NYC musicians struggle to make a living. Small venues struggle to stay profitable. Millions go to music licensing, too little of what NYC spends goes to NYC artists. Sinfonik works with local governments to increase income for artists, lower music costs for venues and government, and keep more music value in the local economy.
01 — The Challenge
Artists57%
of New York artists earn $25,000 a year or less — close to the $21,870 NYC poverty line for a single adult. [1][2]
$38K
average yearly earnings of a freelance musician or singer in NYC — versus $107,000 for those on a payroll. [8]
14,465
musicians, singers and related workers live in NYC — a majority of them self-employed. [8]
Venues42%
of U.S. restaurant operators said their restaurants were not profitable in 2025. [3]
72%
of NYC restaurants and bars surveyed reported a drop in sales in summer 2024 versus the year before. [10]
$4,500
a year paid by the average U.S. restaurant to license music — about 0.5% of sales, on 3–5% pre-tax margins. [9]
02 — Why is it this bad?
New York is full of local talent. Almost nobody plays it.
Venues pay blanket licenses to a few performing-rights organizations. The fee is the same whether they play a Bronx songwriter or a global superstar, so there's no reason to choose local. The money follows the charts — and the charts are concentrated in a handful of international stars. The money flows out of the city.
Local music18%
of the music New Yorkers stream comes from New York artists. The other 82% comes from elsewhere. [4]
Money leaving NYC~$84M
a year in music-license fees paid by NYC restaurants and bars ends up with artists from outside the city. [5]
A pilot for NYC songwriters and neighborhood businesses.
Sinfonik and New York City could work together on a pilot to boost demand for local music and lower what bars, restaurants and government pay for it.
With Sinfonik, NYC artists grant a direct public-performance license; participating venues get curated playlists where half the repertoire is local and pay no public performance fees for songs included in those playlists. The City boosts its local economy and its cultural life.
50%of the music in participating venues from NYC artists
01 · ARTISTS
License directly, keep every right
Non-exclusive and free to join. Venue plays run on streaming or downloads, so they're traceable and can generate royalties.
02 · VENUES
Press play, pay no license fee
Curated playlists — 50% local, 100% human-made — covered by a free public-performance license.
03 · NYC GOVERNMENT
Support for artists and venues, and a lift for the local economy
Restaurants save on licenses, songwriters get played and paid, and the value stays in New York.
04 — What if NYC used Sinfonik?
More income opportunities for NYC artists. Lower music costs for venues. Economic development for NYC.
Music Licensing is deeply connected with the local economy. We created a simple model to make these connections more salient.
Venues with Sinfonik00% of 23,000
Venue with SinfonikNot yet1 dot = 23 venues
Hours of local music0hours a year of NYC artists playing in the venues that join
Local song plays0plays a year of songs by NYC artists in the venues that join
Potential savings for bars & restaurants$0a year if they used only Sinfonik and saved $4,500 per venue in PRO fees
From a NYC artist
See a testimonial from a NYC artist on Sinfonik.
05 — Start with a pilot
Let's make New York's music pay New Yorkers.
City agencies and partners can request the pilot brief.
