From narten@cs.albany.edu Thu Jun 3 09:48:12 1993 Received: from cook.albany.edu by wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) with SMTP id ; Thu, 3 Jun 93 09:48:12 -0400 Received: from percival.albany.edu by cook.albany.edu (5.65/SMI-3.2) id ; Thu, 3 Jun 93 09:48:10 -0400 Received: from [0.0.0.0] by percival.albany.edu (5.65/ALBANY_CS-1.1) id AA23434; Thu, 3 Jun 93 09:48:09 -0400 Message-Id: <9306031348.AA23434@percival.albany.edu> To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: robyn the starving artist Date: Thu, 03 Jun 93 09:48:08 EDT From: Thomas Narten Does anyone have any insight into robyn being a "starving artist"? That is (bluntly), how much money does he make a year. Has he sold enough records to live comfortably (my impression is yes, but what do I know)? How many records does one need to sell in order to start making money? How many albums has he sold? Has A&M given him decent advances on albums? I don't think anyone else records his tunes, so he's not getting royalties that way. He also can't be making much, if any, money touring. On the other hand, doesn't he have one or more residences in SF, DC, and UK? In interviews, he's often ambivalent about making it big, implying that he wouldn't mind staying "cult status" either. If he were really poor, I'd think he would want to sell more records. Thomas From bj835@pooh.INS.CWRU.Edu Thu Jun 3 10:18:33 1993 Received: from pooh.INS.CWRU.Edu by wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) with SMTP id ; Thu, 3 Jun 93 10:18:33 -0400 Received: from pooh by pooh.INS.CWRU.Edu (5.67/CWRU-1.5-generic) id AA09562; Thu, 3 Jun 93 10:16:07 -0400 (from bj835 for fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu) Message-Id: <9306031416.AA09562@pooh.INS.CWRU.Edu> Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 10:16:07 -0400 From: bj835@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Tim Connors) To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: Robyn as starving artist Reply-To: bj835@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Tim Connors) The question of what artists like Robyn earn has always intrigued me. The new XTC bio provides some interesting info on their situation. It seems that they were in the red until "Oranges & Lemons" after which they finally came out ahead, only to have gone back into the red after "Nonsvch." Depressingly, Colin and Dave of XTC were actually driving rental cars from one place to another for Hertz or somebody just to pick up a bit of extra cashas recently as a few years ago. I had always assumed that a band signed to major labels for 15 years, with 15 or so records to their name and a legion of devoted fans worldwide would be making at least a comfortable living, but it appears they make less than, say, a first year associate at a big US law or accounting firm. My guess is that Robyn, whose work is scattered among a few different labels, is not likely to be doing better than XTC, a band with a pretty comparable level of popularity. On the other hand, an apartment in Georgetown is not cheap, nor is one in SF. So buy as much RH product as you c can and take comfort in the fact that he needs you as much as you need him. Jack Rabid's fanzine "The Big Takeover" harps on this theme constantly. It has something to do with advances being against artists' royalties, from which everything is deducted before the artist gets a penny, with the result that an artist might make $10,000 on an album that sells 100,000 copies. See the new issue of Musician with Arrested Development on the cover for more info on this score. -- TJC "Surprisingly tasty..." The Jazz Butcher ("JB v. Prime Minister") Internet: bj835@cleveland.freenet.edu From silva@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu Thu Jun 3 10:34:05 1993 Received: from mond1.ccrc.uga.edu by wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) with SMTP id ; Thu, 3 Jun 93 10:34:05 -0400 Received: by mond1.ccrc.uga.edu (5.57/Ultrix3.0-C) id AA08396; Thu, 3 Jun 93 10:29:38 -0400 Message-Id: <9306031429.AA08396@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu> To: Thomas Narten Cc: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: sTarvaTioN... In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 03 Jun 93 09:48:08 EDT." <9306031348.AA23434@percival.albany.edu> Date: Thu, 03 Jun 93 10:29:37 -0400 From: silva@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu X-Mts: smtp ThoMAs seD: Has he sold enough records to live comfortably? RoByn looks a touch thick around the middle for him to be considered "starving" by any means, but he's not jetting from gig to gig either. One of the things he told me when he did his warmup show in Athens was that this tour was set-up independently of A&M so that he and the band could draw a bit more cash into their circle. yIp JoE