money when the basics are covered would be to invest in their art, knowledge and music gear.

Guys like Colaiuta and Weckl have to make a living, but they do it for the love of playing music and expanding their skills is probably their main priorities in their life and it's own reward. They also to a certain extent favour artists who while well known and pretty rich by normal standards do not make pop industry amounts of money.

Vinnie probably makes tons more than Dave because of Sting, Jeff and Herbie and his pop sessions. I don't imagine Mike Stern, Oz Noy or Wayne Krantz making all that much money.They get by while doing what they love. It's another kind of wealth.
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Re: Richest drummers, I'm no on it... :-)

Postby Josiah » Sun Sep 02, 2012 8:11 am

I think you'd be surprised what those gigs pay. You know, it wouldn't be very hard to find out what any of these guys make, just call them up and ask about booking them for a session. Last I heard Vinnie is in the $1,000's per hour price range.

" I would guess his revenue is primarily based on touring. I could be wrong though."

You are correct. That and swag is where the money rolls in from. And also like I said before, once you are a millionaire it's a lot easier to make more millions. Those guys could easily be smart enough to have some investment people and accountants to handle the cash, why would you not?
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nomsgmusic
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Re: Richest drummers, I'm no on it... :-)

Postby nomsgmusic » Sun Sep 02, 2012 9:45 am

Sorry to throw cold water here guys. But after 3 pages of conversation, has anyone thought to mention that POSSIBLY these numbers are not accurate. The "information" chain is MSN to Stereogum to Celebritynetworth dot com. The latter seems like one of those infotainment sources that PR people go to "create attention for their clients," disguised as "news." Do we really have to be reminded to not believe everything we read on the net (or on TV?)

And can we please not go down the conversation of antiquated session rates of days gone by, thinking that those big budgets and standard and triple scale union rates still apply. We ALL wish they did, but those days are gone (the bubble burst.)

Those (old) "facts" that everyone claims can be thrown in the same trash can that all of the "stories" of how and why Vinnie and Sting had this horrible falling out, fight, split up (whatever!) and would never work together again. And all of those "stories" were supported by statements like "I heard," "I KNOW," "I know someone who was there," etc etc etc ... All just sensational (self important) fantasy.

Can we leave the infotainment BS rumour-mill crap to the others, and discuss music, drumming, and FIRST hand career advice-info?

Sorry,
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Odd-Arne Oseberg
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Re: Richest drummers, I'm no on it... :-)

Postby Odd-Arne Oseberg » Sun Sep 02, 2012 12:16 pm

Jazz guys make their money at festivals and big shows.

When I've caught my favourite guitarplayer Michael Landau on his solo tours there's hardly an audience so the club can't really afford paying that band much more than my band gets paid in the same clubs. Offcourse he makes tons of money on other stuff, so I suspect he might even loose money doing this, but does it anyway for fun.

I know what Norwegian jazz musician Jan Garbarek makes as that's public record. He makes about the same as a well paid doctor. 2-3 times more than I make. Not close to any of the mentioned sums, but plenty enough to live on especially since you have a label taking care of everything for you. If you make more than that I think it should be obvious to start some charities and invest in some sort of public welfare related stuff. There's a limit to how much one really needs for a comfortable life.
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Re: Richest drummers, I'm no on it... :-)

Postby Josiah » Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:06 pm

nomsgmusic wrote:Sorry to throw cold water here guys. But after 3 pages of conversation, has anyone thought to mention that POSSIBLY these numbers are not accurate.


Yes, thought about it. However the numbers are most likely based on taxes and quasi-publicly available financial information. Believe it or not, it's actually really really hard to hide a couple hundred million bucks if you are making it legitimately. For that matter it's probably hard to hide even a few million haha
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Re: Richest drummers, I'm no on it... :-)

Postby Gaddabout » Fri Sep 07, 2012 1:03 pm

If you want money, pick your heroes wisely. Me and Jojo, we got sidetracked.

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Re: Richest drummers, I'm no on it... :-)

Postby Robert Bluman » Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:02 pm

The list isn't BS. A freelance session musician gets bought out, where as a drummer in a band, if he plays his business cards right, has publishing, writing and mechanical royalties. That's for life, per album. All you need is one platinum selling album to be set for life if you have publishing and writing. Many of these guys have multiple platinum selling albums. Guys, kids are still buying "classic" Chili Pepper, Nirvana, and Foo Fighter albums. Dave Grohl would be in the millions based on Nirvana alone, but then he went on to Foo Fighters. Drummers like Gadd and J.R I'm sure earn into 6 figures yearly, but not multiple millions. It's not possible. I for one don't measure wealth that way. To me, someone who does what they love and earns a modest living is also rich. Whoever said Vinnie makes a grand an hour needs to wake up. No record label would pay that to ANY sideman. Vinnie is on albums by Jeff Richman along with drummers Will Kennedy, Joel Taylor and Steve Hass. He doesn't charge 1000.00 dollars an hour. That made me laugh hard.
Last edited by Robert Bluman on Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Robert Bluman
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Re: Richest drummers, I'm no on it... :-)

Postby Robert Bluman » Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:11 pm

Steve Holmes wrote:
Julián Fernández wrote:That list seems to be BS.

I bet JR and some other session cats belong to that list too...


The list is composers who happened to be drummers, as well as drummers smart enough to get percentages.

The top paid drummers who get paid from doing sessions and tours - would be a different list. It would be interesting to split that up actually. Sessions/tours.



That's it. Well put.
Robert Bluman
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Re: Richest drummers, I'm no on it... :-)

Postby Robert Bluman » Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:21 pm

deseipel wrote:
bananajou wrote:I meant that Dave Grohl probably gets most of his money from the Foo Fighters, where he doesn't play drums, but I don't know how much royalties he gets from nirvana


I'm guessing he either gets a 1/3 of whatever, which is still probably a lot. He coulda retired just on that cash, probably.

it's funny you guys talk about royalties & stuff from sales of cds; since everyone steals music now, I would guess his revenue is primarily based on touring. I could be wrong though.



If you compare the numbers to pre-internet and iTunes, yes there's a huge difference. However, people still buy music. Millions of people from around the world still press "buy" on iTunes. Artist, although make less than the 80s and 90s, still make a huge profit if they have a platinum selling album. You have to understand, music sharing when done illegally, only takes away mechanical royalties, which is the physical selling of the music. Units. The writers and publishing holders still make out like bandits. A smart band member would have all 3, whether they wrote the tunes or not. Touring also makes a big profit, but on the large scale Dave Grohl and the others tour in order to support the recording he put out. Dave Grohl not only played on Smells Like Teen Spirit, he wrote it and has the publishing on it. He gets mechanical from physical CDs sold, writers, which includes all the covers of the tune as well, radio play, movies, etc. and publishing. That song alone puts him in the top 5 of highest earners.
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Paul Marangoni
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Re: Richest drummers, I'm no on it... :-)

Postby Paul Marangoni » Sat Sep 15, 2012 6:53 pm

Robert Bluman wrote:You have to understand, music sharing when done illegally, only takes away mechanical royalties, which is the physical selling of the music. Units. The writers and publishing holders still make out like bandits.


How about YouTube? They share all kinds of music illegally. They've pretty much built their business on the creativity of others. You think they're "sharing" their revenue? How about Spotify or other similar streaming services? They actually claim to be legal, but check out how much of their revenue is shared.

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