play_on wrote:
On 25 Feb 2005 11:29:38 -0800, "will" wrote:

different business model for the record industry is one thing, but
don't think all the blame lies with so-called 'greedy' label execs.

CDs cost about 60 cents to make, and they sell for $17. Are you
saying that the lion's share of that money is going to the artists?

Well, last album I worked on was recorded in about eighty hours, with
thirty-four musicians in the band making union scale, three soloists
probably making better than union scale, a conductor and a producer.
Handel is dead so he didn't get paid, but the arrangers got paid some
mechanicals. I probably billed a good $12k, about half of which goes
for maintenance. The hall rental probably cost at least that.

And I'll be surprised if more than 10,000 discs are sold.

I hate to say it but that comes to a lot more than sixty cents a disk.
I'd be surprised if the label breaks even at $17. That's without even
thinking of the promotion cost (which in this case is probably limited
to a thousand free disks and an ad in Gramophone).
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."