Have you turned a profit on your CD?

[jokerone]

I'm curious if you would consider your CD release profitable?

Adding up your musical equipment, computer (if its primary use is for music), mixing, mics, cables, DAW software, mastering cost( if any), CD replication costs. etc. etc. etc.



I'm not counting performance profits, but if you want to include that in your total, please do.

I'm also not counting time spent either.

For me its almost purely for fun, with just a slight wish I could cover equipment costs.

thanks.

 

[Seafroggys]

Heh, my first CD, which I put out back in 2009, I had budgetted at a cost of $3500 or thereabouts. That includes the cost of the gear I got while working on the project (not the gear I already had), the musicians pay, and the physical cost of replication. I think I've made back 10% or so, but then again I stopped marketing it after about 6 months because I realized how terrible it was and used it as an awesome learning experience.

 

[Greg_L]

I give all the money I make off my CDs to charities, so no, no monetary profit. The good karma profit is immeasurable though.

 

[jonny deep]

I give all the money I make off my CDs to charities, so no, no monetary profit. The good karma profit is immeasurable though.

Had you kept the cash, would you be in profit?

 

[Greg_L]

Had you kept the cash, would you be in profit?

Interesting question. For me, I don't really know where to draw the lines between recording, live, and general personal enjoyment. It's very blurry for me. I use my drum kit live, so it wasn't bought with the intention of being used just for recording. So how do I apply that to the tally of making an album? Half of it? I don't know. So if I consider things purchased that are used solely for recording purposes, then yeah, I've technically made profit on my first two albums. Most of my stuff I'd want or have anyway though, recording or not.

 

[jonny deep]

Interesting question. For me, I don't really know where to draw the lines between recording, live, and general personal enjoyment. It's very blurry for me. I use my drum kit live, so it wasn't bought with the intention of being used just for recording. So how do I apply that to the tally of making an album? Half of it? I don't know. So if I consider things purchased that are used solely for recording purposes, then yeah, I've technically made profit on my first two albums. Most of my stuff I'd want or have anyway though, recording or not.

I've bought two guitars (and amps, for that matter) since I started recording that I might not have bought anyway, so I wouldn't know whether to include them. Not that I've made an album or sold anything.

 

[Greg_L]

I've bought two guitars (and amps, for that matter) since I started recording that I might not have bought anyway, so I wouldn't know whether to include them. Not that I've made an album or sold anything.

That's the thing. Did recording somehow influence all of the stuff I've bought recently? Maybe to some degree. I don't have three 4x12 cabs for home recording. I've wanted a wall of Marshalls since I was 15 years old. I did go through a lot of gear before I knew home recording even existed. I've had a ton of guitars, amps, drums, etc. But there are things I wouldn't have bought had it not been for recording - like mics, mic cables, monitors, interfaces, plug ins, etc. But even with that stuff, how does it factor in? Where do you draw the line between using that equipment for fun/hobby versus making money with it?

 

[Seafroggys]

As I said in my post, I only count the gear that was purchased during the course of the recording. Keeps from heads exploding.

 

[Pinky]

No matter the math, my answer is: NO, I haven't made any profit. But enjoying what I do is priceless.

 

[miroslav]

Have you turned a profit on your CD?

There are artists/bands who are pretty known and doing what we would consider serious gigs....
...and THEY ain't turning profits yet, if you want to consider ALL the money, time and effort it took to get any one of them from "Gee mom, I think I want learn to play guitar"....to....."Look mom, I finally got past the break-even point and I'm actually turning a net profit...and I'm glad I could finally pay you and dad back for all those lessons and equipment you bought me".

If anyone is expecting to actualy net profits from their music....they should consider something else as a career.

It's like my buddy who wants to make some extra cash from his band gigs....he spends days practicing, driving to and from practices, buying added gear for the live gigs....then when they give $100 instead of $50 for the night, he thinks he's doing well.
Meanwhile, it cost him probably $300+ in all the time, effott, gas, etc.....to make that $100.....
....but he doesn't see that.
Most musicians don't.

 

[jokerone]

There are artists/bands who are pretty known and doing what we would consider serious gigs....
...and THEY ain't turning profits yet, if you want to consider ALL the money, time and effort it took to get any one of them from "Gee mom, I think I want learn to play guitar"....to....."Look mom, I finally got past the break-even point and I'm actually turning a net profit...and I'm glad I could finally pay you and dad back for all those lessons and equipment you bought me".

If anyone is expecting to actualy net profits from their music....they should consider something else as a career.

It's like my buddy who wants to make some extra cash from his band gigs....he spends days practicing, driving to and from practices, buying added gear for the live gigs....then when they give $100 instead of $50 for the night, he thinks he's doing well.
Meanwhile, it cost him probably $300+ in all the time, effott, gas, etc.....to make that $100.....
....but he doesn't see that.
Most musicians don't.

I totally agree. That's why I "vaccinated" my question with the forget the fun, enlightenment, etc. along with the playing live, etc. Just the equipment profit/loss.

I had someone asking me if I was interested in "Taxi".

At first it sounded interesting, but after an hour on the calculator and reading the "success" stories on Taxis on website, I decided that one of their leading people could have done better (money wise) just working for minimum wage at Jack in the Box.