silva@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu From ruppen@QAL.Berkeley.Edu Thu Jun 3 13:38:31 1993 Received: from nettlerash.Berkeley.EDU by wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) with SMTP id ; Thu, 3 Jun 93 13:38:31 -0400 Received: from snowy.QAL.Berkeley.EDU by nettlerash.berkeley.edu (5.67.1/1.34.6) id AA24815; Thu, 3 Jun 93 10:36:56 -0700 Received: from henry.qal.berkeley.edu by snowy.qal.berkeley.edu (4.1/SMI-3.0DEV3.10) id AA23295; Thu, 3 Jun 93 10:31:04 PDT Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 10:31:04 PDT From: ruppen@QAL.Berkeley.Edu (Andy Ruppenstein) Message-Id: <9306031731.AA23295@snowy.qal.berkeley.edu> To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: robyn the starving artist Just how well Robyn is doing financially from his art is a good question. I have no proof, but I suspect since signing to A&M things are better than before. I seem to recall reading somewhere or other sales figures of 75 thousand for a typical album of his. Which is a small figure, but not negligible. I'll try and trace this factoid down. I doubt A&M makes or loses much money off of him - typically he records an album relatively quickly, requires little post-production fiddling, does a shoestring tour. Not much in paid advertising done for new albums. I'd bet that A&M keeps him on with the hope that maybe one of his albums will almost accidentally hit it big, and if not, he's the kind of critic's fave that lends an air of taste to a label's otherwise bilious stable of mediocrities. (But note some of those mediocrities may sell mounds of records). I don't think Robyn lives in San Francisco any more. At least not enough to maintain an apartment here. Haven't the faintest whether the one in Georgetown (DC) is his or Cynthia's. I'd be more curious as to what kind of place the Isle of Wight house is. (Jim?) Money? Earlier on, when Element came out, in reference to the wealth question, Robyn claimed to not own any silk shirts. But he does have a sense of commerce, albeit perhaps a tasteful one. When questioned about all the Hitchcock 'product' (i.e. t-shirts, etc.) he said that yes, there would be that, but it would be as good as he could do it. At any rate, I don't think he's made a heap of money off of his music yet. He's more fortunate than many musicians in that he has a devoted following who will buy almost anything he puts out, yet he's never had what one could term a huge hit. Andy From silva@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu Thu Jun 3 13:41:29 1993 Received: from mond1.ccrc.uga.edu by wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) with SMTP id ; Thu, 3 Jun 93 13:41:29 -0400 Received: by mond1.ccrc.uga.edu (5.57/Ultrix3.0-C) id AA08920; Thu, 3 Jun 93 13:36:16 -0400 Message-Id: <9306031736.AA08920@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu> To: seven@dbis.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de (Susan Johanna Even) Cc: silva@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu, narten@cs.albany.edu, fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: Re: sTarvaTioN... In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 03 Jun 93 18:32:00 +0600." Date: Thu, 03 Jun 93 13:36:15 -0400 From: silva@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu X-Mts: smtp SusaN seZ... hey, has Robyn gotten FAT? please say it isn't so! Well he isn't a pale thin English PoP sTar anymore dearie. Just PaLE and EngLish...JoE From seven@dbis.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de Thu Jun 3 12:31:00 1993 Received: from milano.dbis.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de by wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) with SMTP id ; Thu, 3 Jun 93 12:31:00 -0400 Received: by dbis.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de (Smail3.1.28.1 #9) id m0o1ICu-0001CDC; Thu, 3 Jun 93 18:32 MESZ Message-Id: From: seven@dbis.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de (Susan Johanna Even) Subject: Re: sTarvaTioN... To: silva@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 18:32:00 MESZ Cc: narten@cs.albany.edu, fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu In-Reply-To: <9306031429.AA08396@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu>; from "silva@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu" at Jun 03, 93 10:29 am Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.30] > RoByn looks a touch thick around the middle for him to be considered > "starving" by any means, but he's not jetting from gig to gig either. hey, has Robyn gotten FAT? please say it isn't so! From MARTINP@CGSVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU Thu Jun 3 18:02:48 1993 Received: from CGSVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU by wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) with SMTP