C8ke
Offline
New Orleans, LA

So my question is a little less on the technical and musical side and more on the business side so please bear with me.

Where do ya'll see the market for chiptunes at? Where do you perform? (if you do) Like what cities are you all from? and do ya'll get together?

Also does the market for chiptunes look promising? Have you made any money off of the chiptune scene? And what source did you make that revenue if you did (merch, performing, publishing)?



Personally I am from New Orleans. I have grown up here and as you may have heard it is a big jazz city. Not like New York jazz though. Some of it is the standard stuff, but more now I am seeing jazz funk and jazz rock bands or hip-hop influenced by jazz. But it is also very welcoming to other types of music, we have a indie rock scene growing and we did have a metal scene here for a while (now only House of Blues "houses" that scene [pun intended])

Thank you for your time,
C8ke

calmdownkidder
Offline
Liverpool, UK

New York is without a doubt the epicenter of modern chipmusic, because there is a dedicated team of people who (in most cases are musicians also), take on the promotion/organizational roles that any musical scene requires.
There are little pockets of popularity elsewhere (Philadelphia has had a regular show for a while, Boston and Los Angeles have risen up recently) - the UK has seen semi-regular shows in Liverpool, London, Newcastle, and increasingly Scotland, with their Ultrachip two-day festival in Edinburgh being a big success. There's a regular gig Eindbass in Holland, as well as the odd show in Paris/Nice, France. Australia's scene has grew massively popular in the last few years, thanks to the musicians and the regular Sound Bytes show that has hosted acts from US, Japan, UK, Europe plus the variety of Aussie acts.

http://chipaedia.com/Category:Shows

Whilst a few musicians appear to be working full or close to full time purely on chipmusic, this is purely a few (I can't see there being any more than 10 or so) - the sheer majority of people break even or lose money to play shows, purely for the love of the music. Money is mostly from merch, plus sales on sites via bandcamp - making money from shows is rare, but not impossible.

Shiru
Offline
Russia, Moscow

Lower a market entry requirements, less money there, down to zero. To make chip music, you don't need anything special, no money needed to start, no advanced performing skills involved, so everyone could do this, and a lot of people do this now.

Few years ago there was a way to make money with chiptune music, through making music for small games - ones which distributed over internet (not Flash) or for mobile devices. Today these games don't have to be optimized by size and CPU resources, and there are way more musicians than demand from game developers.

Generally, it is really difficult to make a money from any music. With chiptune the difficulty only increases.

e.s.c.
Offline
IL, US

if youre in it for the money, chipmusic is the wrong scene, if youre in it for friends & drinking stories on the other hand....

Subway Sonicbeat
Offline
Brazil

In Brazil we had luck by making money from shows, but that's such an isolated case that I doubt it could be repeated in any other country.

Lazerbeat
Offline
Tokyo, Japan

I think Chipmusic as a market is a bit of a suckers bet. Pretty much any indie music scene the way you make money of it is the same

- Be really good at what you do
- Give away a lot of free music to get your name out and encourage people to come to your shows / lust after your merch
- Have options for people to buy music if the want to in various formats
- Gig as often as possible
- Sell T-Shirts, mugs, any merch you can think of
- License/write music for games, commercials, TV shows, Podcast themes
- Cross your fingers and hope you get some luck.

If you are in any kind of indie music for anything other than love and friendship it is a fairly hard road.

I am based in Tokyo and there are I think 2 regular chip shows here with numerous other chip friendly shows, a couple of chip friendly music fairs and more talented people than you could shake a stick at, there was also a Blip festival here. I think pretty much everyone does chipmusic as a labor of love, with a small number of folk (YMCK) doing it as a full time job and several others doing jobs in the music / game music industry. Then you have Hip Tanaka who is a special case elder god of chip music who change your world live.

e.s.c. wrote:

if youre in it for the money, chipmusic is the wrong scene, if youre in it for friends & drinking stories on the other hand....

I was in it for groupies and hand jobs but I have been sorely disappointed so far.

Heosphoros
Offline
Lazerbeat wrote:

e.s.c. wrote:

if youre in it for the money, chipmusic is the wrong scene, if youre in it for friends & drinking stories on the other hand....