How the model worksHours: venues × 8 h/day × 360 days × 50% local. Plays: 17 songs per hour (~3.5 min per song).Profit boost: the National Restaurant Association reports that $4,500 in music licensing is 0.5% of a small restaurant's sales, on 3–5% pre-tax margins. So the average venue sells ~$900,000 a year ($4,500 ÷ 0.5%) and, at a 4% margin, earns ~$36,000. Without the license fee it earns $40,500: +12.5% per venue. For the whole sector: 23,000 venues × $36,000 = ~$828 million in yearly profit. The % shown = total venue savings ÷ $828 million (e.g. 2,300 venues × $4,500 = $10.35 million → +1.25%; all 23,000 → +12.5%).Restaurant wages: savings ÷ $45,240, the NY-metro mean food-preparation-and-serving wage ($21.75/h × 2,080 h, BLS May 2024) — an equivalence, not jobs created.Savings: 23,000+ NYC restaurants and bars (NYC Hospitality Alliance, with NYS Comptroller data) × $4,500 a year, the average music-licensing cost reported by U.S. restaurant operators (National Restaurant Association, 2025). Assumes joining venues play only Sinfonik music.Economic output: (venue savings + artist streaming royalties) × 1.53, the ratio of total to direct output in NYC's music industry ($21B / $13.7B). From MOME / BCG (2017).Above the poverty line: 14,465 NYC musicians & singers (NYC Comptroller, 2022). NYCgov 2022 poverty line: ~$20,530 for a single adult. Baseline: 79.5% above it (20.5% of New Yorkers are below). Logic: venues play local music → artists get known → more live gigs. Live shows are ~45% of a musician's income (MIRA/Princeton); the largest documented exposure effect on small artists' live income is +18% (Mortimer, Nosko & Sorensen, 2012), scaled here by the share of venues that join. Every participating musician gets played; we assume 1 in 3 gets invited to play live, matching the 32% of independent musicians who say finding live opportunities is hard (Xposure, 2023); the pilot would measure the real rate. Extra income per invited musician = $20,530 × 45% × live lift (max $1,663). Musicians lifted = invited musicians whose gap to the line is smaller than that: 42.9% of New Yorkers are below 1.5× the line, so ~2.2% of people sit in each $1,000 just under it.Illustrative scenarios, not observed results. The pilot would replace every assumption with verified NYC data.
Sources
[1]Creatives Rebuild New York, Portrait of New York State Artists (2024). creativesrebuildny.org ↗
[2]Robin Hood / Columbia, Poverty Tracker Annual Report Vol. 7 — 2023 NYC thresholds ($43,740 at 200% for single adults). robinhood.org ↗
[3]National Restaurant Association, 2026 State of the Restaurant Industry: 42% of operators said their restaurants were not profitable in 2025. restaurant.org ↗
[4]Skoove & DataPulse Research, city-level Spotify Top 100 analysis, 2024–25: share of NYC charts by New York State artists. skoove.com ↗
[6]NYC Hospitality Alliance, District Dining Guide 2026: 23,000+ restaurants and bars citywide, with district data from the Office of the NYS Comptroller. thenycalliance.org ↗
[7]MOME / BCG, State of the Music Industry in NYC (2017): $13.7B direct and $21B total output; nearly 60,000 jobs. nyc.gov ↗
[8]Office of the NYC Comptroller, Spotlight: New York City's Creative Economy (2024): number of NYC-resident musicians, singers & related workers; self-employment; average earnings, payroll vs. freelance (2022 ACS data). comptroller.nyc.gov ↗
[9]National Restaurant Association, comments to the U.S. Copyright Office on PROs (April 2025), as reported by Bloomberg. regulations.gov ↗
[10]NYC Hospitality Alliance, summer 2024 survey of 354 NYC restaurants and bars (June 1–Aug. 31, 2024 vs. 2023), as reported by amNY. amny.com ↗
[11]U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wages in New York-Newark-Jersey City, May 2024: food preparation and serving related, $21.75 mean hourly wage. bls.gov ↗
[12]NYC Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity, New York City Government Poverty Measure 2022: thresholds ($44,297 for a family of four), 20.5% in poverty, 42.9% below 150%. nyc.gov ↗
[13]Music Industry Research Association / Princeton University, U.S. Musician Survey (2018): share of musicians' income from live performance. musicindustryresearch.org ↗
[14]Mortimer, Nosko & Sorensen, "Supply responses to digital distribution: Recorded music and live performances," Information Economics and Policy (2012). doi.org ↗
[15]Xposure Music, Music Industry Report 2023: survey of independent musicians; 32% cite finding opportunities to perform live as a challenge. xposuremusic.com ↗