id ; Thu, 3 Jun 93 17:10:10 -0400 Received: from CGSVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU by CGSVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU (PMDF #2326 ) id <01GYY05ABWYO8WYY2Y@CGSVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU>; Thu, 3 Jun 1993 14:10:03 PDT Date: 03 Jun 1993 14:10:03 -0700 (PDT) From: MARTINP@CGSVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU Subject: robyn starving? To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Message-Id: <01GYY05AC6LU8WYY2Y@CGSVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU> X-Envelope-To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu X-Vms-To: IN%"fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu" Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Well, based on his appearance in southern cal a few weeks back, I wouldn't say "fat", pudgy maybe. And Andy's loosing his hair and Morris dresses like he's color blind. One of the things I love about this band is that they look like real people. I'm a new subscriber and a novice at e-mail and the net, so I hope this is going where its supposed to. Martin From andyh@cogs.susx.ac.uk Thu Jun 3 19:26:28 1993 Received: from csuna-gw.susx.ac.uk by wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) with SMTP id ; Thu, 3 Jun 93 19:04:09 -0400 Received: by csuna.crn.cogs.susx.ac.uk (Smail3.1.28.1 #40) id m0o1OHd-0000ExC; Fri, 4 Jun 93 00:01 BST Message-Id: From: andyh@cogs.susx.ac.uk (Andy Holyer) Subject: Re: robyn the starving artist To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Date: Fri, 4 Jun 93 0:01:17 BST In-Reply-To: <9306031731.AA23295@snowy.qal.berkeley.edu>; from "Andy Ruppenstein" at Jun 3, 93 10:31 am Recently, Andy Ruppenstein said: > > Just how well Robyn is doing financially from his art is a good question. ... (etc, etc...) It is sort of interesting. What I'd like to know, is, like does he make as much as I do? or more? or less? OK, OK, for comparison, I make about $30K (I *think* that's right - a bit dodgy on the exchange rate). At least, while I still have a job, that is :-( ) > > I don't think Robyn lives in San Francisco any more. At least not enough > to maintain an apartment here. Haven't the faintest whether the one in > Georgetown (DC) is his or Cynthia's. I'd be more curious as to what > kind of place the Isle of Wight house is. (Jim?) > A house on IOW would cost about (pounds) 50 thou. Not an awful lot. Could be a *lot* more, tho. Assuming he owned his house in Crouch End (which I would tend to doubt) that would be *big* bucks^H^H^H^H^Hpounds. About 200,000 when he lived there. > Money? Earlier on, when Element came out, in reference to the wealth > question, Robyn claimed to not own any silk shirts. But he does have > a sense of commerce, albeit perhaps a tasteful one. When questioned > about all the Hitchcock 'product' (i.e. t-shirts, etc.) he said > that yes, there would be that, but it would be as good as he could do it. > But he does wear Paul Smith Suits (those loud suits of his). A Paul Smith suit is most of a grand. I don't have one. Although I'm on my second Paul Smith shirt :-) &. -- &ndy Holyer, School of Cognitive and |'Is it angst or too much lager?' Computing Studies, University of Sussex, | 'POSSIBLY!' JANET: andyh@cogs.sussex.ac.uk | - Andy White From TCLARK@AppleLink.Apple.COM Thu Jun 3 20:37:33 1993 Received: from guardian.apple.com by wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) with SMTP id ; Thu, 3 Jun 93 20:37:33 -0400 Received: from [90.1.0.8] by guardian.apple.com with SMTP (5.65/7-Aug-1992-eef) id AA17708; Thu, 3 Jun 93 17:20:27 -0700 for Received: by alink-gw.apple.com (921113.SGI.UNSUPPORTED_PROTOTYPE/28-May-1993-eef) id AA27522; Thu, 3 Jun 93 17:19:36 -0700 for FEGMANIAX@GNU.AI.MIT.EDU Date: 04 Jun 93 00:14 GMT From: TCLARK@AppleLink.Apple.COM (Clark, Thomas) Subject: Re2: sTarvaTioN... To: FEGMANIAX@GNU.AI.MIT.EDU Message-Id: <739153176.0563327@AppleLink.Apple.COM> >> RoByn looks a touch thick around the middle for him to be considered >> "starving" by any means, but he's not jetting from gig to gig either. >hey, has Robyn gotten FAT? >please say it isn't so! I don't think I would call it 'fat'. He's surely not as anemic looking as has hak. alast5@ Robydo i@snvi i<9sincsincss, s, s,,Pre w-000n andy; Thu, 3 J; Thu, 3 J;;camy.ga.edga.edgone ione io In70707ccrccrcTioN.TioN.T poId:usen ln lnululush.begEdu (haiAt ak.umsch,of eof eoo of hÅmy and and GIGIGugaS.Cg it.edu it.edu ic:le.c.1.1..35353 of mooCDT D pl03 Jun 03 Jun 0fer- 3irtsalthstioed tdu,ïir au> backbackbGeoGeoGGfiguseveess ess e83ul Srte? playsƒƒƒ nee. tEncEV.albany.e2:3d1àFr #4bj8bj8bany.etedtedtti-, so, so,85tpo!93939m b93 ’ureureun thiar.boum bm bmm93 19306€ar.n ln bidoes questA03A03Asa.al48X-aniax@aniax@as &85okumly, ly, lartists@gnu.@gnu.@m bm65ReplReplRRbt1 eit urel.dSMTPraterater