I was in it for groupies and hand jobs but I have been sorely disappointed so far.

I'll give ya a handy wink

10k
Offline
nɐ˙ɯoɔ˙ʎǝupʎs
Heosphoros wrote:
Lazerbeat wrote:

I was in it for groupies and hand jobs but I have been sorely disappointed so far.

I'll give ya a handy wink

Mine mustn't have been up to scratch. :-/

calmdownkidder
Offline
Liverpool, UK
10k wrote:
Heosphoros wrote:

I'll give ya a handy wink

Mine mustn't have been up to scratch. :-/

Yeah, scratching is rarely good.

cTrix
Offline
Australia

Where do ya'll see the market for chiptunes at?
A passionate few who are committed heart and soul.  The market is the people who care enough to come to gigs, and sometimes their friends who are curious to come and enjoy the show.  If it isn't raining. Chip artists also occasionally fit in as a novelty act at commercial events.  Sometimes you even get a free drink card!

Where do you perform? (if you do)
Everything from our door dance events to nightclubs to boat parties, a warehouse party in Germany, birthday party on LI, even an indie music festival in NZ.  Then on multiple radio shows and once at a sound engineering conference.

Have you made any money off of the chiptune scene?
It COSTS me about $5000 a year. Hardware alone has cost almost $500 this week (new Lynx, Lynx flashcart, a 2nd Harmony cart and a new effects unit).  It also takes most of my holidays, time off work and almost cost me my girlfriend on the last tour.  But it's fun and the people are amazing. The only thing close to payment is the fact you can travel to another country / city and get accommodation with other chip artists.  But I'd not visit these places without the chip / demoscene being there in the first place.  It has been an amazing way to see the world so far and I wouldn't trade it for any money.  As Shiru from Russia said (just a few posts ago) "it is really difficult to make a money from any music".  A few will find their way commercially I suspect; although probably not pure chip music.

Like what cities are you all from? and do ya'll get together? 
We are all from different places and we all get together yes.  Stay at each others houses and borrow gear, etc.

Also does the market for chiptunes look promising?
  I think it'll stay exactly as it is - with a lot of satellite small shows scattered in citys around the globe.  With a few international "bigger" events a year (and maybe those events might even cover 50% or more of flight costs in the future if they get more people!)  It's not even up to the point where it's self sufficient - it just relies on love.  And the odd handy from 10k ;-)

chunter
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA

I'm glad the right people have answered on this thread, and hope I'm adding something useful by saying:

Speaking mostly for myself, the chipmusic audience is spread very thinly around the world and is occasionally on the socially introverted side, so if you're in this gig/art to make money you are probably barking up the wrong tree.

In the places where there are regular gigs and big festivals, I have a lot of respect for the hard work (and hard-earned funds) put in to create them, so much thanks to the people that make it possible.

nickmaynard
Offline
rochester, ny

Where do ya'll see the market for chiptunes at?
People in their 20's. People who like electronic music. People who had Gameboys when they were younger. But I don't think chip music has a "market" (except for in an extremely broad sense) because chip music isn't a genre. Different bands would have different "markets" because they sound totally different.

Where do you perform? (if you do)
I set up a monthly chip music event in Rochester, NY. I play at bars, clubs, houses, basements, etc.

Have you made any money off of the chiptune scene?
I get paid for playing shows. I get paid for merch at shows. I get paid for selling music online. Not a lot but some.

Like what cities are you all from? and do ya'll get together? 
If you look under our avatars, you can see the cities we're from. Also, there are some larger festivals.

Also does the market for chiptunes look promising?
Promising in what way? I have a lot of fun making chip and non chip music. It looks promising that I will continue to have fun with it.

jefftheworld
Offline
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
nickmaynard wrote:

Also does the market for chiptunes look promising?
Promising in what way? I have a lot of fun making chip and non chip music. It looks promising that I will continue to have fun with it.

This.

herr_prof
Offline
Unsubscribe

This thread sickens me.

poke-1,170
Offline
Eanske, Holland

Beware that wanting to make money out of this results in instant death,
like Malcolm Mclaren (too soon anyone ?)

SKGB
Offline
Godzilladelph

pssssh i don't know what ya'll are talkin about, chiptunes made me rich as fuck