Pat Green Discusses the Business of Making Music

Having released albums such as Wave on Wave and Lucky Ones on a major label, but also several projects independently or on smaller labels, Pat Green has seen both sides of the music industry. Now, as he promotes his latest record, Home, released on Thirty Tigers, the country artist says that he is realizing that both ways of releasing music have their merits.

"I understand business. I understand the fiscal and the financial side," Green tells The Boot. "If you’re selling CDs at $15, and you’re making them for 78 cents, there’s some profit there. [But] now, you’re spending the same amount of money to make the CD, and you’re selling them for 99 cents per single."

The heart of the issue, Green says, is how technology is rapidly changing the way that people purchase music.

"People just don’t buy the full record anymore," he notes. "There’s a few. There’s Taylor [Swift] and the people that are out there selling full records still, but there’s just not very many. And so that record industry has just gone down by 60 percent, 70 percent. Radio isn’t getting any easier or less competitive there. That’s a tough business model; it’s tough to make it work."

The "While I Was Away" singer found much of his early success by pounding the pavement all over Texas, performing at clubs and smaller venues and learning principles that still apply today.

"To me, giving the music away, or making it very, very cheap, that’s the only way to do it," Green says. "But once again, you’ve got to be determined. My rule of thumb has always been, ‘You can’t outwork me.’ If you outwork me, then you deserve more."

Home is available for download on iTunes.