Salary and how much can a producer make?

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wallsstreet

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Hello all!!! I'm new to the forum.

I'm wondering, I'm a new producer who is currently building a studio in my basement, and have a question regarding how much can I expect to make Producing Gospel/R&B??

I have been into music since 5yrs old and I play piano (keyboards) Bass and drums. I have studio equip and everything and I started about a year trying to produce for a living.

Question:
Being a producer, how much can I expect to make a year??? I know it depends on the amount you charge and how much work comes your way, but I'm wondering in you guy's experenice how much do you make per year????

Please don't take this as a person question, or thinking I'm getting in your business, I just want to know what to expect? :hello:
 
I think you can expect to make $0 and 0 cents.
You can hope to make millions.
The sky's the limit.

Exc
 
Thanks!

I really appreciate your comments. This is very inspiring to read, and I have been following your posts (like everyone else has) and your words are encouraging to use newbie's trying to make it.

I definitly know I have what it take, it just a matter of time and a matter of getting more $$$ for plug-ins and stuff.

wallsstreet
 
hell shondrae- you even inspired me too! nice to see encouragement and real answers on the board. there can be BIG money BIGGER $$$$ or big failure-but you are bound to have fun in the process. personally i am interested in licencing our music at the moment, its a bit diferent of a ballgame and i am learning more each day. learning how to make proper business decidions can be confusing and difficult. just stick to your ground and find the right talent to produce!!!! hopefully go for a NEW sound! best of luck to you wallsstreet!! :)
 
SHONDRAE said:

A Producer who does production for a major label like a 9 to 5 job (a regular in-house producer that produces all the labels acts) will make anywhere from $40,000 a year to $80,000 a year like a regular job (a set salary).

SHONDRAE
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That just sounds like a raping with no vaseline:bigeyes: So Shon, even if the in house producer scores a major hit, he still gets his regular salary with no extras?
 
Shon what are options for a new producer from eastern europe?
What can I expect if I make a complete album of various stuff somenthing like world music maybe?
Can i try to publish it in EU or overseas and make some money but without leaving my country for now?
 
Contacts for Freelance Producer

Shondrae,

Whats the best way to get contacts with major label artist with out becoming an "inhouse" producer first? Maybe interning for a successfull freelance producer?

Visionz
 
SHONDRAE said:
Welcome to the forum....as a professional producer you can make anywhere from $10,000 to about $3 million dollars a year (off of producer advances and production fees)

A Producer starting out (like yourself) would make about $1,000 to $2,500 per beat if you were to do tracks with a Major label and can probably make up to 15,000 to 20,000 a year if you constantly work through out the year(and that is rare)..

A Producer who does production for a major label like a 9 to 5 job (a regular in-house producer that produces all the labels acts) will make anywhere from $40,000 a year to $80,000 a year like a regular job (a set salary).

A independent producer (freelance/hitmaker) can make any where from $100,000 a year to $3 million a year....

I make about 2.5 million(off of advances and producer fees) i charge $150,000 per track and even more if im doing a track for a big movie or a commercial....and then i get a royalty of 8% off of record sales if im working with someone other than ludacris (record royalties) which is very high for any producer, but once you get a track record you charge alot more(regular producers get about 1 to 2% sometimes 3% if the label is generous...rarely happens) when i work on luda's albulm ,we split 60%(so thats 30% of all record sales) (because im the co-owner of the record label and owner of the production company and publishing company) Def jam gets 40%... and then i get publishing royalty off the songs i write as a producer/publisher/songwriter....so to make a long story short as a producer/publisher/songwriter/Ceo all together i make about $9 to $10.5 million...a year...but as a producer( off fees and advances) I get about $2 million annually (and that is what you want to do as a producer, get at least a milllion a year).... i hope this helped you and inspired you to get out there and get it...because as you can see there is alot of money to be made just for fukin' around with a mpc-4000 and a korg triton.....

SHONDRAE
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That **** is inspiring!! lol Damn...just thinking about all of those zero's gives me a hard-on.

I've been producing for 2 years now and work only on the internet by myself, no manager (until now) and no other producers on my team, I made $30k last year which isn't bad for a 20 year old unsigned producer selling beats from his mp3 website. Reading that makes me want to step my game up a lot...I think I'm going to print that out and post it right above my triton lol.
 
Sho-Down said:


That **** is inspiring!! lol Damn...just thinking about all of those zero's gives me a hard-on.

I've been producing for 2 years now and work only on the internet by myself, no manager (until now) and no other producers on my team, I made $30k last year which isn't bad for a 20 year old unsigned producer selling beats from his mp3 website. Reading that makes me want to step my game up a lot...I think I'm going to print that out and post it right above my triton lol.
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AYO!
What you just said is inspiring!
30 g's from selling beats off the internet?? You gotta give me some tips, how do you get your name out on the internet, and actually make sales?
 
foerster said:


AYO!
What you just said is inspiring!
30 g's from selling beats off the internet?? You gotta give me some tips, how do you get your name out on the internet, and actually make sales?
Click to expand...

lol no doubt. I'm one of hardly any though, I'm friends with a lot of producers on the internet but none of them can get sales like I can and when people ask what you're asking I really don't know what to tell them, there's no set way to sell beats, if someone's feeling your music then they'll buy it.

