Well, I´ll try to answer, even partially: 1. Costs of the recording depends on several factors: technical difficulty of the piece (complicated rhythm, complicated notation as often done by contemp composers), number of musicians involved excluding the soloist, say moderate honorarium of 50.-$/hour. One should calculate a 3 hour session for a Mozart-like concerto of 15 min. duration and according much more time for a complicated contemp concerto, and more musicians, eventually two or three sessions. This would drive the orchestra costs up so much, that an economic calculation must fail. Say a Chamber orchestra of 64321 string setting (6 = six first violins), plus 2 percussionists, five winds & piano perhaps or harp, which makes 24 players at 50.-$/hour resulting in 1.200.- $/recording hour, multiplied by two sessions three hors each, resulting in 7.200.-$ minimum.
You forgot to ask for the royalties, which are 8% from the list price & have to be paid in advance for the whole pressing, no matter how many you can sell. Say list price 12.-$, 8% makes 0,96 $ royalties, total of 480.-$ for a minimum pressing of 500 copies. It is cheaper to do it "on demand" with single copies done on the home computer. But who want to take the burden. This is just for a 15-20 min. concerto, which does not fill a CD. 2. This depends on the total costs, which have to be paid from one third of the list price of the CDs sold, as the two other thirds of the price would be consumed by advertising & distribution, if you find a distributor. If you record three modern concertos on one CD, you might have recording costs (orchestra alone) of 20.000.-$ roughly, plus engineering (1.000.-), glass master (300.-), pressing (500 copies) & assembling 500-600.-$, conductor (free ???), soloist (free ???), booklet printing 150.-$. Makes all together a sum near to 25.000.-$. All to be refinanced by the sales. The 500 copies would yield about 2.000.-$ to the producer. So you would break even with a sale of 6.000 - 7.000 copies. NO WAY !!!! 3. Electronic files sale would need the same number of sold electronic files or more, as they must be cheaper than the pressed CD. The advantage of electronic files sale would be, that the three concertos could be sold separately. But this would never enhance the sale. The files would (if at all) be copied uncontrollable. 4. It depends if you get the recordings free of charge or if the soloist receive it in exchange for the honorarium. If so, the break even point might be met with a sale of 1.000 + copies, but still around 5.000.-$ must be financed beforehand. Only the costs for the orchestra & perhaps conductor would be reduced to zero - 3.000.- (nominal) $, perhaps, if you are lucky. 5. I answered to that just above (free soloist, free conductor, etc.), much volunteer work. 6. As far as I know from my 18 years on the board of the IHS, we never discussed such, but we paid a lot for commissioned compositions. The IHS would not be able to participate on financing recording projects. 7. Have to ask back: what means guaranteed pre-sales ?? How many ? 2.000 copies or more. 8. Who of the IHS would be willing to organize such undertaking ? There is nobody in any position, to organize that. This kind of activity remains with those who are interested producing such recordings (composers perhaps). The IHS would surely assist in providing mailing labels or by accepting paid advertisements for the HORN VCALL as usual. But did you ever calculate how much a one time mailing of flyers would cost, some 5.000+ flyers ???? And did you consider that 80 - 90 % of the flyers arrive unread in the garbage bin. Hope that helps. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++ Am 28.09.2009 um 07:29 schrieb Prof. Michael Enright: > So we have learned that in order to have a recording of modern > concertos one needs a soloist, an orchestra, a conductor, a hall, > and > funding. In addition, limited audience recordings don't make > money. Fine, let's get more specific then. Given the varied > experiences > and expertise of those on the list, can we answer the following > questions? > 1. What would be the approximate cost of recording say four modern > horn > concertos for a CD? > 2. How many copies roughly have to be sold to breakeven on CD? > 3. How might the breakeven change if the sale is through electronic > files rather than pressed CDs? > 4. How might the breakeven change if the recordings are authorized > live > recordings of concert performances so presumably some costs are > reduced? > 5. Under what conditions do soloists/ orchestras grant permission > for > release of live performances (such as John Cerminaro's "A Life in > Music" or some of Prof Pizka's CDs)? I ask this because some of the > recent concertos have certainly been recorded in live > performances, but > have not been released. > 6. Do commissioning organizations (most of the recent horn > concertos I > know were commissions) ever put aside some of the money for > recordings? > Has anyone had success is badgering them after the fact for funds so > the performances will "live on"? > 7. Does the least expensive fully legitimate method of proceding > allow > one to get to a level where a combination of donations and > guaranteed > pre-sales gets the job done? > 8. If the answer to 7 is yes, is there a way (through IHS or some > other > forum) to organize such an undertaking? If not, well that's that I > guess. > Heavier lifting than discussions about Chinese horns, but so be it > for > those who wish to engage. > Note, I must admit the question of why record modern horn concertos > surprised me. To me, for the same reason any music is recorded or > performed live or composed in the first place, ...so people can hear > it. Given some posts, I am tempted for my next recital to hand the > audience the music, not play, and tell them it is all in the score. > Fewer cracked notes that way. Let's just hope that orchestra > managers > don't figure out they don't need those pesky musicians around after > all. > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/hpizka%40me.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
