Audio Recording

OK you are reading this post because you want to find out how much money does a music producer make. First, the music producer comes in two types:

a.) Superstar or Hotshot producer hired by a label or artist to produce recordings.

b.) A beginner producer.

How much money does the producer make depends strongly on the above types. So let’s discuss how each one of them can earn money.

Music Producer hired to produce recordings

The label or an artist would be looking for a producer with the required creative vision to record and complete the master recording for the artist album. Once they decided the producer that would handle the recording project; the producer would then be contacted if he/she interested in the project.

At first, there will be contract set between the label/artist and the record producer. This contract stipulates all terms regarding the recording project which the producer would be handling. The first money that would come to the negotiation table is the advance payment. A producer with proven track record (e.g. successful album releases, multi-platinum producer) can command a higher advance fee to accept the project.

Photo credits: Andreas Thum

Successful producers received between $5000 and $20,000 on advance. But new producers might be receiving less than $5000 for their first project. For small labels or even just an artist hiring a producer to produce her/his album, an advance of $500 to $2000 is typical. Some record producers would not even ask for an advance or a royalty based on the record units sold but only would ask for a one-time/flat fee to produce either a single song or an entire album. This cost would now be inclusive of studio rental fee, other session players’ fee, etc. The money earned depends on the background of the project, the budget of the label; the popularity of the artist/band. For example Steve Albini was hired by Nirvana to produce their last studio album “In Utero”. He refused to receive any royalties based on albums sold and just asked $100,000 flat payment for all the services. But Steve Albini would have earned around $500,000 in royalties if he agree to received royalties based on album sales.

The label or artist does not have the ability to produce professional recordings but what they have are talent and songs. The record producer is hired to transform these songs into professional recordings so that it can be marketed and distributed for sale. It is why the artist/label would spend money on this.

On label projects, the producer can even earn royalties (depending on agreement). This is a percent of the entire album sales. How much money is involved varies entirely on the agreement, see some simple assumptions below:

Producer royalty for each record sold: $0.10
Producer advance: $1000
Assuming the entire album sells 50,000 copies
The total royalties will be: 50,000 x $0.10 = $5000
Since the producer has already received $1000 then the balance would be $4000.

A Beginning Producer

Things are very different for beginning producers. It might be possible that the record producer won’t be receiving any royalties at all except for a one-time payment to produce the recordings.

This one-time payment can be very low as it depends entirely on the budget of the artist. Bear in mind that big recording labels would not likely hire a beginner producer but would opt to look for an already successful/experienced record producer (with proven track record of course).

If you are a new producer, then I would suggest that the record producer fee should cover the basic cost as follows:

Beginner record producer fee = (Total studio rental cost + Services fee)

This would be an advantage for a record producer that owns a record studio because the studio rental cost factor would be very low (except for the electricity cost, etc). The services fee varies depending on your decision and background.

Example:

Supposing you have a recording studio and you are a new producer excited to bring projects to your studio. You want to help artist transform their songs into professional recordings. The services fee and studio rental fee per song based on your assumption goes well around $300. Therefore the record producer fee per song (flat, one-time payment and no royalties involved) would be: $300. Now this cost would be affordable to most independent musicians interested in having one song (their strongest song) to be professionally produced or having that commercial sound. This covers the tracking, mixing and mastering cost.