Now, granted its pretty cool to tell people, yes, that theme on the home owner's insurance ad that played on the super bowl was mine, but from a monetary standpoint , it didn't make any sense to me especially since you start off $200 in the hole with them signing up. living by the "I never pay my employer" motto that has served me well in my day job over the decades, is applied in this case to weed out all the bullshit con-crap from something real.

Creating a CD is much different than Taxi, which was my original question. Since I assume with Taxi you are writing stuff strictly for money and not for love of writing.

I have one single out and no CDs (working on my first), and I will say that I have made enough on that one single to almost by a Grande Coffee at Starbucks. This is before I deduct anything like equipment, DAW, software, etc. After the CD comes out I'm hoping to afford a Frappuccino..

 

[miroslav]

I've looked at TAXI a few times....and I may at some point drop the 2-3 hundred and just view it as money spent on a low risk learning experience....since they DO promise to refund I think after the first year if you get zero placement.

I certainly couldn't care less about getting one of my songs as background music for some low-budget cheesy insurance ad.....BUT....(yes, it's always a long shot)....they do have more industry access than you and I or most of the people here on HR, so there is that possibility that your song might become background music for some major ad campaign, or even possibly some name artist is looking for just THAT kind of song to record.

Yeah...lots of pipe smoke going up with that dreaming....but I'm not going to cry even if I just spent the 2-3 hundred and didn't get a refund. I mean, I've spent WAY more than that on other music related ventures and shots-in-the-dark.
The thing with TAXI is you need a decent catalog of ***marketable*** music. One song isn't going to work, unless you get REAL lucky. So you bombard them for your one year with a bunch of songs, and see where it goes. If they get you that insurance ad, maybe you on;y recoup your 2-3 hundred for the saign-up....and then you can walk away.

Anway...I'm not promoting TAXI, but since you brought it up, that's my take on it....and I'm still not decided if I'll ever try it, but I have thought about it lately.

 

[ido1957]

Short answer is no.... But I made more money gigging in the 80's than I've spent on music equipment and CD's since then. So I'm ahead I guess overall. I'm in it for the fun - it's not as expensive as sports cars...

 

[rayc]

I only have sales through Kunali for CDs and Bandcamp for digital files.
Promotion is only by my signature link and occasionally using the status section on facebook.
In terms of costs I'll make the line of expenses start at mastering because everything else is hobby level, hobby expense and sub hobby performance.
Mastering is really a hobby expense too and for most folk it'd be an unnecessary or luxury expense.
I went that far because I wanted the CD "finished" so that I wouldn't tweak, fiddle and remix the tracks after it was done.
With my established criteria I've recieved enough money from sales to pay for an ME to master one song.
That's OK with me as it's only a vanity project and whilst I was covering all expenses for a duo I wanted it complete.
As we don't play live anymore, (we live 100 miles apart and different world entirely on many levels), and I've not gone with CD Baby, iTunes, (I LOATHE every part of Apple's proprietary systems & machines), or any of that stuff I didn't expect to sell more than 3 copies so have exceeded my expectations.

 

[fat_fleet]

I turned a prophet on my music. He said, "These are surely the end times."

 

[Greg_L]

I totally agree. That's why I "vaccinated" my question with the forget the fun, enlightenment, etc. along with the playing live, etc. Just the equipment profit/loss.

I had someone asking me if I was interested in "Taxi".

At first it sounded interesting, but after an hour on the calculator and reading the "success" stories on Taxis on website, I decided that one of their leading people could have done better (money wise) just working for minimum wage at Jack in the Box.

Now, granted its pretty cool to tell people, yes, that theme on the home owner's insurance ad that played on the super bowl was mine, but from a monetary standpoint , it didn't make any sense to me especially since you start off $200 in the hole with them signing up. living by the "I never pay my employer" motto that has served me well in my day job over the decades, is applied in this case to weed out all the bullshit con-crap from something real.

Creating a CD is much different than Taxi, which was my original question. Since I assume with Taxi you are writing stuff strictly for money and not for love of writing.

I have one single out and no CDs (working on my first), and I will say that I have made enough on that one single to almost by a Grande Coffee at Starbucks. This is before I deduct anything like equipment, DAW, software, etc. After the CD comes out I'm hoping to afford a Frappuccino..

I think Taxi is one of the biggest jokes around.

 

[jokerone]

I think Taxi is one of the biggest jokes around.

Wish I had thought of it..

I was listening to an Ad the other day on the radio about how you could make money in the Stock Market by using their "Biblical money code" hidden in scripture. My first thought was SHIT! I wish I would have thought of that. I'm sure the guy is making a shitload selling this concept, much more than him investing his own money based on the secrets in the book of Deuteronomy or whatever...

 

[jonny deep]

Wish I had thought of it..

I was listening to an Ad the other day on the radio about how you could make money in the Stock Market by using their "Biblical money code" hidden in scripture. My first thought was SHIT! I wish I would have thought of that. I'm sure the guy is making a shitload selling this concept, much more than him investing his own money based on the secrets in the book of Deuteronomy or whatever...

It's funny how many people have the secret to making money on the markets and are teaching it to chumps for £500 a pop instead of making billions with their secret.

 

[mjbphotos]

I got my W4 from Createspace/Amazon yesterday. $12.43 total royalties in 2013. WOOHOO! Party!

 

[DM60]

It's funny how many people have the secret to making money on the markets and are teaching it to chumps for £500 a pop instead of making billions with their secret.

I agree. If you made so much money, why are you telling me. Moreover, why do I have to pay? You have enough to give it away.