Kate Nash has a message for critics: “Not all heroes wear capes. Some just sell pictures of their bum.”
The singer’s bum jokes pepper the dialog, however her arse – as she says – highlights a really severe level. “The music industry is failing. It’s failing its artists, and soon it’s going to be failing fans, too.”
In case you’re unsure why Kate Nash’s backside is now an emblem for saving the music business, a recap: final week, the singer introduced she had joined OnlyFans, the net grownup content material subscription service well-liked with, however not solely for, intercourse staff.
#ButtsForTourBuses, Nash mentioned, will subsidise her dwell reveals, which have gotten prohibitively costly for a lot of artists.
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Pic: Clemens Niehaus/Geisler-Fotopres/picture-alliance/dpa/AP 2019
Final yr, a Musicians’ Union and Assist Musicians census discovered musicians’ common revenue was £20,700, in comparison with a inhabitants common of £37,430 for full-time staff. However nearly half the musicians who responded have been taking house lower than £14,000, and greater than half counting on different sources of revenue.
Business insiders say even established names are having to tackle second jobs.
Nash, 37, is a longtime artist who rose to fame along with her 2007 debut album Made Of Bricks, and its hit single Foundations. She starred within the Netflix feminine wrestling comedy-drama Glow, launched her fifth album, 9 Unhappy Symphonies, earlier this yr, and has nearly 1,000,000 month-to-month listeners on Spotify.
After we converse, she is in the midst of a run of UK gigs at venues as much as 1,500 capability. She thought of cancelling after excursions within the US and Europe left her struggling financially. Prices have gone up by nearly a 3rd lately, she says.
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Greater than 100 venues have been pressured to shut or cease internet hosting dwell music in 2023
“It’s a financial strain and everybody at my level and under is feeling that. You just lose so much money touring.”
To make up for the shortfall, Nash has despatched her posterior viral. Her first photograph on 20 November gained tons of of likes. The images present her in her knickers, nothing specific. “This is what a feminist looks like,” is her t-shirt slogan in a single picture.
A subscription is $9.99 (about £7.95) a month. The singer would not need to reveal but how a lot she has earned however says it has already made up for any losses she incurred on tour.
“I’ll just say you can make a surprising amount… right now it’s just for me to see what happens – and see how far my arse can take me.”
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Lily Allen has shared footage of her toes. Pic: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP 2024
The musician will not be the primary to show to OnlyFans. Rappers Iggy Azalea and Cardi B reportedly made tens of millions earlier than coming off the location, and earlier this yr, Lily Allen claimed her account promoting footage of her toes was incomes greater than her seven million-plus month-to-month Spotify listeners.
OnlyFans says it empowers content material creators, notably girls, to monetise photographs and movies on-line in a secure surroundings. In 2021, actress Sarah Jayne Dunn, who was starring in Hollyoaks on the time, joined the location to do exactly this – however was then dropped from the cleaning soap because the content material did not align with its youthful demographic.
And there was criticism over the potential for exploitation – a current Reuters investigation talked to girls who claimed that they had been pressured to generate profits for others.
However like Nash, Allen mentioned she discovered the expertise empowering, “because having been very sexualised from a very early age and literally everybody else in the process profiting from that sexualisation, it’s actually really fun to be in power and in control of something that I find so silly”.
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Actress Sarah Jayne Dunn left Hollyoaks after becoming a member of OnlyFans. Pic: Brett Cove/SOPA Pictures/Shutterstock
Nash says she needed to be sincere in regards to the difficulties of touring. Just some weeks in the past, BBC Sound Of nominee and NME award winner Rat Boy introduced he was cancelling his band’s UK tour, saying they could not make it inexpensive, “even with us driving, teching and all four of us sharing a single bed on top of the van”.
Singer-songwriter Rachel Chinouriri, who’s supporting Sabrina Carpenter’s UK and European tour dates subsequent yr, additionally cancelled a sequence of US dates resulting from prices. In the summertime, Mercury Prize nominee Nadine Shah mentioned she turned down a slot at Glastonbury because it was “too expensive a hit”.
Brexit, the pandemic and now the price of dwelling disaster have impacted everybody, however specialists say the music business has been hit notably exhausting.
Sarah Pearson, who has labored within the business for 25 years, runs administration and PR company Wasted Youth Music and is co-founder of the Past The Music co-operative. She says many artists have lately had no alternative however to tackle different work.
“Fans and consumers and people outside of the industry might think it’s a glamorous life… but it’s just not true [for most] anymore,” she says.
“We’re at an impasse right now where artists can’t make money from their art, which is serious for our cultural future. Where is the money going to come from and how can we create sustainable careers?”
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English Instructor received the 2024 Mercury Prize. Pic: PA
In March, singer Lily Fontaine, from this yr’s Mercury Prize winners English Instructor, spoke in parliament in regards to the “ongoing crisis”, alongside David Martin, chief government of the Featured Artists Coalition commerce physique.
“Audiences are finding their purses are very tight and they can’t afford ticket price increases, they’re scaling back,” says Martin. “On the supply side, costs are going up. Artists are the biggest employers in the music industry. On the live side, artists pay for practically everything – accommodation, transport, rehearsals, session musicians… managers, crew, technicians, agents.”
Based on the Music Venues Belief, 125 venues have been pressured to shut or cease internet hosting dwell music in 2023 resulting from prices. Up to now this yr, greater than 70 festivals have closed.
However a current report discovered that UK music’s contribution to the economic system in 2023 hit a document £7.6bn, with exports additionally hitting a brand new excessive of £4.6bn – so there’s cash to be made.
“There are real issues about how artists have been locked into contracts that were perhaps signed before the digital era,” says Martin. “There is money in the system. It just needs to be distributed equitably.”
Earlier this month, the federal government introduced plans to push by way of a voluntary levy on tickets for live shows at stadiums and arenas to assist fund grassroots venues.
It is a “massive step”, says Past The Music’s Pearson, however assist can be wanted for different areas of the business similar to recorded music, too: “There needs to be a massive cross-industry investment fund… something like the Football Foundation where the Premier League clubs invest in the grassroots to develop and nurture talent for the future of the sport.”
Some family names have kicked issues off themselves, with Coldplay pledging to donate 10% of income to assist smaller venues, and Katy Perry giving £1 for each ticket offered, from their enviornment and stadium reveals in 2025.
As for Nash, she says she didn’t “need” to affix OnlyFans, however selected to in order that she will run her operation ethically. “I pay good wages, I don’t travel dangerously… I want to put on high-quality shows. I won’t sacrifice those things.”
There may be “no shame”, she says, in how troublesome it’s for performers to earn a dwelling now. “And I’m in a unique situation because I had a number one record 20 years ago that still helps me reinvest into myself. But it’s still not enough. What about people that don’t have that?”
The singer says in the end, she would moderately generate profits by way of sharing her backside footage than by way of relinquishing management.
“Some people think [OnlyFans] is a compromise – that’s how I would feel in a more corporate setting,” she says.
“My bum is for sale – my artistic vision is not.”
