[danem]

It’s astounding how often people conflate advances and loans when talking about the music industry. If anything it’s closer to seed capital than a loan.

[snapcaster]

Don't you have to pay back advances? Never heard of that happening for failed investments outside of fraud

[danem]

Advances are recouped from the sales of your albums or tickets. Assuming you’ve made a good faith effort to fulfill your obligations you don’t need to repay the advance or pay interest on the advance if your album doesn’t sell.

[bitnasty]

Given the low ratio of “making it” to “wanting to make it” I would assume that there are many people who DO actually take out loans.

[arrowsmith]

Joe Satriani famously self-funded his first album by taking on large amounts of credit card debt.

I'm sure there are many, many other musicians who took a similar risk that didn't pay off as well as it did for Satriani