This is clearly the studio of the Maritime Ballroom, but there are no outsiders here during the day, not even any staff. There are only two security guards sitting in the seats at the entrance, seemingly watching them to make sure they don't touch anything.
The largest group here consists of the dozen or so bands that received this audition opportunity.
No one paid any attention to Lehe and his group, and they ignored everyone else, quietly sitting down in a corner.
They only move their throats a few times when they see others smoking.
Blue Shark Band extended an invitation to all rock bands in the Lianwan area, saying they were preparing a rock album for Northeast China and wanted to solicit songs from rock bands.
The band Hanchuang, having nothing better to do, sent over a song.
They didn't expect to be shortlisted, and once the song was sent to them, they forgot about it immediately.
Unexpectedly, Qu Zi not only made it to the finals, but also received an interview opportunity.
This was quite unexpected for them. From the day they received the notification of being shortlisted, they were actually caught in a dilemma about whether to come or not.
At this point, they began to hesitate about whether they should continue playing in the band.
Their lives had deteriorated to the point where they couldn't even afford cigarettes anymore. With no hope in sight, there was really no point in continuing their escapades.
If they hadn't been struggling to find anything else to do, they might not have come at all. After much hesitation, they finally decided to come here.
At 1 p.m., Liang Liang and Xu Wei arrived at the studio.
The two went up to the stage and sat down behind a table that had been set up in advance.
Liang Liang glanced around at the people below the stage.
"You were all invited here by a notice, right?"
"Yes! Our band came after being notified!"
"Me too!"
All the bands said similar things.
"You all already know the purpose and rules of this song selection, so I won't go into details. Now I'd like to add some information. In order to promote the rock music scene in our southern Liaoning region, Yangcheng Pacific Company has commissioned our Haiyun Dance Hall to raise funds for this album. Once the album is completed, Jiangyou Pacific Company will release it. If the album is profitable, the profits will be distributed to each band according to a set ratio. I'll send you a manual later to show you the specific distribution ratio."
"So if this album loses money, there won't be any profit sharing?" someone asked from the audience.
Liang Liang laughed: "Brother, that's a rather silly question. The album lost money, where are you going to get money to share with you?"
"But how can we know if the album will make money or not?"
None of these people have released an album, so they have little idea of how much it costs to produce an album.
Without knowing the album's production cost, it's impossible to know how many copies an album needs to sell to make a profit.
"Have any of you bands ever released an album?"
No one answered Liang Liang's question; all that could be seen was a sea of heads shaking wildly.
"So that means no band has released an album. Today I'll explain to everyone how many steps and how much it costs to release an album. The cost of an album is basically calculated per song. It includes everything from arrangement and studio fees, hiring musicians, post-production costs, copyright registration fees, and finally, album burning and production costs. Remember these steps?"
The people below Mount Wutai nodded in agreement.
"Let's take this album as an example, step by step. First is the arrangement. The average price for hiring a professional arranger for a song is between 500 and 600 yuan. Our album has 20 songs, so if we hire someone to do the arrangement, it will cost 10,000 yuan."
This figure was considered a standard industry production level in 1994. More than a decade later, this figure would be worth more than ten times, ranging from eight thousand yuan to twenty thousand yuan.
The band members were dumbfounded; the arrangement alone cost 10,000 yuan for the album.
"We're the ones who arrange music for bands, so I don't think we need to find someone else for this. If so many bands can't even arrange music properly, what's the point of them being alive?"
Someone laughed.
This saves on arrangement costs.
"Next, let's talk about the hourly rate for the music studio. It's not too much now, averaging around 200 yuan per song. Twenty songs would be 4,000 yuan."
The price increase isn't significant; even in twenty years, it will only be around 1,500 yuan per song. If you have a good relationship with the recording studio owner, you can get it for 300 or 500 yuan per song.
"It's not a big deal. I built my own recording studio, so I can give you the best price for recording songs in the future, no more than one hundred yuan per song."
Charging a fee is a must. He invested eight or nine hundred thousand yuan to buy a set of equipment. Besides using it himself, he naturally wants to generate a profit. He has to recoup his costs, right?
"Regarding the cost of hiring musicians, I don't think it's necessary to talk about that. With so many bands and so many musicians, if we still have to spend money, we might as well all jump into the sea. Post-production is a bit troublesome. The main issues are the separate track production during the mixing process, then editing, pitch correction, timing alignment, and finally mastering. According to the current market, the processing cost for one song at this stage is around four to five hundred yuan. This money can't be saved. I don't think there's anyone among us who understands post-production. If there were such a person, then this money would be saved, right?"
The answer is, of course, no.
"Now that the master tape is out, the copyright registration fee isn't much, just a few hundred yuan per album. Then it's time for album burning, packaging, and distribution. The recording fee for an album is two yuan per cassette tape. So, without considering the recording costs, the cost of this album is around twelve thousand yuan. Adding the final recording fees and royalties, it means we need to sell five thousand copies of this album to break even."
Liang Liang didn't say how much money an album could make, he only gave a break-even figure, and said they could calculate it themselves!
"As long as our album sells five thousand copies, everyone will get a share of the money. Whether it's five dollars or fifty thousand dollars depends on the final sales of the album. Does everyone understand?"
"Understood!" everyone answered in unison.
"So now there's a question in front of you all. You're all rock musicians, and to put it in my words, rock musicians are all a bit slow-witted. They're eating cornbread and drinking cold water while stubbornly clinging to the rock spirit. The question is, do you want to carry on your rock spirit, or do you want to make money?"
It's necessary to talk some sense into these blockheads.
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