Rolling Stone’s Elias Leight has posted fascinating story called “Inside the Secretly Lucrative World of Solo Piano Music”. As we have reported before, there is plenty of money to be made in New Age music. The streaming economy is now strong and healthy, and several New Age music artists have over a billion streams and a $10,000 a month paycheck.
Elias Leight writes:
“On October 3rd, Michele McLaughlin got some exciting news: Her music has been streamed over one billion times.
Young artists in popular genres are racking up streams like crazy these days — presumably McLaughlin is an ascendant rapper releasing 90-second battering rams through SoundCloud? Or maybe she’s the guest vocalist on the latest reggaeton posse cut to rule YouTube?
Nope: McLaughlin is an independent artist in her forties who makes contemporary instrumental solo piano music. She’s a star in her field — to the point where another pianist says, “I’m not quite doing Michele McLaughlin numbers” — reportedly making around $250,000 a year. And she’s not alone. “We have a large group of solo piano players that are making a killing, making $7,000 to $10,000 a month,” says Kevin Breuner, VP of Marketing for CDBaby, which touts itself as “the largest global digital distributor of independent music.”
Read the whole story on Rolling Stone. This is mandatory reading for anyone with interests in the New Age music business.
Above picture: Michele McLaughlin and David Nevue