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How Much Does it Cost to Produce a Recording?
An anonymous reader writes "How much does the average new album cost to produce? I have seen this cost estimated between $500,000 and $1,000,000, but some quick figuring does not support a cost this high. According to various sources (Ok, Slashdot stories...), somewhere around 27,000 albums are produced each year and 906.6 million albums are shipped. I would guess that the album retail (about $15 per album) is based on a 100% markup, so that these 906.6 million albums are sold at wholesale for about $7.50 apiece, which means that the revenue from wholesale sales is about $6.8 billion. This means that the actual production cost has to be less than $250,000 per album, otherwise the record industry is losing money. I have left out the cost of actually printing and copying the albums as I think that the average cost is probably less than $0.25 per copy."
I have a friend who did some record production a few years back. Overall his cost of production was never more than $3000 or $4000. That all said, he never had to do the recording or the mixing or any of that. Nor was paying the band part of the deal. Still when we are talking real production cost of the CDs themselves, we are talking dirt for that. When you start talking studio time and the time and effort to mix a CD properly, then we are talking a great deal more.
But still, just looking where I live (Austin, TX) people are able to churn out decent CDs without a huge effort or much money, so when you get right down to it, outside of paying your "talent" we are talking a relatively small figure.
RonB
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
My band released our second CD (right before getting signed alas) independently and the seven songs on it (about 30 minutes worth) cost us about $15K of studio time. Note that this was a no-name studio, with a no-name engineer, and self-produced. We've known small bands that have been signed to semi-majors, and even a somewhat-known producer, engineers and studio time can easily cost $250K. I imagine top quality studios, engineers and producers cost much more.
And, if the label thinks you might actually move some units, they'll be paying expenses, per diems, touring costs and marketing. Believe me, that can cost a lot of $. Fact is, it costs a lot of money to put together a "best-seller."
FYI, signed bands actually pay for the recording costs (the money is "fronted" by your label) so the studio only pays if the album doesn't break even (most albums actually) -- and if the band never generates sales to cover it, the label will eventually eat the cost, but even in those cases it's a write-off
You would be surprised how many bands you know that have never made a dime from royalties because they owe their label for the recording costs. Hopefully most signed bands are smart enough to know that the only money they'll likely see is from sales of schwag.
Steve Albini wrote a classic article, The Problem with Music, on the financial shenagins pulled by the record industry.
The article demonstrates how a band can manage to generate millions of dollars of profit for a label, but still owe the label money.
The article includes sample figures that indicate 'recording costs' of $150,000, and a wholesale price of $6.50 per CD (circa 1994, when the article was first published).
That's right, I was hoping somebody would point that out. A good description of this process has been made by Steve Albini, in Some of your friends are already this fscked.
philcrissman.com.
You seem to think the band makes its money from CDs. Let's hear from a career musician.
From personal experience: in 37 years as a recording artist, I've created 25+ albums for major labels, and I've never once received a royalty check that didn't show I owed them money. So I make the bulk of my living from live touring, playing for 80-1500 people a night, doing my own show.
-Janis Ian
Yes, you absolutely can get a set up for $20,000, but you get what you pay for. There are some things you can skimp on, but some things just simply cost big money and cutting corners directly impacts the sounds quality. For example, you simply can't buy a decent sounding studio vocal microphone for less than $1000, and you should be spending more like $3000 to get something that sounds nice - you can spend more if you want. A decent analog compressor will set you back over $1000, and while digital compression has its place (I'm definitely no luddite when it comes to audio technology) there are still times when an analog compressor is best for a number of reasons.
There is monitors and amps. The sky is the limit here, but I wouldn't mix a commercial album on anything costing less than $5000 (yes, I do use near fields most of the time, but still need the big speakers for reference).
Then you get to room treatment... oh boy. This one is HUGE. If you want a great sounding drum kit, you need in rough order:
- A great drummer
- A great sounding drum kit
- A great sounding room
- A bunch of nice mics (5 - 10 mics at $1000+ each)
- A bunch of good quality inputs for those mics
- Then something to mix it with, record it on, etc - that's almost a detail
A great sounding drum room with decent sound proofing can easily cost tens of thousands without going over the top. Let's not even mention the acoustics in the control room. On top of all that you need a skilled, experienced engineer who understands how all the above interact - the human, the acoustics and the electronics are all part of a complex synergistic relationship that feed off each other (yeah, it sounds like hippy crap, but it's true - work a few years in a studio and you'll know what I mean).This is just getting started, I could go on. So for those who think all you need is a beefy PC/Mac, a copy of Cubase and a nice sound card, then you need to get out of hobby land and work on some real records. BTW, I'm certainly not saying that you don't use those things, I'm generally a fan of computer based recording, but they are just a small part of a big picture.
One caveat: for electronica, anything goes. There are no rules and no real concept of low end as far as budget goes. I'm mostly talking about music with live musicians, which there will always be a demand for.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
In late 1996, a label rep from WEA (Warner's distribution arm) told me that it cost the label an average of $3.20 per cd to get it to market. Thing is, that's for a major artist, and that cost includes promotion, big-name producer, etc. Your mileage will vary significantly.
