I do not look forward to the day when earnings start to drop year of over year.
I always seem to be out ahead of the curve. Ended up there at the beginning when no one was writing for libraries, I was one of the first to get clobbered by having my music illegally put into a subscription plan (which I promptly torpedoed when I found out), I was getting my shows pulled out of broadcast and put into streaming before many of my colleagues. And now, finally, it’s happened. Royalties have been in a solid year of decline.
This may be an anomaly. Honestly it’s too early to tell. But my shows and placements are going up at a fairly exponential level. However royalties have stagnated, softened, and are now down enough (25-35%) to make me sit up and notice. It was a harbinger for me when Disney Channel offloaded a huge portion of it’s catalog that played consistently over the decades on their channel to Amazon / Hulu, etc.. That was the shot over the bow…..
How it will all shake out will take time to discern, but I am not nearly as optimistic about the potential as I once was. I know the biz. I’m not slacking. And although there are changes that seem to baffle, I’m still writing and trying. I used to tell young writers that it was a goldmine waiting to me mined. Now, that mine is looking suspiciously like a dark deep hole in the ground.
We’ll see. Be I fear that I’m out ahead of many of you. I’ve had a huge amount of material transition out of solid network/cable play to streaming. The results are not pleasant. Often a 90% drop in payment compared to years of consistent cable payments. Ugly times…..