Episode #4
Artists should know this information when they decide to dedicate themselves 100% to their career. Even more so if they are thinking with a cool head about what would happen if they were left without a voice to sing? Or if, as they grew older, no one would want to hire them for publicity or concerts.
Operational work is what artists are initially passionate about. Producing, performing at events, and participating in publicity, however, all of this is tied to health, spirits, and eternal youth.
Shakira in October 2017 was diagnosed with vocal hemorrhage in her right cord. He thought it was something that would take him a couple of days or weeks, but his nightmare lasted so much that he had to suspend his entire “Dorado” tour. It is not very easy to imagine the monetary losses of a Shakira world tour since only the team that travels with her for each presentation is 60 very high-profile people, not even to talk about everything that is triggered economically.
I personally went to his concert in 2018 when he rescheduled and I noticed without any difficulty that he sang very little. Most of the concert was in sequence and although it was a magnificent show, I know that her vocal health is a matter of concern for the artist.
If you think this is too far-fetched an example of bleeding, I want you to know that a lot happens and to name a few more I mention Adele, Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins), Sam Smith, Yuri, José José and many more.
Another option is that things go wrong or, rather, extremely bad in an event that is too important and that affects your career in the extreme, as was the case with Mariah Carey. This artist sang at one of the most watched events of the year. The end of the year countdown in Times Square in New York in 2016. Things were very complicated for her and unfortunately she made it very noticeable and has not yet managed to revive the entrepreneurs to achieve the rhythm of events that she maintained. I cannot fail to mention the 2020 pandemic that affected all artists, and especially those who live exclusively from that aforementioned operational work.
These are just a few examples to think about how an artist should anticipate his finances the day that something of this happens to him.
Let's go back to the case of Shakira, now that the artist must take more care of her voice, that she has a family already with children entering adolescence who demand her time, that her desire to live different experiences tries to distract her from her 100% focus on continue to nurture a career and the pandemic that leaves her with few presentation options, she showed her powerful asset asleep.
Shakira sold the rights to her catalog to Hipgnosis. 146 songs valued at approximately $ 80 million. That little detail that was starting his career with her songs, today he paid that millionaire to be able to live the rest of his life with peace of mind. It is not the only one of course, so did Paul McCartney, Julio Iglesias or Bob Dylan, who sold his entire catalog to Universal Music this year 2021 with more than 600 songs and including the royalties of his Nobel Prize in 300 million dollars.
It's bad business not to write your own songs. Make the effort to find your style, develop your compositions no matter how hard it is at the beginning. Your catalog is your only asset that does not depend on your operational work. Rather, all your efforts in health and youth will give value to that hidden asset that will later keep you afloat.