Can I become a millionaire being a drummer?

sega039

Member
Gentlemen,

Could you please give me your thoughts and views on whether an amateur drummer who wants to become a professional drummer and drum for living in a life-long run has an opportunity to join 8.6 MM army of the world’s HNWIs (high net worth individuals) defined as those having investable assets of US$1 million or more, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables and consumer durables.

What does actually affect drummer’s marketability and what lead a drummer to the success and money?


Many thanks & best regards,

Sega

www.whatdrum.com
 
Maybe if you get primary songwriter credits on a bunch of mega-hit songs, and get royalties out the wazoo as well as people covering your song left and right. As a hired gun or in a band? Not very likely.

Otherwise, the surest way to get $1,000,000 in the music industry is to start with $10,000,000.
 
Wealth is really indirectly proportional to the number of kids you are going to have.

My story:

I was accepted to one of the best engineering schools; but I dropped out after the first year. I did not like it. After school I moved out to California and worked for this company that organized conventions of which one was a computer tech convention. I used to meet all these nice guys from Intel and they would give me a few T-shirts. A few years later, I see on the news, all these guys are multi-millionaires, never would have to work again, and I'm still organizing conventions and that was the day gig that supported my drum habit.
 
Gentlemen,
Could you please give me your thoughts and views on whether an amateur drummer who wants to become a professional drummer and drum for living in a life-long run has an opportunity to join 8.6 MM army of the world’s HNWIs (high net worth individuals) defined as those having investable assets of US$1 million or more, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables and consumer durables.
www.whatdrum.com


Sure you can. Buy a lottery ticket.
 
It's very unlikely but not impossible.


One million pounds/dollars is a bit excessive though. No one needs that amount of money! IMO, a having successful drumming (thus earning less than £1 million) is worth more than getting £1 million doing something you hate!
 
Otherwise, the surest way to get $1,000,000 in the music industry is to start with $10,000,000.

qft.

Yup, get the songwriting credits, get a publishing deal and land your music on an internationally syndicated television show, preferably as the theme song.
 
qft.

Yup, get the songwriting credits, get a publishing deal and land your music on an internationally syndicated television show, preferably as the theme song.

warning: thread hijack in progress

It makes me wonder, did the Who really have to sell their songs to make a buck? They must heve been plenty rich already. It's kind of a shame that a whole generation will probably think of Baba Oreilly and Won't Get Fooled Again as the themes to the CSI shows. In their minds the Who will always be linked to David Caruso and his cheesy Horatio Caine character.

(or were these songs not under the control of Pete & Roger?)
 
I envy my man Charley Watts. All he has to do is provide some simple beat , people would tune the drums for you, Engineers would create the best sound for you (no matter where you hit!), never have to say a word at business meetings, absolutely nothing to do to please other band members for keeping the drumming job, makes billions and still be a family man and get all the respect from other band members and from everyone else..,,all without even knowing how to read music.
 
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I think it's possible if you invest your money. Now I'm far from being a millionaire, but I own real estate and that's made all the difference in the world. With the way the world-wide economy is going I really don't know how much money I have (I leave all that up to the wife and our solicitor) but we're doing okay.
See, nobody makes money from only one thing. You invest, you keep your eyes and nose open, you think ahead, you budget, you set up trust funds, you keep your money working instead of leaving it sitting in a savings account or a bogus retirement plan.
And you never, ever, play the stock market. I mean never.
 
Yes, you can.

But you have a better chance of winning a million dollars playing the lotto than drumming.

The number of drummers who reach that level of financial security are few and far between, and even fewer are able to keep that status upon reaching it.
I imagine a number of guys who have been lucky enough to have a hit album followed by a major tour have earned a million, but lost it when the next record didn't sell as well.
 
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warning: thread hijack in progress

It makes me wonder, did the Who really have to sell their songs to make a buck? They must heve been plenty rich already. It's kind of a shame that a whole generation will probably think of Baba Oreilly and Won't Get Fooled Again as the themes to the CSI shows. In their minds the Who will always be linked to David Caruso and his cheesy Horatio Caine character.

(or were these songs not under the control of Pete & Roger?)

Yes, it's sad, and I hate it when a good classic song is turned into TV fodder.

