Life as an artist

Sturla on life as an artist and the business around it

Sturla has been on X Factor, Idol, The Voice and Melodi Grand Prix, and had a record deal with Sony. A conversation about life as an artist and the business behind it – from television competitions to royalties and booking your own concerts.

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What this covers

The road through X Factor, Idol and The Voice
Sony, and what a 360 deal actually covers
Why things took off after the deal ended
Tono and Gramo – the two separate tracks
How Gramo is divided
What streaming actually pays
Where the money really comes from

What this covers (cont.)

Two ways of being paid for a gig
What different jobs are worth
The smelter, the Porsche and the decision to quit
The target of 100 concerts
The advice he passes on

Three TV competitions

The road through television

X FactorEntered at 16 or 17 with a friend, as a duo. The friend did not go through, but one of the judges wanted to hear Sturla sing alone – and he went through.
IdolPresumably the year after, auditioning in Trondheim. Immediate and enthusiastic response from judge Gunnar Greve.
The VoiceA couple of years later, and a far better experience: fixed audition slots instead of long waits. Coach Sondre Lerche hit the button after half a second. In the duel round he faced his own best friend, and went out.
Melodi Grand PrixCame later, after the record deal. A fee for taking part, and payments through Tono every time a broadcast or repeat airs – less than he had expected.

He never reached the live shows in either X Factor or Idol. It was on The Voice that he first felt the force of television: several thousand friend requests on Facebook from people he did not know, and a sold-out concert at the local culture house shortly afterwards.

Sony and the 360 deal

A 360 deal covers nearly the whole career – except the part the artist earns most from.

How he explains it: it is not employment, but a combined publishing and production contract. The label takes responsibility for funding studio time, production and release.
The exception: live performance. That stays with the artist.
In practice: he moved to Oslo on a student loan, and kept the shop job there for a while to make ends meet.

The two tracks: Tono and Gramo

This is the most precise and useful part of the episode, and worth understanding even if you will never make music.

Two rights in one song

Tono

The work itself

The lyrics and the melody
Belongs to whoever wrote the song
Pays out quarterly

Gramo

The recording

The recording itself – the master
Belongs to whoever owns it, and the performers on it
Pays out mainly once a year, in March

When a song is played on the radio, both must be paid: the writer through Tono, and the recording through Gramo. They are entirely separate tracks, and the same person may hold both – or only one. Which is why "who owns the song" rarely has a single answer.

Gramo income splits into two equal halves.

Half goes to the producer – whoever financed and owns the recording. Sturla deliberately keeps that role himself, because it is favourable.
The other half is shared between the performers on the recording under a role-code model – lead vocal, backing vocal, individual instrument – where the sum is split in proportion to the points each role earns.
Any business playing music commercially, from a café to a concert promoter, has to register and pay into both. As an artist, Sturla registers his own concerts in Tono's portal, with audience numbers, ticket revenue and which songs were played.

What streaming actually pays

His estimate: around 0.006 kroner per play. About 60,000 kroner for a million.

And a play counts after a few seconds of listening.
He is open about his own position: for a Norwegian artist he does not stream badly – and there is still little to be had. The payment arrives via PayPal, where he also pays for his own Spotify subscription. By the end of the year there is not much left.

Where the money really comes from

The income sources, as he ranks them

Source	What it gives
NRK P1	the "gold sack" – what genuinely counts
NRK P3	something, but far less
Concerts	the day-to-day income
Corporate gigs	often the most profitable per hour
Streaming	little – see the estimate above

The order is the opposite of what most people assume. Streaming figures are the visible ones, and the ones that get discussed – but radio play is what produces payments of any size. Which is also why the payout rhythm matters: Tono comes quarterly, Gramo mainly once a year.

Two ways of being paid for a gig

Guarantee or door

Guarantee

The promoter pays a fixed sum

The same amount regardless of turnout
Gives the promoter a reason to promote it
Predictable for the artist

Door split

The artist takes the tickets

The artist keeps the ticket revenue
The venue earns on bar and food
The upside is the artist's – and so is the risk

He sometimes negotiates a hybrid: a guarantee combined with a share of the surplus, particularly at venues he is unsure will draw a crowd on their own. The work rarely arrives by itself – he still sends cold emails and rings promoters by hand. The easiest calls are to places where he already has a way in; the hardest are to venues with an artistic profile far from his own.

What the work is worth

His estimates

Job	Amount
Corporate gig, half an hour to an hour	20,000–30,000 kroner
Festival set, established Norwegian artist	around 1.3 million
Minimum rate per musician, Creo	6,200 kroner
Festival's cut of merchandise	he has heard of around 25 per cent

The festival figure sounds high on its own, but covers band, sound and technicians. At the same time he points out that several festival promoters are struggling with their margins. Every figure here is his own estimate from the industry he works in, not an official rate.

The smelter, the Porsche and the decision

The target

100 concerts during 2026 – a target set while he still had a steady job to fall back on.

The deadline was 1 January 2026 to leave for good. When the episode was recorded he had about 60 concerts behind him.
His comparison: the Vikings burning their ships. Once the fallback job is gone, you have to make it work.
And the daily reality behind it: a sole proprietorship, accounts in Fiken, and a morning routine he introduced because nothing arrives by itself – up by nine at the latest, plan the day.

The advice

Asked what he would say to others wanting to go for it, the answer is not what you might expect from an episode otherwise about business:

Key points

Three TV competitions gave him exposure, but he never reached the live shows in any of them.
A 360 deal covers production and publishing – but not live, which the artist still controls.
Things only took off after the record deal ended: more streaming, more concerts, and two P3 A-listings in one year.
Tono handles the work itself, lyrics and melody. Gramo handles the recording. Two entirely separate tracks.

Key points (cont.)

Gramo income splits in two equal halves: one to whoever owns the recording, one to the performers on it.
His estimate for streaming is around 0.006 kroner per play – about 60,000 kroner for a million.
Radio play is what counts, and he calls NRK P1 the gold sack.
A concert is paid either by a guarantee from the promoter or by the artist taking the door.

Key points (cont.)

Corporate gigs are often the most profitable: 20,000–30,000 kroner for half an hour to an hour.
He left his steady job in January 2026, and compares it to burning the ships.

Questions this answers

What is it like taking part in X Factor, Idol, The Voice and Melodi Grand Prix?
What does a record deal and a 360 agreement actually involve?
How does an artist make money today?
What is the difference between Tono and Gramo?
How much does streaming really pay?
How does an artist book concerts themselves?

Questions this answers (cont.)

What should you think about when it comes to riders and technical equipment?
What is it like combining a music career with an ordinary job?

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