The future of the pro audio industry?

All about the tools and techniques involved in capturing sound, in the studio or on location.

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Re: The future of the pro audio industry?

Post by Aled Hughes »

I know a few players who do/have done big name stadium tours (and I mean BIG stadium tours)
They were on nowhere near £8k a week.

They also don’t charge £100/hour for sessions either.
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Re: The future of the pro audio industry?

Post by James Perrett »

Aled Hughes wrote: They also don’t charge £100/hour for sessions either.

The MU rate for non classical musicians is £97.20 for a 2 hour session. Classical musicians are from £58.13 upwards.
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Re: The future of the pro audio industry?

Post by awjoe »

@ TRB and blindrew:

Sorry, I thought we were talking about musicians making music in front of a camera. It's interesting to me that, earlier in this thread, when TRB said the future of audio is video, I thought only of two varieties of audio in video:

* point a camera at a band in action and put it on Youtube (bands like Pomplamoose seem to be making a career out of this approach)

* arty music videos

In terms of talent, the first one's free - bands don't charge themselves to play their stuff in front of a camera. The second one's more expensive to make usually, but paying for talent amounts to the occasional actor or dancers usually - hiring symphony players is rare. The 'Thriller' video cost $900,000, and that included 10 days of dance rehearsal. Expensive. But I imagine Aldous Harding spends less on her videos than Billy Eilish for example, and I imagine that neither of them spend much on talent in front of the camera. (And I'm happier watching Eilish and Harding then I am watching Michael Jackson, because I like their music better. Off-topic, but related.)
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Re: The future of the pro audio industry?

Post by Drew Stephenson »

Ah right, no, I'd moved on to movies from that point.
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Re: The future of the pro audio industry?

Post by The Red Bladder »

awjoe wrote:@ TRB and blindrew:

Sorry, I thought we were talking about musicians making music in front of a camera. It's interesting to me that, earlier in this thread, when TRB said the future of audio is video, I thought only of two varieties of audio in video:

* point a camera at a band in action and put it on Youtube (bands like Pomplamoose seem to be making a career out of this approach)

* arty music videos

I have just ball-parked the number of Blu-Ray disks we have here at Bladder Towers and it is about 250, of which perhaps 50 are live concerts. Being an elderly and a rather mild and timid chap with mild and timid tastes, I only go in for mild and timid music, so it's all stuff like AC/DC, Scissor Sisters and Rammstein. I particularly like Rammstein!

But here's the problem - making a concert video is expensive. OK, prices have come down and quality has improved. Everyone is now using 4K or 6K cameras so that their stuff will be future-proof and the cameras today can all be sync'ed by radio and they all can record a two- or three-hour concert. But you still need at least eight of them - and eight camera people holding the damn things - plus the multitrack - and all that costs real money.

But if you make a really good concert video and it stands the test of time by being filmed or videoed in as high a quality as possible and of course, people want to hear the music, it will sell for decades. AC/DC at Castle Donnington was filmed using sixteen 35mm film cameras (no hi-def in them days!) and all that cost a fortune - but it still sells for the full retail price today!

Of the other 200 disks, they all have music. Film music budgets range from a micro-budget thing a friend did for an arty-farty project and he got a £50k music budget. Another friend (and member of this forum) did the arrangements and stem mixes for a far too well-known fantasy film series and the music budget for each film was £5m.

Then there is licensing for advertising. That can bring in pennies (library stuff) or millions (licensing a hit). It's a bit of a craps-shoot!

Gaming is very lucrative for some - but I wouldn't know.

TV dramas are more professional today and are using real scores and arrangements - just like the movies! And therefore they have to have real budgets.

Music without images attached is being recorded for Spotify et al but mostly now in home studios, some of which are of commercial studio standard. The Big Boys have big toys!

So what have I not mentioned? Easy - CDs. Very few are recording for those anymore. My wild guess is about one-tenth of the number from ten years ago - judging by what we get coming through the front door!
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Re: The future of the pro audio industry?

Post by James Perrett »

The Red Bladder wrote: So what have I not mentioned? Easy - CDs. Very few are recording for those anymore. My wild guess is about one-tenth of the number from ten years ago - judging by what we get coming through the front door!

In terms of numbers of projects, I see more vinyl projects (usually with digital distribution too) than CD projects at the moment. Vinyl is really in demand at the moment with huge backlogs at the factories. However, the big projects often include a DVD together with one or more CD's.
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Re: The future of the pro audio industry?

Post by awjoe »

The Red Bladder wrote:So what have I not mentioned? Easy - CDs. Very few are recording for those anymore. My wild guess is about one-tenth of the number from ten years ago - judging by what we get coming through the front door!

I'm old-fashioned. My music library consists of CDs. But I listen to w-a-y more music in video form now than I do to CDs. That's because I love watching people making music. It's a giant step closer to the real thing, which is live. That's why, in the making of my own music, I've shifted from making CDs to making videos. (The weakest link in my recording chain is now the video side of things, both in terms of gear and chops.) That's why I agree that the future of audio is video. If I've just figured this out, then the rest of the world must be a galaxy or two ahead of me.
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