A Pro Musician Answers Your Questions About Professional Music

[Flint]

Question: have you worked with any of the Cakewalk "by Roland" hardware?

[monster]

Question: Why are you getting insensibly drunk right now?

Maybe you should consider the weed....

[john bainz]

(Please excuse if you find that most of the questions are related to how artists get paid, I just always wondered about that)

1. How important is it for a new artist to be able to write his/her own material?

2. What does it cost to produce an album and how is the cost calculated?

3. I've heard that the artist doesn't get close to what the recording company gets when it comes to sales. Is that true?

4. How much does an artist get paid from sales and how is the artist's share calculated?

5. How much do they get paid if they don't have an album out?

6. If I want to remix or sample a part of the song who gives permission?

7. Is the split of the revenue between an artist and his bosses based upon sales?

8. Does the artist get his/her share paid into their bank acc. or do they get a cheque delivered by hand?

9. If a song does well, who earns more between the producer and songwriter?

10. If permission to remix or sample a song is refused, what are in
most cases the reason/s for refusal?

[smoothmoniker]

Originally Posted by Flint

Question: have you worked with any of the Cakewalk "by Roland" hardware?

A little bit, just enough to know that I'm not switching away from Logic.

[smoothmoniker]

Originally Posted by john bainz

(Please excuse if you find that most of the questions are related to how artists get paid, I just always wondered about that)

1. How important is it for a new artist to be able to write his/her own material?

Songwriting is one of the last ways left to really make a living in the industry. The publishing money is well defined, well protected by law, not just by contract. It's very hard to make a living if you're singing music written by other people.

2. What does it cost to produce an album and how is the cost calculated?

See above.

3. I've heard that the artist doesn't get close to what the recording company gets when it comes to sales. Is that true?

True, but it's also the record company that's fronting all of the cost. The label is taking a huge financial risk to record and promote a new artist, and 9 times out of 10 they don't recoup their financial investment. They take a large share of the profits from successful artists to cover the cost of recording and promoting the other 9 projects that lose money.

4. How much does an artist get paid from sales and how is the artist's share calculated?

If an artist is on a label, they get paid a percentage of the retail sales price of the album, but not until the label pays back the recording and promotional budget. A first time artist can expect to sign a contract for about 10% of the sales price, out of which they pay the production costs, including points to the producer. A general rule of thumb is that retail price (after discounts and refunds are calculated) is about $8 per album, so a point (one percentage point) is worth about 8 cents. If an artist signs a contract for 10 points, they get about $.80 per album sale.

5. How much do they get paid if they don't have an album out?

Not sure what you mean by this. If you're talking about an advance, then it varies hugely by contract. Artists with a bigger fan base and strong sales before they sign a contract can command a bigger advance, sometimes up in the 6-figures. Advances are usually smaller than that. It's intended to be money to live on while the album gets made, not money to blow on cars and blow. Most artists don't realize that it's probably the only money you'll see from being signed.

6. If I want to remix or sample a part of the song who gives permission?

There are two pieces of property involved, the sound recording, and the underlying piece of music. You need permission from whoever owns both. You can find out who controls the publishing on the underlying song by checking ASCAP, BMI or the Harry Fox Agency. The sound recording is owned by the label that releases it.

7. Is the split of the revenue between an artist and his bosses based upon sales?

not sure what you mean.

8. Does the artist get his/her share paid into their bank acc. or do they get a cheque delivered by hand?

I guess you could set it up either way.

9. If a song does well, who earns more between the producer and songwriter?

The producer receives no money for radio airplay, or from any live performances. They only receive money from album sales. A typical producer cut would be 3 to 4 points on the album sale.

The songwriter is paid everytime the album sales, and anytime the song plays on the radio. The songwriter earns 9.1 cents for every album sold, and receives about $5 every time the song plays on a radio station (that number changes based on how much advertising revenue the station earns).

If an album goes platinum, the producer earns about $240,000, over and above whatever they were initially paid to produce the album. The songwriter makes about $91,000 for each song they have on the album. The songwriter of a #1 pop/rock song on the radio can expect to make between $40,000 and $50,000 per week that it stays at #1.

The songwriter splits everything 50/50 with their publisher, the producer keeps all their money (unless they have an agent)

10. If permission to remix or sample a song is refused, what are in
most cases the reason/s for refusal?

I have no idea. The only work I've ever done with remix and sample was for an acid jazz artist, and they were already signed to a label. The label dropped off 6 crates full of CDs, everything in their catalog, and said, "You can use anything from any of these albums without needing to clear samples."

[john bainz]

Quite a fair amount of risk involved in this business... And with that I gather it is also cut throat...?

[smoothmoniker]

Depends on which part of the industry. Players look out for each other, artists do too, the cutthroat part is mainly the suits vs. the long-hairs.