Should artists get paid for their value? Or their time? 

Artists deserve to make money from their music, just probably not in the way you think. 

There are two primary ways to get paid for making music. 

Your time. 

Or your value. 

And the two are not the same. 

The problem is, independent artists waste energy wanting to get paid for their time while producers, session players, and side men want to get paid for their value. 

But the market rewards the opposite. 

Getting paid for your time 

If you are a producer, touring musician, session player, mix engineer, mastering engineer, or any other of a slew of different job titles that falls under the masthead of “working musician”, you are more than likely getting paid for your time. 

You have to show up to make money. 

Yes, there are instances where equity is given to some of these job titles (fairly common for the recording side of things), but as you go lower down the totem pole, equity opportunities shrink until they cease to exist altogether. 

The guitar play for the solo artist playing the opening slot doesn’t generally get a cut of ticket sales. 

Instead, he gets what’s known as a “show pay”. 

A flat rate to show up, plug in, and play the songs he has been tasked to play. 

And this is fair. 

In all likelihood, the side man didn’t write the songs, take the risks, and put in the effort without getting paid for the years it takes until you can play the opening slot on the big stage. 

But the artist did. 

Now, at this level, the side man might make close to what the artist makes, maybe more, because the artist’s expenses are pretty high from paying a live band, travel, lodging, meals, etc. 

But fast forward a few years, and with a bit of luck, this setup shifts, and the artist starts making way more than any one person in the band. 

Because the risk has paid off and the artist has delivered value at scale. 

Getting paid for your value 

Now before you jump down my throat, yes, every musician that comes together to write, record, or perform music brings a certain amount of value to the table, so don’t hear the opposite. 

However, when an artist writes the songs, takes the risks, believes in the mission, and executes to turn dreams into reality, they deliver a ton more value to music fans than someone getting paid to play. 

So as an artist’s career progresses, they should get paid more. 

They shouldered the risk and created more value.

Again, this is fair. 

Now one of the single biggest complaints I see from the independent artist community online is that artists deserve to be paid more for their work. 

And while I do agree that streaming royalties are insultingly low, even if the payout rate were doubled or tripled, it really wouldn’t change anything for the majority of those complaining about how much artists get paid. 

Because most of these people are working under the assumption that they deserve to be paid for their time, not their value. 

And the unfortunate truth is that most independent artists deliver very little value. 

Look, no one cares whether it took you 1 hour or 100 hours to write, record, and release a song. 

It just doesn’t matter. 

For example, it took Leonard Cohen five years to write "Hallelujah", but it only took Bob Dylan 15 minutes to write "Blowin' in the Wind". 

And neither number matters.

The quantity of effort, as an artist, doesn’t matter. 

What does matter is the quality. 

Or put another way: the value an artist delivers to fans through their work. 

And this is where taking risks comes into play because you can spend 100 hours on a bad song that no one wants to hear. 

You can also spend 1 hour on an absolute hit. 

The market doesn’t care about the inputs, only the outputs. 

Is it a good song? 

And this is in direct opposition to the hired gun game, where musicians are paid almost exclusively for their inputs with no equity stake in the outcome. 

Because they’ve shouldered little to no risk, and the value they put into the market, compared to a successful artist, is minimal. 

Putting it together 

Making money from music is a good and noble pursuit. 

If you’re good at something and seek to do it professionally, you deserve to be compensated for it. 

Full stop. 

But don’t misunderstand the game you are actually playing. 

If an immediate, steady paycheck is what you’re after, reconcile that with yourself and pursue avenues that compensate you for your inputs. 

Producing, session work, mixing—work for hire. 

But if you’re willing to take risks and pursue high potential upside, equity, and value, then perhaps being an artist is for you. 

But know that it might be a long time before you make any real money, and that’s the risk you sign up for. 

Whatever you do though, just don’t complain about not getting paid for your work, especially if no one is listening in the first place.