Inflated prices???

You won't find too many studios with "inflated" prices anymore.
I've been in the Pro studio biz for 22 years and haven't charged inflated prices for about the last 10. Lol

So not only do you want to cut the Pro studio out of the process, you want to go into a "home" studio (read , bad acoustics) and get the cheapest price you can.

Is this serving your artist well?
Is this serving the listener well?
Is this serving your business well?

I doubt it.

I'm certain that you can find a very pro studio that would be hungry for your business for $40-60 per hour. This should buy you a no BS, no excuse studio with compitent engineers that know the rooms. It should also give you, the artists and the consumer a high quality product, assuming the band is good and the songs are well written.

I'm sorry to sound so hot on this subject, but the state of recorded music, imho, has reached an all-time low and your idea is merely perpectuating the problem.

Do yourself a favor and explore the option of striking a deal with the best quality studio/engineer you can find and sleep well at night knowing that the pride you feel is because of the final musical product, not the profit. (that will follow naturally).

My .02

Chris

My $0.02...

For me, there still would have to be some money upfront. What assurances would I have that I would be able to make my monthly nut if I were a home studio owner? I have a hard time waiting for invoices to be paid that I sent in to record companies 2 or 3 months ago, never mind having known I worked on an album for over a month only to watch it bomb sales wise and only make less than a quarter of what I should have charged normally.

Also, you say you have one successful release under your belt. How many unsuccessful artists/bands/acts were there before you finally hit the successful one? Will that one success offset the others that crashed and burned? Will the band break up 2 or 3 weeks into recording? What happens if the project gets shelved? Would that be my fault? No. What if you, as the record company, reject what the band submits and they think its the next White Album? What happens then?

Even salesmen in other industries have a base salary before they get their commission. Most, if not all, have to reach a goal before they even see their commission.

Thats ok, your entitled to your opinion. Im not sure what kind of Successes youve had in the music business, nor am I sure of your experiences. What I do know is what Ive delt with. On our first release we spent ten grand......not much in comparison with most larger labels. But I was left with the feeling that i could have spent half that and gotten the same thing.

Now on to your part that im trying to dupe the home studio owners basically. Thats not my case......what would two weeks time cost in a home studio.......1400 -2k? Not much money for two the two weeks. Because of our success so far with the Junior Varsity, we have pressing and distro. Which cuts more of the cost of the front end. Now our artists are putting out an album where the only up front cost involved so far is for mastering at a very reputable mastering house. We have booking agents that are offered additional incentives to get our artists on bigger tours, which results in more publicity. And all the money we saved on the front end of things can be put into promoting the artist.

The end result? Artist is making money off of royalties very quickly because there are very little costs to recoup. The home studio owner is going to make more in the end because 2k just isnt that much money. Now if hes getting 20% of the profits itll be no time till he too has recouped what he initially would have charged and then some. The studio owner also gets more clients and more people requesting him on their projects because of their work with higher profile bands.

Like I said initially I know its a little unorthadox, but......lets remember it takes someone thinking outside the box to change things. Now do I know that this will work for certain, no, and im not pretending to, but I think it will, and im willing to give it a try, and if it doesnt work, ill figure something else out. The bottom line for me is, that in order to compete with the larger labels, ive got to do something different.

actually i had 0 unsuccessful releases before that one. That was my first release..........we spent a ton of money on it. You can check it out for yourself......the band is The Junior Varsity, and has since gone on to sign with Victory Records. We sold a couple thousand records with no advertising. If you make a good record, and tour, people are going to notice. Im not saying i hit a homerun with my first release.........it was anything but, but it certainly wasnt a flop. If the record had been done as im proposing, I believe the band would be even bigger than they are today, and probably on a major label.

Im in the indies too.

Im from the Cayman Isl. Im a rapper Kmnite (Cay-Man-Ite). Where u located? U wanna link?