After some feedback, I'm going to elaborate a little more on "commercial" albums and their costs. Here is a general breakdown of an album.
Session Musicians- Anywhere between $100-$300 per song, per musician. If you're just a singer/songwriter and need full band backing (Drums, Bass, Piano/Organ, Electric/Lead Guitar), figure around $10,000 just for the pro musicians to back you up on your album.
Producer- These guys don't really charge on a per-song basis. And like many other aspects, they have a lot to do with where you are located. They also take a cut from sales. Big name Producers like P-Diddy make over $30 million a year just producing. I've heard of staff record label producers making around $600/day. You can look at probably spending around $5,000 for your album being produced by an industry professional.
Renting a Studio- Let's assume since it's a commercial release, you're in a one of the big cities, like LA for example. $1,000/day for their facilities. They sometimes come with house engineers, sometimes not. Figure between $10,000 and $14,000 for the studio total.
Hiring a Big Name Mix Engineer- $1000/per song.
Mastering by a Big Name Mastering Engineer- $300/hr.
If you're putting out a 12 song album, you're grand total is:
$39,000!!!!
This is NOT the typical price. Most top acts don't need an entire backing band for the whole of their album. And they don't all use the $1,000/day studios, and they don't all take 2 weeks to record. Not every big name mixer does every song for $1,000. But the point of this wasn't to exactly show you "typical", but a more informed view on how and why these albums cost what they do.
Ever hear of Bar Scott? Me neither, but she has a great article here about how one of her albums cost around $15,000 to make, and that's not including the tracking or mastering. Nor is she a house hold name, which is exactly why I mentioned her (aside from also writing an excellent article). It's an expensive world out there, folks. I know your $2,000 album seems like a lot, but count your blessings it didn't cost you 40 grand!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Why Doesn't My Album Sound Like...
Value, price, quality- these aren't clearly understandable concepts in audio recording. It's not common knowledge to the layperson how much a CD can cost. When you were 10, you probably didn't have a great concept of money. $100 was maybe a lot to you at that time. As an adult, it doesn't hold nearly the same value. The more you learn about it, the more you understand its value. Audio recordings are no different, in this sense. The problem arises when you have a musician or a band spend, at least their definition, a significant amount of money recording an album. Spending $2000 on an album might seem like a fortune to some people. And because it's what they consider to be a fortune, unfortunately, they mistakenly compare their recording to the only other recordings they have to reference: commercial recordings.
Financially, you can think of making an album and buying a car almost interchangeably. Not only because there are varying degrees of usefulness and value, but because their costs are relatively similar. You can buy a working car for $500 or $20,000. It all depends on your needs and budget. In the same respect, you can spend anywhere between those amounts making an album.
But this information isn't common knowledge. Most people don't know that the songs they hear on the radio come from albums that literally cost $20,000 to produce. In the same vein, it would be ridiculous to spend $500 on a Geo Metro, and expect it to look, feel, and perform, exactly like a Mustang. So the short answer to why doesn't your album sound like Band X's commercially released album? Because you didn't spend $20,000 making it.
Now, I'm not mistaking correlation for causation- merely spending $20k on an album doesn't guarantee it will sound amazing. But, having a budget of $20,000 allows you access to the same high-end tools required to make those pristine sounding records. Even though it's very rare, we non-commercial studios, occasional get a client who is disappointed that their $2,000 album doesn't sound like Band X's $20,000 album. Those commercial albums are made using some of the best equipment money can buy (sometimes $100K+). Our demand is different than that of a commercial studio. Our clientele aren't releasing records meant to go straight to radio and be sold to the masses at record stores around the country. Sticking with the car analogy, my clientele need a nice make and model, in good condition, to get from point A to point B, without being too lavish and won't break the bank. They need a used Toyota Camry. And so to meet that demand, I carefully chose every piece of equipment I use, to provide the highest quality with the lowest overhead.
This post isn't meant to make you feel like you're getting something cheap and worthless. For some people, a Geo Metro is all they need. Just don't buy a Metro and expect a 69 Mustang.
Financially, you can think of making an album and buying a car almost interchangeably. Not only because there are varying degrees of usefulness and value, but because their costs are relatively similar. You can buy a working car for $500 or $20,000. It all depends on your needs and budget. In the same respect, you can spend anywhere between those amounts making an album.
But this information isn't common knowledge. Most people don't know that the songs they hear on the radio come from albums that literally cost $20,000 to produce. In the same vein, it would be ridiculous to spend $500 on a Geo Metro, and expect it to look, feel, and perform, exactly like a Mustang. So the short answer to why doesn't your album sound like Band X's commercially released album? Because you didn't spend $20,000 making it.
Now, I'm not mistaking correlation for causation- merely spending $20k on an album doesn't guarantee it will sound amazing. But, having a budget of $20,000 allows you access to the same high-end tools required to make those pristine sounding records. Even though it's very rare, we non-commercial studios, occasional get a client who is disappointed that their $2,000 album doesn't sound like Band X's $20,000 album. Those commercial albums are made using some of the best equipment money can buy (sometimes $100K+). Our demand is different than that of a commercial studio. Our clientele aren't releasing records meant to go straight to radio and be sold to the masses at record stores around the country. Sticking with the car analogy, my clientele need a nice make and model, in good condition, to get from point A to point B, without being too lavish and won't break the bank. They need a used Toyota Camry. And so to meet that demand, I carefully chose every piece of equipment I use, to provide the highest quality with the lowest overhead.
This post isn't meant to make you feel like you're getting something cheap and worthless. For some people, a Geo Metro is all they need. Just don't buy a Metro and expect a 69 Mustang.
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