Profit of Doom

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

On the tele last night WH Smith was advertising the new Kaiser Chiefs CD for £8.99. With the public now expecting prices like that, how's folk act to make a living?

Even cutting right back a 1000 CD's is going to cost £6000. (Engineer, studio, musicians, mixing, mastering, artwork, films, glass master, printing and pressing.) Retailers will take 30% and have to include VAT in the sales price. The only hope is to sell as many as possible at gigs, or directly on-line.
This was fine when you could charge £14, but now there is little chance of a profit from recording a CD.
A popular folk act might sell a couple more thousand and make a reasonable profit, but what about new artists and projects.

So the question is, do you see studio recordings of folk music dying out?

[Mark]

On the back of Colin's excellent question - why not distribute by the interweb thingy (a la iTunes)? Surely that would be cheaper. Forget the shiny plastic discs.

Whilst I buy a lot of music by download, much of what I want isn't available in that format. I am sure that a suitably tecchy entrepreneur could be found (Colin? )

Mark

[Paul]

Perhaps we'll see more DIY jobs, recording on computer, and then writing the CDs. Don't think I fancy copying a thousand CDs, but you can get bulk CD copiers.

Paul

[ollythedolly]

Perhaps we'll see more DIY jobs, recording on computer, and then writing the CDs. Don't think I fancy copying a thousand CDs, but you can get bulk CD copiers.

Paul

yeah i'm with paul, for a couple of £100 you can get a reasonable recording desk to record to PC. then just spend a morning writing them your self. all you would have to do if to get the inlay printed.....inless you had a decent printer!
olly,

[jude]

Very basically that is how Marc and I work, presenting the finished master to the record company.

Seems to work quite well

Jude

[Paul]

But if you copy the CDs yourself. yuo can cut out the record company.

Arlen make and copy their own CDs.

Paul

[jude]

But if you copy the CDs yourself. yuo can cut out the record company.

Arlen make and copy their own CDs.

Paul

Yes I know and if I was able to tour then we would possibly do that, but I wouldn't have got the good publishing deal if I hadn't got a record deal. At least I think that's the way it works

I just do what I'm told really, but I make sure that I'm signing contracts that have ben very carefully vetted.............

JUde

[Simon Care]

I personally don't think its going to make much difference. You will start to see a large gulf open up between good professional music, be it folk/jazz/blues etc. and commercial mass produced ****.

I really am not a fan of home produced recordings (lots are good!) but if us (as an industry) is to survive and be taken seriously we have to present a very professional package.

Tickled Pink have been criticised for over-production in the past, but i would rather that than being criticised for producing a low quality bedroom job.

As for prices of CD's, it will have some effect but not a lot.

Simon

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

That's the problem. To be taken seriously the 'product' has to be professional looking and sounding. There really are some things that you can't cut corners on and for a CD that will sell under 2500 copies, the economics just don't work.

The CD really does have to be pressed, if you are going to convince the public to buy it. If you want radio play, it has to be professionally mixed and mastered. If you want people to pick it up, the artwork needs an artist. These days there are lots of ways to save money at the recording phase, but it still costs.

(Simon, how about an avatar?)

[Shane (Skirky)]

But if you copy the CDs yourself. yuo can cut out the record company.

Reviewers and radio stations very rarely have anything to do with CDRs. Ergo you'd be lucky to get enough publicity to sell them anywhere but gigs in the first place.
 
To go back to the original point, price-slashing by the big supermarkets has the same effect on farmers. It's the producer/originator/farmer/record company who are being squeezed margin-wise while these hyperstores rack up the profits. Still, since the local record shop is going the same way as the local corner shop, where can you buy these things anyway - online? At which point you might as well download them and burn it to CD anyway. And while you can get a budget series of familiar albums for four quid in HMV, or (for instance) the new Teddy Thompson CD for £8.99, who wants to try something new for twelve quid? Speaking of which.... 

[Cocker Freeman]

I reckon, if you're only pressing a thousand at a time, chances are, 'folk' CDs are so rare they're worth a bit more than fourteen quid.

In the event, rare again, of a 'folk' personality getting some "exposure", well, Tescos, here we come.

Ten quid a bottle, rum, in there.

[Jan_]

I think maybe there will always be a small proportion of the population who are prepared to pay twelve quid (or more) for something new/interesting/favourite band.  Hopefully, that way, some kind of equilibrium will be maintained.  But I doubt if it is a growing market.

Live music is just as important and that's why we need to support folk clubs and the like, and local musicians, because that is the only 'exposure' some of them can get.