BRW Magazine - Australia
"BRW Young Rich - Australia's Richest People Under 40" issue
September 4, 2003

This is the part of the article that was about Darren (and Daniel). Thanks to Hilda for sending it to me to share with all of you. :)

2003 YOUNG RICH
$39 million
Darren Hayes 30
Daniel Jones 30
Entertainment
22

    

San Francisco. Former Savage Garden front man Darren Hayes says that when he sings, it feels like he is speaking to God. Whether his voice has a heavenly quality is open to question, but one thing is irrefutable: his singing makes him lots of money. Savage Garden's Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones have a combined net worth of $39 million. After recording their first album in a lounge room, they have sold 20 million albums worldwide. Only 10% of album sales have been in Australia.

Since Savage Garden split up in 2001, Darren Hayes has sold one million copies of a solo album. For each unit sold, most artists earn about 10% of the album's wholesale price. The extent of Hayes and Jones's financial success is a result of a special arrangement signed by their agent in the early stages of their careers. John Woodruff Management signed the band when Hayes was working behind the counter of a video rental store and Jones was unemployed. Woodruff paid the $200,000 recording costs for Savage Garden's self-titled debut album himself. He then approached the recording company Village Roadshow. It agreed to pay the band $14 per unit. Each unit has a retail price of about $30. Woodruff's fee was reported to be about 20% of the band's album sales.

The deal was attractive to Village Roadshow because the recording costs had already been incurred. It also received a small cut of international sales. Columbia, a division of Sony Music, bought the right to sell Savage Garden albums in the United States and Europe.

Savage Garden's second album, Affirmation, was released in 1999. It has sold more than five million copies worldwide. The band split when the members decided to pursue solo projects and Woodruff says there are no plans for it to re-form. "You couldn't find two more different people," he says. "The only thing they had in common was the music."

Jones is now living in Brisbane with Kathleen de Leon of the children's entertainment group Hi-5. He is self-employed as a record producer. Hayes lives in San Francisco, where he continues to make music.

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