LOS ANGELES — If the years playing shows and releasing music have taught Anthony Marks anything, it’s that it takes financial planning to keep the music playing
"It's hard to build additional wealth and to have some sort of stability because really musicians just want to jam. Right?" said Marks.
It’s a tough reality that many musicians face, as along with making music, they have to figure out how to fund shoots, pay crews, book venues and still turn a profit.
A Wellness in Music survey from 2024 found income instability is a major hurdle, with 53% of respondents saying earnings have not stabilized post pandemic.
It’s why Jennifer Horton, music executive and founder of Matrix Equity Partners, hosted a panel called "Where Art meets Capital," bringing other industry leaders to share their experience navigating financial decisions.
"What you realize as you walk into a bank is you need to look the same as like this retail store or this restaurant, or a financial services company that does tax, there's so many different business models, but entertainment doesn't look like that on paper. So you quickly realize that you have to be talking to either a specialized banker, which is a whole nother part of this learning journey," said Horton.
She says because irregular income is often a barrier for musicians to access capital, she launched Matrix Equity Partners. Where she is focusing on investing and financing musicians to go beyond the music making aspect to stay afloat.
"Maybe you need to look at merchandise, maybe you need to look at also offering what about classes, what about mentorship, what about hosting your own events? What about, you know, take everything that you're doing and try to extend it into other areas because when something gets low, something else could pick up. So diversification is huge as a response to our changing times," said Horton.
With over 800 published records, producer and songwriter Akil "Worldwide Fresh" King wanted to be on the panel sharing the financial learning curve he went through making it in the industry.
"You don't have any education," said King. "You don't know that you go where your bank is, your credit score is messed up, you have no money, and then somebody does a deal and says, we're going to give you a million dollars, that million dollars is gone. You never had a million dollars, so you don't understand what that means. You don't know about the terms reversion rates in these different conversations. All you know is out of 10 pages. I'm going to sign on is dotted line because I need that million dollars, because I'm also making up for all the things that I already invested."
King stresses educating others and sharing financial knowledge is the only way to thrive in an ever-changing industry.
"People who have come before me could get rich off one CD, one album. Right, because $13, you break it down to a couple cents or a dollar, you you doing really good. At that time, albums were selling two, three million copies. That's three million copies at $13.99. Well, today it's streaming and there's no more $13.99," King said.
That issue with streaming royalties is something Marks knows well, as the financial literacy panel comes just as he is about to release his third album with the band he and his brother have called Go Brother Go.
"I've realized already the little bit of money that we're going to start to make off of it," said Marks. "I'm going to instantly want to invest that in management and in just additional capital to raise more funds to get my name out there."