Have Any Members Worked for a Record Company?

[Rubin Farr]

With Richard bringing up the financial side of the current music industry, do we have any other insider POV? I'm not really talking digital sales, but the entire cost of producing & marketing an album. I've worked record retail so I know a little about dist, returns, promos, planograms, that kind of shit. But, like how long ago did Warp start the production run of SYRO? How big is the initial run? Does Warp distribute him in the US, or is Sire still distributing? Drukqs was so long ago I forgot.

 

Not to make this thread Rich-centric. All opinions & info appreciated.

[klore]

it's a case per case thing, but for sure if you want to do things seriously at least 15K$

by seriously i mean, good mastering, design, vinyl+CD pressing and eventually PR fee

 

it's a strict minimum

 

even big indie labels tends to not spend too much on projects, even the big sellers,

but if it's well contained, it's still great profit to release music but everything has to be well achieved, music has to be collector, an beautiful object, the other main profits come mostly by the synchro/publishing rights that are everywhere nowadays

[klore]

*damn you double post*

[Guest mrajh]

it's a case per case thing

this. it depends on the number of copies you want to put out and your approach to the release

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/02/releasing-and-sell-records-on-vinyl/

[peace 7]

Well, Beyonce gets like $10 million advance for albums, which is also what Nautilis got from Planet Mu for "Are You An Axolotl"-- though due to not going quad platinum, plus interest on the advance, he is now $25 billion in debt. (just kidding, Skyler is apparently doing well touring)

 

Yah sorry I have nothing "unknown" to add.

 

Not about production, but.....:

 

Author: Mike P

Date: 06-19-02 14:32

It's up to the artists, I don't want to publish exact sales figures if they'd rather keep it secret.

But on average this year (last 12 months) cd albums have sold 800 copies. Our best seller in last 12 months was The Cosmic Forces Of Mu which sold 2217 copies worldwide. just over 12 months ago the Slag Boom remixes cd did very well at almost 3000 copies.

The average earnings of a Planet Mu artist (from sales royalties, not their real jobs obviously) is £800 per album ($1190) which is the royalties on 1000 sales. But I usually give them an advance of more than that.

That was "luckily" saved on xlt. But I recall 1~2 years later, Mike P stated that he basically released Bilious Paths and Meast to fund other releases at the time. If you can somehow find it on archive.org or elsewhere, Mike P later posted a lot of transparent figures, at least a few times (with album titles and numbers, etc.). At the time, it was actually pretty mindblowing how transparent he was (still is surprising, I suppose).

[Guest]

 

it's a case per case thing

this. it depends on the number of copies you want to put out and your approach to the release

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/02/releasing-and-sell-records-on-vinyl/

 

 

Insightful read. It really breaks down on how much of a pain it is to release albums with little chance for profit. It's amazing that people go through all these hoops and obstacles just for the pleasure of playing the game. I guess if you really believe in your product, that motivation alone is enough.

[Rubin Farr]

Yes where do Warp's artists fall in terms of shipping units? the last BOC & Ae albums were some of their biggest sellers ever, obviously Richard will sell tons of units, but he's still below those artists who sell millions. So they ship somewhere in the hundreds of thousands? Warp's manufacturing & distribution has been in place for decades, I wonder...does the initial run help fund the subsequent runs, we've seen there's a big hype machine that needs feeding. I don't blame Rich to not want to he involved in the financial side of his parent label, he's an artist not a businessman.

[awepittance]

..does the initial run help fund the subsequent runs, we've seen there's a big hype machine that needs feeding. I don't blame Rich to not want to he involved in the financial side of his parent label, he's an artist not a businessman.

of course, i mean in a general sense this is how any business would operate. Sales of products generate revenue to stock/produce more products. With record labels in general once you get over the initial hump of actually getting out of the red and continue with the momentum you are in a spot most indie physical labels struggle to be in.

 

when it comes to someone looking to launching a vinyl record label it makes sense to start out with at least seed money of around $5,000. You figure just pressing 300-400 records with a color sleeve, mastering, plates will cost almost $2000 on it's own. Just for some context, a 1/4 page advertisement in the wire is over $1,000. Boomkat and some of the stores buy what they call a 'box' ad but do it monthly so as to maintain exposure in the magazine but even though its the cheapest kind of ad, buying one every month adds up quickly. This money will really only realistically get you print/web advertising and manufacturing covered though, most 'bigger' labels have 3rd party marketing or PR agencies who actually will send out Cds to all the college radio stations in the united states and keep a record of how often songs are played or requested. This service could cost anywhere between $700-$4,000 per release. I could go on forever but if you want to start a serious label these days especially with vinyl and plan to actually make money off it or break even it takes an enormous amount of work and dedication, which is why so many seemingly successful labels fold up so quickly.

 

edit : the really depressing part of a label sets in quite quickly once you get linked up with a distro and your units dont sell well enough leading to a mass destruction of your stock. some distros will make you 'buy back' but often times they just literally industrial hole press stacks of 50 shrink wrapped cds. This never happened to me because I only linked up with big distros when I was absolutely sure I would sell out stock (like with dalglish and scorn)