Re: [sudo-discuss] Sudo kids hit pop record with the writers group

The makers of Pachas Pajamas are from Oakland I think. They had a kickstarter to fund a music video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwoWkFQqXs0 Alcides Gutierrez http://e64.us On Jun 17, 2013 7:05 AM, "Romy Ilano" &lt;romy(a)snowyla.com&gt; wrote: > Wouldn't it be cute if the writers group could write a hit album with > Sudo kids radio like all the top 40 pop factories do with their > manufactured stars? It's Sudo room additive music engineering !!! > > --- > > Romy Ilano > Founder of Snowyla > http://www.snowyla.com > romy(a)snowyla.com > > Begin forwarded message: > > *From:* Romy Ilano &lt;romy.ilano(a)gmail.com&gt; > *Date:* June 16, 2013, 3:00:32 PDT > *To:* Romy Ilano &lt;romy(a)snowyla.com&gt; > *Subject:* *How Much Does It Cost To Make A Hit Song? : Planet Money : > NPR* > > > http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/05/137530847/how-much-does-it-cost-t… > > How Much Does It Cost To Make A Hit Song? > [image: Rihanna] > > Courtesy Universal > > Getting a song on the pop charts takes big money. > > Def Jam started paying for Rihanna<http://www.npr.org/artists/15757248/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. > [image: The Cost of Rihanna's Man Down] > > Notes These are rough estimates based on interviews with industry > insiders. The figures have not been confirmed by Rihanna’s label, Def Jam. > > 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. > > > --- > > Romy Ilano > Founder of Snowyla > http://www.snowyla.com > romy(a)snowyla.com > > > _______________________________________________ > sudo-discuss mailing list > sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.org > http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss > >