vanblah

Sorry for the length of this post.

Someone said something in another thread that I wanted to address. The topic of that thread was completely different than this though so I figured I'll start a new one.

Musicians and bands ... how much do you spend per year on your band?

Me? I'll be completely honest here.

Rent: $250/month for practice space ($3000/year)
Gas: $80/month for gigs (estimate) ($960/year). This could go up depending on how much we tour. $80 is minimum.

General Maintenance for instruments: let's estimate this at $200/year for cables, strings, setups, batteries etc.

PR: $250/year for web presence; EPKs; flyers, contest fees (sometimes) etc.

So far, I'm at $4410.

Let's talk recording.

If you do it yourself you have the cost of the software. For me: $600 one time about three years ago (which I won't include in my total); so a yearly "upgrade fee" of about $150. And pretty much yearly upgrades to the computer for HD ... about $150.

Mastering (if you choose to master): about $150/song at a reputable mastering house at SPEC RATE so ... $1500 ten songs. You could skip this step but I think your buyers would be pretty disappointed when they have to constantly adjust the volume and/or EQ and/or balance of your CD or digital download.

The cost of cd duplication (I mean come on nobody wants to buy a "burned" cd from a band right? They want the real deal if they're gonna fork over hard earned cash). 1200 CDs = $800 with artwork and (cheap) cases ... (cheaper if you don't get artwork / more expensive if you get cardboard cases). You could get 300 CDs, but why bother? It's almost twice the price per CD.

Of course, you can always forgo the CD process and just offer downloads. Yeah, that works at shows when someone comes up to the stage and asks if they can buy a CD. What? I'm gonna say, "No, download it from iTunes?" I'm sure they'll remember in the morning. Music (and art in general) is all about impulse buying.

So now we're at $7020/year.

Let's add a special case, how much do you think it would cost to record a ten song CD in a "real" studio with a "real" producer? I'm not talking A-list; I'm just talking world-class ... Grammy winning (studio and producer) and all that.

It's not as expensive as you might think ... but it's still pretty steep. The answer is $15,000 (spec rate) give or take. And it also depends on the market you're in. I'm in Memphis. That's what it costs here. It could be much, much higher ... but probably not much lower. Remember ... I said Grammy winning; not some dude in a garage somewhere.

So if you did that you'd really be talking almost $20,000. for that year.

Yes, it's the cost of doing business as a band (or musician). Those are just the facts of life for a small self-managed band; and no matter how much money you spend ($7000 vs. $20000 vs $1million) you're still in the red if no one pays for your music.

In the grand scheme of things it's really not much money. Think how much it must cost to be a doctor or dentist or any highly specialized trade; but this isn't a pissing contest anyway. But if you're a doctor you bill your clients and hopefully they have insurance and you get paid somehow (really, you do get paid).

Now, imagine that you hear someone say things like, "I don't think we should have to pay for music. The artists don't get much of the money anyway," or "music should be free," or "Well, if you don't like it just stop playing music."

How would you feel about that ... not as a musician but as a business person in the business of selling your own music? I'm not talking about not making sales because your product is bad ... I'm talking about not making sales because people get it for free.

I have actually had people come up to me at shows and ask if they can HAVE a CD. When I say they are $10 they ask if they can download it. When I say iTunes, they ask if it's anywhere they can download for free. I kid you not.

The fact is, my music is downloadable for free ... it's more important to me to get my music out there (and heard) at this point than it is to get paid for it. Again, it's the cost of doing business. But what really, really burns my ass is that right now I'm giving it away for free, but if I ever "make it" and "get signed" I'll still have to give it away for free because people don't want to "pay the man."