The first CD The African Alphabet was released in 2007 and we had planned to try and release a new one every year. This series is a labour of love and I see it as a long term project, something that was not envisaged as a “get-rich-quick” scheme. In actual fact it’s a bit of a "get-poor-quick” scheme! Even though I have my own studio it costs a fair bit of money to make an album. There are session fees to be paid to other musicians who appear on the album. We have a wonderful illustrator who has to eat I suppose, so we pay him. Then there are the mastering fees and the costs of manufacturing the physical CDs. Added to that will be the postage and packaging, phone calls and meetings to try and promote the CD.
But probably the most expensive thing of all is time. You can’t rush an album. It takes time to compose the songs. Time to do the pre-production work of programming the songs, trying out different styles, tempos and arrangements. Time to re-write the songs to try and perfect them. Time to record musicians. Time to edit the material. Time to mix the album. Time to master the album…And then time to market and distribute the album.
But we have to eat too, so we need to earn a living to support this time consuming business of making albums. So what do we do? We do gigs. We write music for commercials. We do albums for other people. We teach. And we try to squeeze in precious time for our album in between all of that.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. I love most of the work that I do for a living and I love the fact that I’m able to produce my own albums. The plan is as follows: To try and build a brand and release an ongoing series of kids CDs. We have loads of great ideas for future albums. It’s exciting and stimulating and it’s something that I love doing, that costs a lot now, but will generate income in the future. Or will it?
But just because I love playing, writing and recording music doesn’t mean I shouldn’t expect to be able to get some kind of financial return for my efforts. What scares me is whether or not there is any future in actually selling music. For years people have been downloading music without paying for it. And more recently many have been advocating the idea that music should be free anyway. We already get it for free on radio and TV, what’s so different about downloading it? Some ideas that I’ve come across: Your songs/CDs/MP3s are marketing tools to get people to pay see you live. At the gig you can sell t shirts and all kinds of other merchandise to help you earn a living. Other musicians are giving away downloads of their albums when you buy a can of soup or a t shirt.
The problem I have with all of this is that I have a hard enough time just trying to be a competent musician. It takes dedication and practice. But in the modern world I’m not able to devote all of my time to practicing, writing and recording music (which is what I’d like to do). I also have to learn to run a record company, to market and distribute my music. And then it suddenly dawns on me that even doing that won’t be enough as no-one is actually going to pay for my music when they can get it for free.
I’m not passing judgement here, just really pondering my future. And I’m not going to stop doing what I do, as I’m still clinging to the hope that with perseverance I will achieve my goals. (besides the fact that I don’t know how to do anything else!)
In the meantime if you have kids, know kids, know someone who has kids or have ever seen a kid under the age of 8, what are you waiting for? Download The African Alphabet now! :-)
I received this comment on the Sound on Sound forums:
ReplyDeleteFirstly, all that stuff about writing, recording, mixing and the time it takes...as someone going through that process now myself totally agree... you pick a time when you hope to be ready for and it keeps having to be revised backwards.
In my case more complicated this time around by the fact that I have a full 'band' involved (not just me and the odd session person) and so recording has to fit in with 4 other people's schedules.
Then...
"But just because I love playing, writing and recording music doesn’t mean I shouldn’t expect to be able to get some kind of financial return for my efforts."
Expect?
Toe turn that around...just because I love playing, writing and recording music doesn’t mean I expect to be able to get some kind of financial return for my efforts?
Why should anyone expect money for something because they love doing it? You admitted you'd do it anyway, paid or unpaid. The minority of folk in life who get paid for doing what they love is small indeed.
Most plumbers and electricians (for example) wouldn't do it unless they got paid probablly. Not so artists/musicians.
Then this,
"What scares me is whether or not there is any future in actually selling music. For years people have been downloading music without paying for it. And more recently many have been advocating the idea that music should be free anyway."
Why does it scare you? Selling physical music product (CDs/downloads) is what is being hit, not music in general.
You said you make money playing live. No need to be scared by that scenario. The ones who need fear are those who made a living through selling the physical and those who depended on royalties from those physical sales, they've had it!
Looks like music is moving towards the UK's NHS model - free at the point of delivery to the individual. The cost of production being paid at the 'supply' side (supply side = radio, ISPs, media, TV Music, Libraries, PRS)?
My response:
No no, I don't expect to get paid just because I love making music. I hope I'll get paid because I'm producing something of value (A CD or MP3s). I don't think that's unreasonable? However it is looking less likely these days.
(http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=765294&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1#765294)
Hello!
ReplyDeleteGet-poor-quick scheme? Er, Im already poor, so it doesn't make much of a difference. But it's true that time is what we have too little of: I can't sustain myself playing/teaching music not even if I could sell, say 1000 CD:s in a year, which I'm pretty sure i can't.
This summer I've done melody-writing exercises, aiming to write as simply as possible, initially trying to use only quarter and half notes (!) which made most of the material sound like psalms (hymns).
Today I aimed to start recording MIDI versions of them, mainly to see/hear which ones might be usable for a possible album (CD or download? Maybe both?). Wanted to go retro and use my old SE/30.
It didn't work anymore.
Other than that I'm out of work, so now the question is: Should I look for a non-music job to sustain myself & hope I'll have energy left to do music in my spare time (also thus sabotaging some gig opportunities)?
The canned food+download idea may be an interesting one.
Your response about expecting to get paid because you produce something of value seems reasonable: If you music is good enough to enjoy it should be good enough to pay for, too!
Best of luck,
Stäni Steinbock
Just read this on the SoS forum too.
ReplyDeleteI guess if you're approaching this as a business decision, you'd need to put numbers to it. If most of your money is coming through gigging, do you think you'll get more people at gigs if you've got downloads on your website, or if people can buy your CD (and maybe give copies to their mates who'll also come along to the gigs and increase your take)?
And for at least the first CD, having something available which says "this is what we sound like" is good. I'm involved with an African-jazz outfit called Matoke (http://www.matoke.co.uk). They're a fantastic crowd-pleasing band live, with two sax players and lead guitar, plus an ultra-solid rhythm section. But the demos on their website are still old stuff made back when they were very heavily into the whole African percussion thing, which honestly isn't that approachable for the audience. So they're losing gigs because people who hit the website to see what they sound like are getting the wrong impression.
Anyway, good luck with it all!
Graham.
I think that a lot of the music that is downloaded for free is usually the more commercial releases. As we get deeper into the future and the model changes from only a select few being able to widely distribute their music to every indie artist having access to a central world wide distribution channel it is going to definitely make it a lot harder to steal music. Currently i think thats one of the big advantages that indie artists have over the huge commercial names.
ReplyDeleteJK
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