Hi Roger and Joyce,Thank you Roger. Actually, I am trying to wrong the mistakes that I had been making for so long. In the past, when we promoted our clients, we thought that we were doing them right by introducing them to Nashville and Emerald Records. We did not know that much about the music industry at that time and we also did not know how much money they would have to put out to get their songs heard and distributed. If they did not have at least a down payment to get the process started their music was silenced. We learned that first hand with Shirley's two songs. Once they did pay, their songs were distributed to several radio stations to get the interest moving. These song were being played for free, however the song artist was paying $250.00 for each song that was aired. This seems to be typical for most Record Labels and Distribution company. Plus, the song artist never knows exactly how many of his or her albums are actually being sold. They only know what the producer tells them. Plus, the only time that the artist knows anything about their songs is when they are contacted by the producer letting them know that more CDs or DVDs have to be distributed and they need to send in more money. Where is their commission for the albums already sold? The producer takes his cut, the distributor takes his cut, and the CD Duplication people take their cut. That leaves about 10% for the song artist. However, that 10% is absorbed by the producer's consultation fees. That leaves the song artists with zero for all his or her effort. Therefore, if the song artist is not performing gigs at least three to four times a week he or she is making nothing. If they are performing gigs, this means that they have a manager or someone going out to nightclubs or other venues drumming up business for them. This is an extra 30% to 40% that they are paying out. We will be the promoter, Record Label, Duplicator, and Distributor. I plan to develop a half hour program that I will distribute to as many radio stations as possible. I will do an introduction telling the listening audience about our record label and how to get in touch with us, give a brief description about each performer, if the performer is available for gigs I will include that information as well, and at the end of the introduction I will include at least one or two of each performers song via MP3. As everything will be done in house, I, or we, will strive to make sure that our clients retain at least 40% of each cd or album sold.
At this point, I have to find better prices for blank CDs and DVDs as the lowest price I have found so far is $39.50 for 50 cds. That averages out to $1.50 per cd. I will also need blank labels for the cds, plus sleeves and jacket, and possibly a bar code machines. Therefore, the five items needed to produce one product have to be priced low enough that the price of each finished product fall within the normal range in today's price index level while at the same time leaving a comfortable profit level for all. Therefore, if anyone has any suggestions on these items, I would appreciate hearing from you.
Joyce, that is good news about the LLC. I will look into that shortly. I will also be looking into a C-corp and S-corp as well, because I understand that by going with either one of those, it will lower the tax amount that I will have to put aside.
GOD BLESS YOU
~Mike~
http://www.countryvalues65.com