While launching a heavy band has some added benefits, financial stability is rarely one of them. As many groups can tell you, touring can result in barely breaking even—if at all. The advent of digital piracy and the streaming model that followed, largely gobbled up the revenue artists would see directly from their music alone. That’s also not factoring in long-running plague of shady label execs, managers and promoters to be ever vigilant for.
While today’s current climate is even more challenging, with soaring inflation, an energy crisis and rising merch cuts, that’s not to say that first decade and change of the 2000s were any easier. Tyler Dennen, past vocalist for inactive metalcore outfit Sworn In, recently shared some sobering financial realities about his own experience in the music industry.
Sworn In themselves were active from 2011 to 2019, issuing a pair of albums on Razor & Tie, before moving over to Fearless Records for what stands as their final offering, “All Smiles“.
Dennen‘s recent post on the band’s finances led to some conversations with various other musicians, including Miss May I frontman Levi Benton, Fit For A King bassist Ryan “Tuck” O’Leary, For The Fallen Dreams guitarist Jim Hocking, All That Remains guitarist Jason Richardson, Yüth Forever vocalist Devin MacGillivray and more.
You can see some excerpts and exchanges from that conversation below:
oh fun fact, Sworn In Band LLC has grossed well over 2 million dollars in its lifetime and we as members, performers and song writers saw MAYBE $7,000 each TOTAL from 2012-2018
— tyler dennen (@tylerdennen) January 19, 2023
fucking insane dude
— tyler dennen (@tylerdennen) January 20, 2023
dude yeah!! it crashed merchnow or w/e we were hosted on at the times site! 30k in 48 hours. we saw squat hahaha man if i only knew what i know at age 29 back then… woulda dug into it immediately investigate and solve. ah well live n learn ??
— tyler dennen (@tylerdennen) January 19, 2023
?? can’t say it was easy and can’t say it’s easy now, but it’s a journey and i’m thankful that i’ve had the opportunity to do what i’ve done, and to gain any sort of supportive platform of folks who believe in honest emotional expression yfm?
— tyler dennen (@tylerdennen) January 19, 2023
gross not net, so all revenue before expenses. guarantees, merch, music sales/streams etc etc
— tyler dennen (@tylerdennen) January 20, 2023
one time we came back from a tour that we netted 12k from and each got 5 dollars
— FreakLoco300 (@DevMacGillivray) January 19, 2023
Music business sucks fucking ass
— Jason Richardson (@jasonGRIN) January 20, 2023
agree x a million
— Skyler Acord (@Skyduck64) January 20, 2023
Seemingly spurred by this recent conversation, Chris Fronzak, who fronts Attila and has carved out an affluent lifestyle for himself across various business ventures, recently vented on his own financial shortcomings in the music industry, offering:
After the news I just found out, I can promise you that NONE of you have ever been financially fucked over more than I have. Fuck all these shady ass snakes in this stupid fucking music industry…..
— Chris Fronzak (@FRONZ1LLA) January 20, 2023
That definitely sucks ass and I'm sorry but I'm not talking about $10,000 I'm talking about $1,000,000 + ??
— Chris Fronzak (@FRONZ1LLA) January 21, 2023
Outside of being an artist, Fronzak himself previously ventured running his own label, which would go on acquire the catalog of Eulogy Recordings, among other moves.
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