Traffic to your website is very important, the more people that come to your page the more chances of making sales, you might have only 1 buyer out of 500 people but he could be ready to put down 5 grand on beats, so take everyone serious. Have a very professional sounding product, when someone e-mails you hit them back as quick as you can and be very professional when speaking to them. After they've paid for the beats then send them a clean looking package with a contract and a CD, make everything look pro, look like you know what the hell you're doing. If you send a sloppy envelope with red ink marker written on the CD it looks amature and doesn't say much about your business. I always put business cards in my client's packages, they hand them out at shows which brings more clients to me. Just little things like that make people come back for more, almost everyone of my past clients have come back for more production because they trust me, they know I'm consistent with my ****.

Getting your name out is as easy as buying advertising spots on websites or in magazines, if people see your banner on every message board they go to then their going to wonder who the hell you are and that'll lead them to your page. It takes money to make money. Some of the artists I've produced in the past have had ads and interviews in the source, xxl, murda dog, etc and my name is right there with them so the more you get your name out the more people will wonder who you are.

Good luck.
 
Hey SHONDRAE,

I am wondering how you suggest a producer get started in this business. I have a very nice studio and I think my beats are tight, but how do I go about selling my beats?

I do really appreciate any advice. I have worked really hard to get good, and now I need to get paid.

thx

grzyweasel
 
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*wonders*

If you can make 2million a year with a Motif 6 and MPC2000xl...

Yeah so anyways..
what was your first step? i mean you didnt just wake up a millionaire (did you?:bigeyes: )
 
shondrae- you really charging $150,000 a track to outside artists? I thought only Swizz, Neptunes, Timb, Dre, and Mannie, could command that type of money cause of their list of hits. No disrespect cause if its true- more money for you, but I only know you from What's Your Fantasy.
pokerface
 
foerster said:


AYO!
What you just said is inspiring!
30 g's from selling beats off the internet?? You gotta give me some tips, how do you get your name out on the internet, and actually make sales?
Click to expand...

Yeah, Sho-Down. Inspired me too.
 
Sho-Down


I had a look at your page with your beats...I'm shaking my head at the price for beats $300 - $500. They all sound top quality and theres some real jewels in there. If I were in the other side of the fence and buying beats i'd pay more than that for a few of those beats.
 
Sabane said:
Sho-Down


I had a look at your page with your beats...I'm shaking my head at the price for beats $300 - $500. They all sound top quality and theres some real jewels in there. If I were in the other side of the fence and buying beats i'd pay more than that for a few of those beats.
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Thanks, I appreciate that. I thought about raising my price but I sell a lot of beats from my page so those $500's add up. Plus it's a steady income and this is my only job and source of money, so I can't take the chance of jacking my prices up and losing clients.

I'm increasing my price off-line though, my manager thinks we can get $1,500+ for exclusive rights and $300-$500 for non-exclusive rights. He's already sold 7 non-exclusive beats and got a few big indie labels interested in exclusive rights to some beats. So hopefully my time is soon, the off-line tracks he's shopping are really hot, nothing even compares to them on my mp3 site so ya'll be on the look out for me lol :)
 
I can imagine, ... Are you making good in royalties too? How long about does it take you to complete a beat? and do you get them perfessional mastered in a commercial studio or do it all yourself?
 
??!! I was just looking at the descriptions on your beats, this one said you speant 2-3 hours on it...more than most?...damn! I can spend 12 hours and barely have one track to how I like it. Then I've only been doing beats for about 3 months, maybe it's the experience..hopefully :)
 
Sabane said:
I can imagine, ... Are you making good in royalties too? How long about does it take you to complete a beat? and do you get them perfessional mastered in a commercial studio or do it all yourself?
Click to expand...

Yea, I get my set amount of points and royalties, my manager's lawyer is the lawyer for a few big named artists so he's making sure I don't get screwed. I got everything covered on that end.

I can make a beat in 30 minutes if I'm feeling good that day, sometimes if I'm in a slump then it can take up to an hour or two. I'm learning how to master but when an artist buys a beat I send them the beat tracked out dry with hardly any effects so they can mix and master it themselves. I'm wanting to learn how to master though, I'm reading up on it.
 
Sabane said:
??!! I was just looking at the descriptions on your beats, this one said you speant 2-3 hours on it...more than most?...damn! I can spend 12 hours and barely have one track to how I like it. Then I've only been doing beats for about 3 months, maybe it's the experience..hopefully :)
Click to expand...

lol yea, I think 3 hours was the most I spent on making a beat, most of that is mixing and touching up though. If I lay down the drums and bass then the rest come very real quickly. I guess it's the piano lessons I took when I was a kid, melodies are easy for me to come up with.
 
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