A couple of things:

Roger has no control. Pete is the only song writer on those two songs, as he is on 80-90% of the Who's catalog. This is mentioned in "The Kids are Alright/" And in a recent concert TV special, Pete and Rodger are cracking jokes, and Pete says "well, if you had bothered to write any of the songs, maybe you'd have more money"

It's been well documented that The Who signed really bad deals early in their career that gave their managers and assorted record company people a larger cut than most bands. Along with their high touring expenses, The Who spend the entire 60's broke, even though they had a string of hit songs.

It's been well documented the band members weren't very good with their money. In the book "Moon" there is a conversation where Keith complains he doesn't have nearly as much money as John Bonhan has, which came down to those poor contracts, and the fact that Keith spent his money almost as fast as he could earn it.

The tour that John Entwistle was supposed to do right before he died in 2002 was only being done because John was in debt. Pete has said in many interviews that at the time, he only agreed to do the tour because John really needed the money.

And there is the facts that The Who never released as many original albums as other bands over the same time period, and Pete's solo works were hit and miss as far as being big money makers.

Is this an excuse? No. Only Pete knows why he sold the rights to his songs.
Jimmy Page said for years he would never sell his songs to advertising, and then one day Led Zepplin is playing during Cadillac commercials.

I've heard many, many stories of musicians who should have a lot of money, but just don't. They spent their riches thinking the next record will make just as much money, and the next record didn't sell as well as expected, and the musicians are back to renting an apartment.
 
Yes you can. One way is to join a band and they become as famous as the Stones, U2, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, etc. Also if you hire the right manager and lawyers that negotiate the right deals and handle your business affairs properly you should reach your goal of becoming a millionaire drummer. There are other ways but those are a little harder. Good Luck!
 
What does actually affect drummer’s marketability and what lead a drummer to the success and money?

Playing the right parts... and luck.

If you intend to make a lot of money playing drums, you are probably in for a disappointment. And if you do end up making a bunch of money, you will probably say "How did that happen?"

Note that some of the richest drummers in the world have played the simplest parts, so don't confuse technical ability with income growth (Ringo is rich, Dave Weckl is not.) And there's no career path for musicians who want to make a killing playing. You either get a lucky break, or not. The best you can do to help engineer opportunities for success is to be in the right places at the right times. Unfortunately it's impossible to know beforehand where and when those will occur.

And as mentioned, managing money is crucial. There's an old saying in the entertainment industry: making a million dollars is easy... holding on to $2 is hard.

BTW, a million isn't a lot anymore.

Bermuda
 
the thing is, even if you were going to make BIG money it would'nt happen until your in your mid forties in my opinion.......you would have to work your ass off and do every gig you can for about 20 or so years to get recognition, and hense respect and money.
 
To hell with the money do it cause you love it! If it brings you financial success well then that's a bonus.
 
Playing the right parts... and luck.

If you intend to make a lot of money playing drums, you are probably in for a disappointment. And if you do end up making a bunch of money, you will probably say "How did that happen?"

Note that some of the richest drummers in the world have played the simplest parts, so don't confuse technical ability with income growth (Ringo is rich, Dave Weckl is not.) And there's no career path for musicians who want to make a killing playing. You either get a lucky break, or not. The best you can do to help engineer opportunities for success is to be in the right places at the right times. Unfortunately it's impossible to know beforehand where and when those will occur.

And as mentioned, managing money is crucial. There's an old saying in the entertainment industry: making a million dollars is easy... holding on to $2 is hard.

BTW, a million isn't a lot anymore.

Bermuda

Very good point about getting the big breaks. A lot of people can play better than "that guy" but sit there and go " why not me?" There were better rocket scientists alive when man first walked on the moon that had nothing to do with the rockets that got us there. They just didn't have the job at NASA or Lockheed and the other guy did.
Also, am I the only one who picture Bermuda sitting by a swimming pool, in a lounge chair, under an umbrella, sunglasses on, large iced tea within reach, typing on a laptop thats resting on his legs??? hahaha Bermuda rocks!
 
Sure it's possible, Dr. Evil could hire you and pay you "ONE MEEEELLION DOLLARS."
 
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