Kulturomania compared the income of rappers and classical music performers during the pandemic

The Kulturomania journal has analyzed how the pandemic affected the musicians’ earnings. It turned out that digitalization has led to an ambiguous result: the highest earnings are among the promoted singers with the most unpretentious performance technique and lyrics. Performers of complex academic music cannot compete with them, which is very clearly demonstrated by the pandemic.

The journal cites as an example the statement of the popular Russian rapper Morgenstern, who said that he earned more than 12 million rubles from the streams of the “Legendary Dust” album. And it took him a week to record the album.

On September 20, the world-renowned jazz trumpeter Vadim Eilenkrig and his band presented a new album “Newborn” at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. According to the calculations done by the Kulturomania journal, fees from ticket sales could be around 1,125,000 rubles.

Alexander Klevitsky, General Director of the Russian Musical Union, Chief Conductor of the Academic Grand Concert Orchestra named after Silantiev, confirmed that the situation in the field of academic music is very difficult: “Ticket sales have dropped. Firstly, they are not sold for all seats, half of the chairs should be left empty, since the halls must have a staggered seating order. Secondly, in Moscow, the elderly people are restricted from trips and travel in the city, and mostly they made up the audience of concerts and performances. Therefore, now the performances bear losses. And of course we feel for the artists and musicians.”

Alexander Klevitsky, who is also the Board Member of the Russian Organization for Intellectual Property (VOIS), is confident that everyone is in the same boat: “No concerts – no deductions go to the Russian Authors’ Society and VOIS. Artists, producers, studios, sound tracks holders are left without money.” According to him, this is the first time such a situation has developed in the music industry, and it is very difficult to predict what it might turn out to be.