2024 - a mark in time?

[dustyvalentino]

It's the Christmas songs that can bring in your pension money, take Chris Rea for example:
https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/driving-home-for-christmas.html

A nice cash cow for sure but even better to have a classic that is played all year round.

Driving Home For Christmas has 500m plays on Spotify, Sultans has 1.2 billion.

[TJ]

Just curious what kind of cash we are talking about here. With all the mega hits from the 80's, what might such a royalty cheque look like? Is it thousands or tens of thousands or maybe 6 figure of $$ every 3 months?

It's of course a highly secretive and highly debatable topic, it all depends on a million factors, and the song's popularity. I remember reading about "Every Breath You Take" that, "As of 2003, Sting was making an average of $2000 per day in royalties for the song." But that was 2003, and it's a very, very, very, very, very popular song and a member of a Billion Club (1B+ views and 1B+ listens). No Mark's song reached this level of popularity and impact.

Of course Sting is rolling in the 50% songwriting royalties from Money for Nothing too!

[dustyvalentino]

Just curious what kind of cash we are talking about here. With all the mega hits from the 80's, what might such a royalty cheque look like? Is it thousands or tens of thousands or maybe 6 figure of $$ every 3 months?

It's of course a highly secretive and highly debatable topic, it all depends on a million factors, and the song's popularity. I remember reading about "Every Breath You Take" that, "As of 2003, Sting was making an average of $2000 per day in royalties for the song." But that was 2003, and it's a very, very, very, very, very popular song and a member of a Billion Club (1B+ views and 1B+ listens). No Mark's song reached this level of popularity and impact.

Of course Sting is rolling in the 50% songwriting royalties from Money for Nothing too!

Might not be 50/50 - royalties aren't always split equally.

[Jules]

Whatever Sting gets for MFN would be probably more than what I earn with my job, lol

[MagicElliott]

the french singer Patrick Hernandez had only one Hit, and to my knowledge, did only one song in his whole career : "born to be alive"

He had never to work again, and lives with only royalties from ONE song/hit

Depends on how much you get from royalties, and your lifstyle, of course. Probably all of us would live the same way with the royalties of one hit 

Money wise I’m set for life…..as long as I die next Thursday.

[ds1984]

the french singer Patrick Hernandez had only one Hit, and to my knowledge, did only one song in his whole career : "born to be alive"

He had never to work again, and lives with only royalties from ONE song/hit

Patrick Hernandez did others things but got only one success with Born To Be Alive.

[JF]

the french singer Patrick Hernandez had only one Hit, and to my knowledge, did only one song in his whole career : "born to be alive"

He had never to work again, and lives with only royalties from ONE song/hit

Patrick Hernandez did others things but got only one success with Born To Be Alive.

ah ok I didn't know. But I remember reading that royalties from this only one song was far enough to let him live without working

[TJ]

You all are probably aware of this story, but I always find it amazing: https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/bitter-sweet-symphony.html

EDIT: Sorry, that link seems to be behind the paywall, so here's another to try: https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-05-29/the-bittersweet-story-of-bitter-sweet-symphony-the-song-that-ended-britpop-and-that-the-rolling-stones-appropriated.html.  Scroll down to "the Controversy with the Stones".

[dustyvalentino]

Yes, the truly bizarre thing about that is that Jagger and Richards didn’t even write that hook, it was whoever did the arrangement for the orchestral album.

I wonder what chunk MK got of that John Legend song.

[ds1984]

the french singer Patrick Hernandez had only one Hit, and to my knowledge, did only one song in his whole career : "born to be alive"

He had never to work again, and lives with only royalties from ONE song/hit

Patrick Hernandez did others things but got only one success with Born To Be Alive.

ah ok I didn't know. But I remember reading that royalties from this only one song was far enough to let him live without working

He is the guy that almost secured a 360° revenue scheme from that song.
You have to take account that  as Mark Knopfler he is writer, composer, performer of the song.
And Patrick Hernandez even says in interviews that he owns publishing and producer rights from the song.

[Pottel]

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01073534/officers

David Gilmour added his wife as a director, oh no, he must be ill, maybe he caught AIDS off MK.

lol
these comments, lol, sure he needs money like all of us need it to buy stuff. but the difference with us is, he has boatloads of it, and it KEEPS pouring in. his Studio can make a loss for the next 20 years and it would not dent his fortune even the tiniest bit. maybe i can add it as a tax expense. really, i find these assumptiond about his lingering on the verge of bankruptcy a bit funny. his wealth allows him to live on a whole different level as 99% of us on this forum do. our monetary worries are most definitely NOT his.

[Love Expresso]

Who is that 1% then? 

LE

[rmarques821]

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01073534/officers

David Gilmour added his wife as a director, oh no, he must be ill, maybe he caught AIDS off MK.

lol
these comments, lol, sure he needs money like all of us need it to buy stuff. but the difference with us is, he has boatloads of it, and it KEEPS pouring in. his Studio can make a loss for the next 20 years and it would not dent his fortune even the tiniest bit. maybe i can add it as a tax expense. really, i find these assumptiond about his lingering on the verge of bankruptcy a bit funny. his wealth allows him to live on a whole different level as 99% of us on this forum do. our monetary worries are most definitely NOT his.

Nobody in this thread mentioned anything about bankruptcy.
Of course our monetary worries are not his. We don't have multiple properties including a riverside mansion, an expensive car collection, a world-class studio, a world-class band of musicians, a management/accounting/marketing team, etc.
What people usually disregard is that the more money you have, the bigger your expenses are and the more money you need.
The financial concerns I mentioned in my posts are the ones Mark himself mentioned in different interviews. It's not a fabrication.

[quizzaciously]

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01073534/officers

David Gilmour added his wife as a director, oh no, he must be ill, maybe he caught AIDS off MK.

lol
these comments, lol, sure he needs money like all of us need it to buy stuff. but the difference with us is, he has boatloads of it, and it KEEPS pouring in. his Studio can make a loss for the next 20 years and it would not dent his fortune even the tiniest bit. maybe i can add it as a tax expense. really, i find these assumptiond about his lingering on the verge of bankruptcy a bit funny. his wealth allows him to live on a whole different level as 99% of us on this forum do. our monetary worries are most definitely NOT his.

Nobody in this thread mentioned anything about bankruptcy.
Of course our monetary worries are not his. We don't have multiple properties including a riverside mansion, an expensive car collection, a world-class studio, a world-class band of musicians, a management/accounting/marketing team, etc.
What people usually disregard is that the more money you have, the bigger your expenses are and the more money you need.
The financial concerns I mentioned in my posts are the ones Mark himself mentioned in different interviews. It's not a fabrication.

And also that it doesn't matter how rich you are, if you are running a bussiness and it looses money, I guess at some point the bussiness would have to close, I'm not an expert on the subject, of course.

Another simple question... If you don't need money, why you would "only" give 25% to charity? I'd give it all to charity like David Gilmour did with his insane auction. Of course, nobody asks you to donate anything, but just from the logic perspective it doesn't make sense. "I don't need the money, but I'll keep 75%, thank you very much".

[Chris W]

And also that it doesn't matter how rich you are, if you are running a bussiness and it looses money, I guess at some point the bussiness would have to close

In reality it's Mark's personal studio. he may have registered it as a business, losing money, as a tax deductible. McCartney has his own studio and absolutely no other projects are recorded there except for Paul's.