My advice is to get a good hard-disc 16-track (about $800) and do everything up to the mastering process yourself. Take the product to a local engineer and have him master it (usually about $200, often far less). With the finished product in hand, all you have to do is cut a deal with a distributor. From there, you have the choice as to how it's marketed, promoted, and most importantly, priced. Even if you can sell it at $10.00, you'll be far cheaper than major-label stuff, and yes, price is a selling point.
One last thing. If you do it yourself, it's yours. It can't be shelved three weeks before release, used without your consent in a Gap commercial or held for ransom because you threaten to break a restrictive and humiliating contract. Paul Simon still has to pay to play "Sounds of Silence" in his concerts.
THE GOOD HUMOR MAN CAN ONLY BE PUSHED SO FAR
Bart Simpson on chalkboard in episode 2F18
The problem is that not every record sells a million copies. Not every artist tours large arenas and stadiums. Many international artists sell perhaps 50000 copies per album, and tour at small clubs. If they can afford to tour at all.
Let's say we have a five-piece rock band just trying to get their stuff heard. After spending months of their free time writing and rehearsing material they decide to record a four-song demo. One full day in a studio with an engineer. Then mastering, and optimistic 1000 copies of the disc, including cases and artwork, to sell in the Internet. Total cost approximately $2000. If they sell all the copies for $6 they get $6000. Reduce expenses, and they have $800 for one person. That's not much for months of hard work put into their material.
Let's take another example. CMX, a popular Finnish band who have basically no markets outside of Finland, because all their material is in Finnish. Three years ago they did a 120-minute double-album, which has sold over 20000 copies (that's successful, gold certification in Finland is 15000). They had two studios for four months to record it. Total cost, including cost of people involved, was probably somewhere near $200000. That's about $10 per album sold. Add distribution and marketing. Had it been a single-disc album it would've been a disaster, but as a double-disc it could be sold for a slightly higher price of about $22-$25.
This is one of the most expensive albums ever produced in Finland. It wouldn't have been made if they weren't a well-established and popular band. Getting songs even recorded and released if your potential audience is small (like in smaller countiers, or with somewhat marginal music) isn't easy.
Most less-known artists have dayjobs, because they would have to sell tens of thousands of CDs every year to make enough money to live. A lot of my over 600-CD record collection is from artists, who sell perhaps 20000 copies of their albums worldwide. They simply can't afford $200000 to do a record, nor have they time to write and record a new album every year because of their jobs.
Then again, should records really cost only as much as the production, marketing and distributing them really costs? Sure, you could get the latest Britney Spears or Limp Bizkit disc for $5 and they would still be profitable for the record company, but stuff by CMX or Shadow Gallery or [insert your favourite underground artist] would still be at least $15 just to break even.
I have a band, Metric Nut metricnut.com, and we have a cd about to come out on February 25th on Times Ten Records. The cds total cost to record for us was about $10k. This is a pro peice of work. The studio that we use is a moderately high end place that charges in the 500 a day range and since we aren't selling a million records we only pressed a couple thousand at about 90 cents each. We have gotten a little college play around the US, and some good reviews, so you can figure that the recording is decent enough, although look at the white stripes...that is a garage recording.
Anyway, for refernce, Nirvana's big hit record cost about 50k in the end to record, they probably paid somewhere in the 10-20 cent range for each unit, but they spent 100 million on promotion. its pretty easy to see why they charge 15 dollars each.
In the end it realy depends on your level in the pyramid, and your budget. I have heard awesome records that i know cost half of what our did, so It can be done relativly easily, you just have to have your head on the right way on the right day.
The / in
Remember you are paying for MORE THAN THE DISC when you buy a CD. I must admit that CD's are grosley overpriced. YES, the record companies are making a killing and YES, the artists are (for the most part) getting screwed. However, looking over the threads, I've seen some people are a bit unclear about the process of creating a CD and the costs involved.
As mentioned in an earlier post, the compact disc media has become very very cheap over the last 15 years, yet CD prices continue to rise. Here are some of the other costs involved in producing a CD:
MECHANICAL LICENSE FEE: When you buy a CD, part of the cost covers a mechanichal license fee. Believe it or not there is a fee of 7.55 cents PER TRACK for any CD pressed.
RECORDING/ENGINEER FEES: It is not a simple process to create a CD. There are 3 steps, recording (at least $2,500 per track assuming you don't need to many overdubs), mixing (at least $2,000 per track) and mastering (at least $500 per track). Now these costs are relative to the caliber of studio you record and mix at. For a big-time artist at a platinum-quality studio, you can easily quadrouple these numbers.
RECORD COMPANY FEES: Most people get upset and claim these guys are driving the cost way up. Well, for the most part, that is true. But it is important to realize that these people are the ones responsible for promoting an album. The artist does NOTHING to help move their albums (well, I suppose you can count touring). The producers and record execs do all the work to push your album.
PRODUCTION: It boils down to $2.25-3.00 per disc for 1,000 - 10,000 copies. This includes a glass master, the disc itself with 4-color face printing, 10 page 4-color insert, jewl case, barcoding and all those annoying stickers on the case edge. For large quantities, the cost is certainly hess. Probably about 40% less for more than 500,000 copies.
I certainly hope you find this information useful.
-DJ Blair