This is a subject close to my heart and my work.
I can say that by and large, musicians on the underground metal level do not make their living by music alone. Most have jobs, even those selling 30,000 records. Even if you sell 50,000 records. Here's the math: the label gives you money to record a record, which is recoupable, let's say they give you $40,000 to do a proper recording with someone like Andy Sneap or whoever. You finish the recording with, most likely, no money to show for it. Then you go on, do a lot of shows, taking a lot of tour support because chances are you're going to play somewhere and need your flights, or immigration visas, or crew, or backline, or gas and tolls, or whatever paid for, and the show fees probably aren't covering it all. Maybe you are, but chances are you'll need tour support sometime, somewhere. If you spend 6 weeks on a nightliner, even sharing with a few bands, it costs a lot, plus those other costs I mentioned. So whatever money the label gives you, let's say they give you another $30,000 for tour support (and it's often a lot more), that's recoupable too. So you come home from the tour with, once again, no money, and now you owe the label $70,000 (recording plus tour support, plus some labels recoup other things too like co-op ads, some even recoup advertising and hiring an outside, promoter). But let's say it's just $70,000. So what do you get for those 50,000 albums sold?
Well, normally at this level you're getting a percentage, either of the selling price or retail price, and there's often a lot of deductions in the deal which all come out of the band's royalty. The label sold the CD for $9.99 at Best Buy? Deduction. They pressed it on CD? Deduction. (Seriously) They sell it in a foreign country? Big deduction. Oh, and they hold back up to a quarter of your royalties in case they get returns, which is sometimes held for up to a couple YEARS. So if you're supposed to get 14% of the wholesale price, say that's a $10 wholesale price, you get $1.40 per CD sold, and minus those deductions, it's very possible you wind up around $1.05 per copy (often less). So those 50,000 sales got your band $52,500 in royalties. Which means you still owe the label $17,500 to repay the costs they sunk into it. Cool eh?
So how do bands ever make money? They need to set up good deals. Better royalties (and less deductions) help, but when bands get a bit more established, their show fees get bigger and sometimes they don't need tour support and can even come home with a bit of money, but in general bands will make some money on publishing royalties, on merchandise, and maybe on touring. And with a lot of semi-established bands, not every guy in the band is making the same amount. Whoever writes the music or lyrics is the one taking the cut of publishing royalties. And you can pretty much guess which bands have this setup. Do you really think the rest of the guys in Cradle earn the same as Dani Fiilth? Hell no. They're hired guns, and that's why he swaps them out (or they get fed up and leave) with all the emotion that you change the batteries in your remote control.
So it's probably fairer to say that some guys make a living from music, but it may not be all the guys in a band. Sure, the bigger bands who can do headlining sets on festivals and tours (let's say Children Of Bodom, or Mayhem, or even Behemoth since they're living in a cheap country) are making their living off music. But most of those Relapse dudes, or whatever? They probably all either have flexible jobs, or generous girlfriends, or live in their parents' house.
It's not all doom and gloom and you can do well, but like AC/DC said, it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock 'n' roll. Hope this helps a bit though.
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