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Getting a song on the pop charts takes big money.
Def Jam started paying for Rihanna’s recent single, “Man Down,” more than a year ago. In March of 2010, the label held a writing camp in L.A. to create the songs for Rihanna’s album, Loud.
At a writing camp, a record label hires the best music writers in the country and drops them into the nicest recording studios in town for about two weeks. It’s a temporary version of the old music-industry hit factories, where writers and producers cranked out pop songs.
“It’s like an all-star game,” says Ray Daniels, who was at the writing camp for Rihanna.
Daniels manages a songwriting team of two brothers, Timothy and Theron Thomas, who work under the name Rock City. “You got all the best people, you’re gonna make the best records,” he says.
Here’s who shows up at a writing camp: songwriters with no music, and producers toting music tracks with no words.
The Thomas brothers knew producer Shama “Sham” Joseph, but they had never heard his Caribbean-flavored track that became “Man Down.”
According to Daniels, the brothers listened to the track and said, “Let’s give Rihanna a one-drop! Like, a response to ‘I shot the sheriff!”
They wrote the lyrics to “Man Down” in about 12 minutes, Daniels says.
To get that twelve minutes of inspiration from a top songwriting team is expensive — even before you take into account the fee for the songwriters.
At a typical writing camp, the label might rent out 10 studios, at a total cost of about $25,000 a day, Daniels says.
The writing camp for Rihanna’s album “had to cost at least 200 grand,” Daniels says. “It was at least forty guys out there. I was shocked at how much money they were spending! But, guess what? They got the whole album out of that one camp.”
A writing camp is like a reality show, where top chefs who have never met are forced to cook together. At the end, Rihanna shows up like the celebrity judge and picks her favorites.
Her new album has 11 songs on it. So figure that the writing camp cost about $18,000 per song.
The songwriter and the producer each got a fee for their services. Rock City got $15,000 for Man Down, and the producer got around $20,000, according to Daniels.
That’s about $53,000.00 spent on the song so far— before Rihanna even steps into the studio with her vocal producer.
The vocal producer’s job is to make sure Rihanna sings the song right.
Makeba Riddick didn’t produce Rihanna’s vocals on “Man Down,” but she’s one of the industry’s top producers, and has worked with the singer on many songs, including the two number one hits in 2010: “Rude Boy” and “Love the Way You Lie.”
When Riddick works with a singer, she’ll say, “I need you to belt this out, I need you to scream this, as if you’re on one end of the block and you’re trying to talk to somebody three blocks away.”
Or maybe: “Sing with your lips a little more closed, a little more pursed together, so we can get that low, melancholy sound.”
Not only that, the vocal producer has to deal with the artist’s rider. The rider is whatever the artist needs to get them in the mood to get into the booth and sing.
“They’ll have strobe lights, incense burning, doves flying around the studio,” she says. (Yes, Riddick has had doves circling her head while she’s working.)
Rihanna is “very focused” Riddick says. So no doves.
Riddick’s fee starts at $10,000 to $15,000 per song, she says.
The last step is mixing and mastering the song, which costs another $10,000 to $15,000, according to Daniels.
So, our rough tally to create one pop song comes to:
The cost of the writing camp, plus fees for the songwriter, producer, vocal producer and the mix comes to $78,000.
But it’s not a hit until everybody hears it.How much does that cost?
About $1 million, according to Daniels, Riddick and other industry insiders.
“The reason it costs so much,” Daniels says, “is because I need everything to click at once. You want them to turn on the radio and hear Rihanna, turn on BET and see Rihanna, walk down the street and see a poster of Rihanna, look on Billboard, the iTunes chart, I want you to see Rihanna first. All of that costs.”
That’s what a hit song is: It’s everywhere you look. To get it there, the label pays.
Every song is different. Some songs have a momentum all their own, some songs just break out out of the blue. But the record industry depends on hits for sales. Having hits is the business plan. The majority of songs that are hits — that chart high, that sell big, that blast out of cars in the summertime— cost a million bucks to get them heard and played and bought.
Daniels breaks down the expenses roughly into thirds: a third for marketing, a third to fly the artist everywhere, and a third for radio.
“Marketing and radio are totally different,” he says. “Marketing is street teams, commercials and ads.”
Radio is?
“Radio you’re talking about . . .” he pauses. “Treating the radio guys nice.”
‘Treating the radio guys nice’ is a very fuzzy cost. It can mean taking the program directors of major market stations to nice dinners. It can mean flying your artist in to do a free show at a station in order to generate more spots on a radio playlist.
