Contact
SubscribeCD Production Budget
Yeah! Here comes the nasty stuff. Money! Dough!
A recording studio typically is hired by the hour. Around my home town you can get studio service for around $30/hour. How can you budget for the recording part of your project?
If you record 10 songs in a studio, each 5 minutes long. You should expect to use up about 15 minutes per full (start to end) take/overdub. Five minutes to record, plus five minutes to listen and make sure the performance was adequate (on time/in tune), and five minutes to prepare the take, discuss it, setup microphones, DI’s etc.
If
- you’re by yourself
- very well prepared
- record your guitar and voice all at once
- make no really bad mistakes
- and do only 1 take for every song
you should be done in 3 hours.
Multiply this by number of band members, average number of “takes”, and you’ll find that a small ensemble (2-4 musicians) ends up spending a good 30 hours in a recording studio just for the actual recording. This does not include mixing and mastering. And remember: “Unprepared musicians are most costly!”
The following table shows an example expenses for a low budget CD production. I’ll get to “cutting corners” later….
| Item | Amount |
| 30 Hours of Studio Time | $900.– |
| 3 Guest Performers, Three Hours each (3 * 3 * 30/hour) | $270.– |
| Mixing will take at least ten hours in a recording studio (quick job) | $300.– |
| Mastering, they say, should not be skimped on. | $100.– |
| Graphic Design for Liner Notes, Tray Inserts, Front and Back Cover, Posters for CD release, Tickets for CD release, Grapevine Ads etc… Check with (all of your) friends for a good deal. All of it could conceivably be done for $300, if somebody loves you enough… | $300.– |
| CD Manufacturing/Replication for, lets say, a thousand copies | $1250.– |
| Total | $3120.– |
Here’s how you can finance the whole project and make your money back:
| Item | Amount |
| Sell 220 Copies of your CD for $15 Keep in mind that independent musicians typically sell a CD to one out of five people who come see a concert of theirs. If that ratio holds true, you’ll have to play to at least 1000 people before your sales figure is achieved. (Playing gigs sells CD’s) |
$3300.– |
| Total | $3300.– |
