A few people have asked recently about how much it costs me to release new music. Obviously it’s much cheaper than it was even just a few years ago. But it’s definitely not free. So, since I have a new single coming out this Thursday (watch here for an announcement…) and all this is fresh in my mind, I thought I’d break it down for you.
Recording – $0-ish
I have a home studio that I built in my back yard that I’m still paying for. Spent about $12,o00 getting that all built. But I don’t pay for studios or engineers anymore as I do it myself. To record and mix a single song takes me about 8-10 hours of work depending on the complexity of the arrangement. That doesn’t count the time I spent writing the song.
Mastering – $50
Mastering is the final processing that goes on a song to make it commercially listenable. It takes well-trained ears and specialized equipment. Neither of which I have.
Copyright – $35
The government gets their piece of the action so I can protect my copyrights on the song.
Digital Distribution – $10
I don’t do this until after I release the song on my own website. But this distribution gets the song into iTunes, Spotify, Mog, etc.
Total: $95.
So on release day for just one song, I’m into it for nearly a hundred bucks. There are a few economies of scale for full albums, but you can pretty much do the multiplication.
This also doesn’t take into account promotional costs for the song. That’s a whole other deal.
Of course, this is much cheaper than the thousands of dollars that a larger act might spend on a single. But my market share and budgets are considerably smaller.
So I’d like to thank the people that are generous enough to pop a buck or two into the “name your own price” box for my downloads. The act of music patronage doesn’t get much more direct that “you give me a few bucks and I’ll be able to give you more music”. 🙂
Want to chip in and download some of my songs and comedy bits? Click here to visit the Phil Johnson and Roadside Attraction download store.