This is only page one, but it should be very apparent that the information I will be providing is going to open a LOT of eyes and expose a LOT of TRUTH about this industry and how things are REALLY done with REAL cost examples. . Enjoy

Chapter 1:

The Road to the Record

Cliché title? Sure, but nothing describes your journey better than this. The road you are fixing to embark on is one of excitement, fun and success and one of much less stress, frustration and money spent should you choose to follow the information provided.

You might be asking yourself: “Save money? How? Production is expensive!”  Well the answer to that question is two-fold:

1. Time = Money. Especially in the case of a recording studio and production as a whole. The more time you spend in the studio, the more money you will inevitably spend thus putting yourself further into debt.

1. Production is expensive? Yes and no. If you are a group with 5 members and a studio/engineer quotes you $6,000.00 for an album you are actually getting an excellent deal. Why? Simply divide 6,000 by 5 and you arrive at $1,200.00/member.

You may have heard that you need $1M, $500,000 or even $50,000.00 to record an excellent sounding album but that is a fallacy and you can get equivalent sounding work done for SO much less! $10,000.00 will get you an excellent radio-quality production in many situations. High dollar albums have so much cost involved generally in the form of “work-for-hire” musicians/producers to create those hot tracks for you to listen to.

I want you to understand that there ARE million-dollar TRACKS out there and that is perfectly fine should the funds be around but it’s also a waste of money in my opinion. With that said, let me break down a $1M budget track for you:

Budget: $1,000,000.00

Songwriting : $20,000.00

Producer: $20,000.00

Mix/Master: $10,000.00

Marketing: $970,000.00

Now do you really find $6-20k THAT much for your entire production? If the answer is yes, I want to suggest that you heavily evaluate why you are interested in making music (especially if you are in a group). You cannot be cheap when it comes to album production, especially if you’re looking to impress labels; if your tracks sound like trash, they’ll play a bit of office Frisbee with the disc.

STILL not convinced I can help save your checkbook? Here is a typical production for a 5 member group:

Budget: $10,000.00 ($2k/member)

Pre-Production: $2,000.000
Tracking: $2,600.00
Editing: $1,800.00
Mixing (could take a week or two): $2,000.00
Mastering: (generally about a day or two) $1,600.00

The costs laid out above can get you whatever sound you desire be it a lo-fi 70’s sound or a pristine, dynamically accurate production. Also, never rush your productions, ALWAYS save up. Chances are you’re not on a label, therefore you have no deadline except the one implanted in your noggin.

Did you also know that an album can be recorded in a day? If your group is tight enough, play “live” in the studio and get everything done quicker, this can also save you lots of time and money, in some cases it can save you double. Let’s take a look at that:

Budget: $10,000.00

Pre-production: $1,000.00
Tracking: $1040.00
Editing: $825.00
Mixing: $2,000.00
Mastering: $1,600.00

Savings: $3,535.00

More updates will come with more writing, I hope this stirs up some excitement .