Former program director Paul Porter, who co-founded the media watchdog group Industry Ears, says it’s not that record labels pay outright for a song. They pay to establish relationships so that when they are pushing a record, they will come first.
Porter says shortly after he started working as a programmer for BET about 10 years ago, he received $40,000.00 in hundred-dollar bills in a Fed-Ex envelope.
Current program directors told me this isn’t happening anymore. They say their playlists are made through market research on what their listeners want to hear.
In any case, to return to our approximate tally: After $78,000 to make the song, and another $1 million to roll it out, Rihanna’s “Man Down” gets added to radio playlists across the country, gets a banner ad on iTunes … and may still not be a hit.
As it happens, “Man Down” has not sold that well, and radio play has been minimal.
But Def Jam makes up the shortfall by releasing other singles. And only then— if the label recoups what it spent on the album — will Rihanna herself get paid.
Notes
These are rough estimates based on interviews with industry insiders. The figures have not been confirmed by Rihanna’s label, Def Jam.
Source: NPR
Credit: Alyson Hurt
In my job, I get to speak with many indie artists who are at different points in their journey. They consistently make these common artist mistakes. Changing your approach will change your career. I made this personal to drive the message home.
1. Your Songs Suck
Consumers will instantly click past a crappy song to thousands of online radio stations till they find a good song that really moves them in the first 10-20 seconds. You better have GREAT songs. It’s a CRAFT; it always has been. Treat is as such. You need to seek out a few mentors to teach you what they know about their CRAFT and apply your unique vision and perspective to that knowledge. Easy to do with all the online writing societies.
2. You’re Producing Yourself
Have you ever wondered why a record label would NEVER let you or your friends produce your own record? Have you ever wondered why most of the iconic Superstars STILL use producers? Why aren’t they saving money by producing themselves? Surely a producer at that level is pretty damn expensive! Get it? Just because you can work Pro-Tools or Logic doesn’t mean you can or should make a record. The label would put you with someone who is not only experienced at the entire process of making records, but a way better musician than you. The smart artist always thrives being around true pros that are better than them to soak in the education and grow to a new artistic level; fearless of the journey. Most artists will tell people why they can’t or won’t afford a producer and spend their money on their 25th guitar and new plug-ins for the home studio; avoiding the journey. Do you want to make great records or collect gear?
3. You’re Not Marketing…At ALL
Putting your music on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon etc. is digital distribution NOT marketing. Marketing is the art of influencing buying decisions. Having your CD available for purchase “wherever it’s sold” isn’t influencing buying decisions. Twitter, Vine, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Live Shows, Music Blogs, Indie Radio, Internet Radio, and PR are the marketing tools you need to master. These tools create awareness and drive traffic to your squeeze page where you get the consumer’s email address. It’s through their email that you will influence their buying decisions.
4. You’re Operating With An Out-Of-Date Business Model
You are still trying to cut cheap demos to shop to a record label to try to get a deal. You still think radio is the key to marketing your music. You still think that radio will be a powerful marketing tool when you do get your deal. You still think the labels make money selling records. You still think that if you get a deal that’s when you’ve made it. Wake up, that ship sailed a decade ago; you have to develop yourself, today.
5. You’re Not Thinking Like A Record Label
If you got signed today, the label would surround you with people that make a living writing songs, engineering, producing, doing public relations, marketing, promotion, booking bands, image consulting, Photographing, etc. All these people would be highly professional and much more dialed in to the market and process than you and your friends. If you’re thinking like a label, you are looking for a team of people to help you with at least some of these important items.
6. You’re Not Selling Your Music On Your Website
If you were truly DRIVING traffic anywhere to purchase your music, you would drive them to YOUR site and take all the money. Everyone needs a presence on Bandpage, Reverbnation, etc., but why on earth would u pay someone 30% of your record sales to do what you can do with a free plug in on your WordPress site? If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.
7. You’re Not Posting Regular Videos To YouTube
YouTube is your new Radio with an amazing potential for reaching millions, no wait…now BILLIONS of people and you don’t need to spend 1 million dollars to bribe a freaking Program Director for a CHANCE at getting a few spins. The “shelf space” is unlimited (Unlike radio) and they pay royalties and advertising revenue. “I don’t get it because I just want to make music” is a cop out. why aren’t you learning everything you need to learn about this amazing opportunity?
