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!