Do You Have A Budget? Only Jesus Can Turn Water To Wine, We Use Grapes….
Welcome to this week’s Blonde Intelligence with me, Ms. Roni, where I always seek to give you exquisite cranial repertoire. This week I want to touch on creating a budget when starting a music project. A realistic budget when working in music is essential and some independents are missing the mark in this area. Everyone does not get a record label advance. Having a small budget does not mean you can’t yield success; it means you have to exert more sweat equity into your project. So, in essence you are either going to save towards your budget or put the equity in yourself towards a successful project. Let’s start out with the definition of a budget. A budget consists of allowance or specific amount of money to be applied to set operational costs. According to the Music Biz Academy (http://www.musicbizacademy.com/knab/articles/artistincome.htm), artist expenses to include in your budget are recording fees, graphic designing fees, marketing, publicity, promo, equipment costs, songwriter and registration fees, business team costs, taxes, merchandising, and so on. Weibe (https://www.musicindustryhowto.com/budget-next-music-project/#Work_Backwards_From_Your_End_Goal_To_Determine_The_Amount_Of_Money_You_Need_For_Your_Album_Or_Project) suggests that because tracks have to be mixed and mastered, and money has to be left over to properly market the release, working backwards can help you determine how much money you will need. Note he said to properly market the release. Not drop it on YouTube and call it a release, cause that is not a release…..moving on. So, if you are in the music business and don’t have a large budget some of the things you can do to put sweat equity and reduce costs are record in a smaller, but quality more budget friendly studio. I have had artist to send me music they recorded in the living room. He said because he stays away from the hater….uhh huhh…moving on. Using apps to design your album cover may be more budget friendly if you cannot hire a graphic designer. Of course, you get what you pay for and if you don’t know how to remove the watermark then pay their fee. Another budget friendly option is to use a service for marketing and publicity. Some services to ease social media marketing are as low as $15 per month. Facebook and Instagram ads allow you to set your own budget and share on both platforms under one budget. If you do not register your music, it essentially does not count. If you do not have it in the budget, create your own accounts to register your music. For merchandising you may have to start out small, there is nothing wrong with hand made to start with if it is quality. The bottom line is the music industry is a business and exchange of money is involved, even with sweat equity. Remember only Jesus can turn water to wine, because we use grapes…. Remember to Like, Share, Subscribe, Comment, or even Disagree with Ms. Roni’s Blonde Intelligence
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