8. You Suck At Project Management
If Steve Jobs approached the first products from Apple the way most of you approach managing your musical projects he would have died homeless. Jobs was a true artist, the first computers he and Wozniak made looked good, worked good, were packaged well, and were made in his garage. Instead of making 500 crappy computers with the limited budget they had, he made 50 AWESOME computers and the market place responded; the opportunities that came from the first run of AWESOME computers provided the momentum they needed to reach the next level. If you want to find someone to cut your songs for $300/song, I PROMISE you will find them. Record your 3 BEST songs for the same price as what you have to spend on 12 and do it RIGHT with a TALENTED TEAM. It’s gonna cost money, so think of it as an education. Then watch the market respond!
9. You’re Waiting For Your “Big Break”
Deep down you wish it was the old music business because, on the outside (from the cheap seats) it seemed easier when the labels took care of everything. Well they did and you would have paid dearly for that “EZ Button”. I got news for you, the Superstar Artists that are still around today, never let the labels take care of everything. They worked smarter and harder than that in a sea of sharks. You have to create your own opportunities, your own momentum. There’s no way around it. Nobody gets “discovered” anymore so get off the couch, put the bong down next to your baggage and get to work!
10. You Still Think Record Labels Develop Talent
Record labels don’t develop talent like Coca-Cola doesn’t repair cars; they don’t care about your music, they care about your current cash flow, and how many fans you have a measurable connection with. They care about what kind of market you created for yourself and if they can make money by adding fuel to the fire you already started. Think YouTube and Google. Google didn’t develop YouTube, they purchased them. So those smart guys at YouTube had to PROVE their idea had value in the market place; so do you.
11. You Don’t Think Of Your Music As Product
Until you do, nobody is going to hear your art.
12. You’re Self Sabotaging
This is the most common and most destructive mistake of them all. Let me save you the suspense, you’re gonna make mistakes. You’re gonna hit speed bumps. You’re gonna be rejected. You’re gonna have to get over it! You have to get out of your own way and just move forward. Stop making excuses. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got. PERIOD. So make a change and watch massive amounts of energy quickly flow your way.
13. You Are Too Sensitive To Take Constructive Criticism
You would be amazed how many of your favorite Superstars were brutally schooled by the label on their first record. They were green just like you! “Go back and write us a single we can promote on the radio or we’re gonna drop you”. If you’re too dumb to know that you don’t know, you’ll never make it. Be professional and LEARN. It’s always better to stay quiet in a room and appear stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
14. You’re Listening To Haters
When you do start to get momentum, people you don’t know and sadly, many that you do will spit poison into every part of your life. Get used to it. You are doing what they can’t.
15. You Haven’t Defined Your Lane
You are afraid to pick a genre because you write in many. Consumers need ONE lane to connect with you in. Just because you pick one doesn’t mean you are ignoring the others. Get some traction in 1 lane first, that will help expose a project in a different lane to more people. Think John Mayer with his first few pop records and then he did a blues project. That blues project got a TON of exposure because he was now John Mayer the pop star.
16. You’re Live Performance Sucks
Nothing is more disappointing than seeing a decent band with great songs and nobody sings background vocals; except for a crappy band with crappy songs, and everyone singing background vocals.
17. You’re Not Capitalizing On Your Live Performances
Today’s music market is about endless content and email addresses. You should have constant video footage to market on social media. You should have boatloads of email addresses after every show. You should be moving product from the stage at every show. You should be gaining twitter followers at every show…
18. You’re Putting Too Much Stock Into Your ReverbNation Ranking
A #1 ranking for your small town or big city on ReverbNation + $2.54 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. How are you getting paid for your songs?
19. You Don’t Know What You’re Doing On Twitter
Twitter is a simply amazing surgical marketing tool that allows you to SERIOUSLY target your specific market. When done correctly, your following will constantly grow. 1 year from now you could have well over 10k followers and now you have the means to drive tons of traffic to a squeeze page, or a YouTube video, or to….Get my point? Your fans are out there, go find them.
20. You Think It’s All About Music, Not Marketing
The truth is that it sure is nice when they expertly market a killer record, but if it was only about the music, there wouldn’t be any crappy songs on the radio. Think about that for a second. Without marketing, nobody cares about your music because they haven’t heard it.
Ya Se Acabo!! It’s over!! It began 10 years ago! In July 2006, Cuban Americans in Miami, Florida got their first hope that Fidel Castro was assumed dead.
Most Cubans took to the streets of Miami hoping that it would all be over. While reaching out to engineer/producer Adrian “Drop” Santalla, Pitbull had a vision of taking the record Chango from Latin Express to reproduce this sound. When Pitbull gave him a call to finish the record, Drop was at his brothers’s wake, thus Pitbull dedicating the first few seconds of the record, screaming out “This goes out to DROP’s older brother Raul Garcia!” Drop and Pitbull organized a masterpiece for the Cuban people, it had the recipe for the anthem, a voice for the Cuban people.
“Ya Se Acabo” was released in all local radio stations in Miami, DJ Laz and Power 96 being the number one advocates. It was short-lived when news broke that Castro was still alive.
Now almost 10 years later, this song is perfectly suited for what just happened on Friday November 25, 2016 with Cuba’s President Fidel Castro’s death.
AER Management is proud to partner up with Add Ventures Music as we joined forces with Chris Gotti(Formerly from Murder Inc Records who dealt with artists such as Ja Rule, Ashanti and Lloyd Polite. He was also part of countless collaborations with artists such as Jay Z, DMX, Fat Joe, Big Pun, Foxy Brown, Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey) and Don Dinero to help artists empower and monetize their music.
What is “Ad Ventures Music” Add Ventures Music is about empowering all artists throughout the world. Our goal is to educate them in all aspects of the music industry. Our mission is to help them navigate their business in this ever changing music landscape. We want all artists to own, operate, monetize and brand themselves and their products. We have a creative staff and partnered up with other businesses to obtain and provide valuable services that our artist can benefit from. These services are comparable to any of the present day record labels, we just offer them at affordable prices. This allows our artists the opportunity to use as many or as few of these services based on their needs & resources.
Add Ventures music is a service provider, we provide the use of our platform and relationships to allow our artists to retain ownership of all their masters. We help them to monetize their music and content….this is what separates us from traditional records labels.
How We Do it? We offer distribution for artists which places their music in all the major digital retailers and streaming outlets. Synced with this, we distribute video content through streaming services such as Vevo, Tidal, Pandora just to name a few. We have created partnerships with brands & other companies that will furnish services that all artists need to help market and promote their music in a cost effective way.
How Much? The $300.00 one time membership fee includes: -Digital Distribution -Monetization of streaming content -Creation of Vevo Channel -Personal consultation from the add ventures team -Up to date information on the add ventures community of users
AER Management esta orgulloso en anunciar su junte con Add Ventures Music, uniendo fuerzas con Chris Gotti (Formerly from Murder Inc Records who dealt with artists such as Ja Rule, Ashanti and Lloyd Polite. He was also part of countless collaborations with artists such as Jay Z, DMX, Fat Joe, Big Pun, Foxy Brown, Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey) y Don Dinero para ayudar a los artistas monetizar su música.
Que es “Add Ventures Music”? Add Ventures Music es empoderar a los artistas por todo el mundo. Nuestra meta es educarlos en todos los aspectos de la industria musical. Nuestra misión es ayudarlos a navegar sus negocios en este mundo muy cambiante de la música. Queremos que los artistas sean sus propios dueños, operen y moneticen sus propios negocios y productos. Hemos creado un equipo y nos hemos unido a otros negocios para obtener y ofrecerles un servicio beneficioso para el artista. Estos servicios son comparable a los de las disqueras hoy en día, pero nosotros lo ofrecemos a un precio módico. Esto les permite a los artistas la oportunidad de usar los servicios necesarios y personalizados para ellos. Add Ventures Music les ofrece un servicio, una plataforma, y las relaciones que permite que los artistas mantengan el poder de sus “masters”. Ayudamos a que moneticen su música y contenido… esto es lo que nos separa a nosotros de las disqueras tradicionales.
Como lo hacemos? Nosotros ofrecemos una distribución para artistas que coloca su música en las tiendas digitales principales y sitios de streaming. En conjunto a esto, nosotros distribuimos contenido de video a través de servicios como Vevo, Tidal, Pandora, para nombrar algunos. Hemos creado una sociedad con marcas y otras compañías que proporcionan servicios para que el artista promueva su música en una manera costo efectiva.
Costo? El precio para la membresía es $300.00 en total que incluye: -Distribución digital -Monetizar contenido de transmisión -Crear el canal de Vevo -Consulta personal de parte de nuestro equipo de Add Ventures -Información actual de los usuarios en la comunidad de Add Ventures
For the very first the touring LIME (Joy Dorris and Rob Hubertz) went to a recording studio and recorded “R U Close” which was produced by Lewis Martinee and the Executive Producer was Angel Rodriguez who is the CEO of AER Management.
