A friend and I were discussing the sad demise of Andy Fraser and his relative inactivity since Sharks folded. I ventured the opinion that if I had written all of Free’s hits by the age of 20 I might feel inclined to put my feet up for 40 years or so. Paul Rodgers, also, has hardly bust a gut since Bad Company broke up.
My question is this. Hardly a week goes by without my hearing “All Right Now” on one radio station or another. How much would the artist and writers get paid for being played on, say, Chris Evans on Radio2
PRS
If you search teh Interwebs for “How much does Noddy Holder make per year from Christmas song” it seems it’s half a million or more. I’d say that the Free songs are likely to have bought in a steady stream of royalties, but nowhere near as much as this.
Alright Now though is a global, year-round hit, whereas Merry Xmas Everybody is not. Indeed the wikipedia entry for Alright Now states:
“”All Right Now” was a #1 hit in over 20 territories and was recognised by ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) in 1990 for garnering 1,000,000 plus radio plays in the U.S. by late 1989. In 2006 the BMI London awards included a Million Air award for 3 million air plays of All Right Now in the USA.”
That’s a spicy meatball!
To put this into perspective, I once read that Lee Mavers gets something like the equivalent of £1,500 to £2,000 a month for airplay of There She Goes. Obvs it varies (and he’s probably not paid monthly either) but the payment is for the airplay. It doesn’t make more money for being on Chris Evans as opposed to Southwold FM…
You do actually get more PRS for a national station like Radio 2 than for a local station. It’s almost three times as much.
I don’t believe that Noddy Holder figure. I am sure he does ok, but that sounds inflated. That song also means nothing in the biggest markets
Sorry, i just saw the phrase “Noddy Holder figure” and was about to write “Those people at Mattel have gone too far. Will somebody please think of the chilllldren!”
Didn’t Gerry Rafferty once say that Baker Street made him £80k a year?
Probably why he obviously doesn’t feel pressured to make any new records.
Yeah, why the past tense? I still hear it all the time on the radio…
Surely a lot depends on the deal they had. Some people sold loads and made rock all – others sold less and made more if they had a decent percentage. A word in defence of Paul Rodgers – he has done a bit – The Firm, Queen, the Muddy Waters album, the Memphis album…plus he’s toured a lot. Hardly sitting on the sofa.
Got the Muddy Waters album and saw the tour. It was great. Steve Lukather is a hell of a guitarist and Jason Bonham can’t half bang them drums. I don’t know where he gets it from.