Billie's Bones Album Budget

BILLIE’S BONES ALBUM BUDGET

Here’s a read-out of what went into our budget planning. It’s what you don’t see here that made the difference between my being able to record this album the way I wanted (with the band and production crew I wanted), or not. After recording over twenty studio albums, I have a pretty good idea of what items need to be covered in advance, but I still check and double-check with my production crew and business managers. We try to estimate as closely as possible; when in doubt, we estimate high. And we always add in 10% as a “contingency fund”, just in case.

What’s not in here are:

Studio cost for the six weeks of overdubbing and editing, because we could do all that at the home studio.

Assistant engineer for overdubbing and editing, because Philip is on salary and could handle it. Savings: 6 weeks at @ $1500 a week minimum, $9,000.00

Production assistant cost, because Tina is on salary. Savings: 12 weeks at @ $1,000 a week, $12,000.00

Rental cars and taxis: Having Tina there eliminated any messenger service, taxis or car rental costs for the out-of-towners, delivery fees and the like. When Marc needed a car, he borrowed Philip’s or mine. Savings: rental car 10 weeks $2,000, messengers etc $1,000; total $3,000.00

Bookkeeping costs, because I and my business managers (who are on a percentage of my income) did all of that. Savings: @ $3,000.00

Rentals for microphones etc. during editing and overdubbing. Rentals can become exorbitant if you don’t watch out; when Michael Jackson was recording an album a few years ago, he was using three studios around the clock, and renting a DX-7 keyboard for $50 a day. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you multiply it by 90 days, you might as well buy one. Savings: @ $3,000.00

A lot more rentals for tracking; we saved because we brought in Marc and Jeff’s equipment. Savings: 3 days times minimum $800 per day; $2,400.00

Accessories: On big-budget albums, guitar strings and the like are paid through the budget. I went through about 50 sets of strings this record, between sessions and overdubbing; D’Addario provided the strings gratis, which saved about $350.

Instrument rentals; fortunately, between the production crew we owned enough keyboards, guitars, percussion equipment etc. to cover whatever we needed. Savings based on previous albums, @ $2,000.00

A lot of the equipment we'd normally have to rent, or purchase, because we were working in the home studio a lot. We owe all the endorsers a huge thanks for providing everything from mic stands to headphones. Savings: @ $1,500

Cartage for Brock, who drove in with all his gear, saving us about $250.

Hotels for Marc, who stayed with Philip instead, saving us about $4,000.

Union fees for me, because we were allowed to self-pay. Although my “fee” went on the final books, and my pension was paid through the union, otherwise it was a wash, and I saw no need to charge it to the budget. Savings: @ $3,600.00

Producer’s advances: since the chance of making royalties off an album, even an independent one like this, is so slim, most producers take their money up front. Neither Marc nor Jeff received an advance, saving us somewhere between $5,000-$100,000. (Really - and the “famous” producers get as much as $50,000 per song!)

Engineering fees: Although they’re in here as a lump sum, they were really low. Jeff and Marc just asked for enough to cover their own basic expenses (mortgage, rent, utilities and the like) for the duration of the project. If I’d paid them by the hour, it would have cost between $35,000-$55,000.

Artist advance: I didn’t take one; all the advances I received went straight into the budget. That meant my own living expenses weren’t covered, which is part of why we began financial planning for this album two years ago – so there’d be enough in savings to squeak through.

Arranger fees: A lot of albums bring in an arranger, someone who chooses the musicians, writes the charts, rides herd on the session. I did it instead, for free, and we saved somewhere in the region of $4,000.

Copyist fees: The advantage of having had to earn a living as a copyist during my lean years stood us in good stead; I could do the charts, and even orchestrations if necessary. A copyist for this amount of charts would have added at least $3,500 to our budget.

Roadies: Some big-label budgets include fees for the player’s “assistant”, usually a roadie, who’s there to change strings, tune the instruments, set up and tear down. Philip took care of my equipment, and each player took care of his own. Savings: anywhere from $2,000.00 to $5,000.00

Down time: That happens when nothing’s happening due to various factors – a lightning storm that shuts the control room down for a few hours (but the musicians still have to be paid); a singer who shows up six hours later (I’ve seen it happen) while the musicians and engineers wait, and the like. Savings: inestimable!

Sushi: I’ve seen big-label producers decide they’re hungry, and order take-out sushi for fifteen without blinking an eye. While we had catering, it was reasonably priced, and everyone knew if they needed more, they had to bring it with them. Tina is diabetic and needs to “graze” all day; she brought her own supplies for that.

Stupid stuff: With a big budget, you can bring in a sushi chef, take a sick day and still pay everyone, buy some spare equipment you don’t need for the project but are going to use on tour, pay for a masseuse to come in at the end of each session, have a dog handler so Fifi doesn’t have to be alone while you’re at work, hair and makeup artist so you look good every day in case there’s a photographer… I’ve seen acts charge all of those things to the budget, and more. There was no stupid stuff on this album budget!

spasm inc./rude girl records
janis ian new studio album budget items


DATE	CATEGORY	PAID TO/REC'D FROM	FOR?	NOTES
04/14/03	Advance	Oh Boy Records	Advance on commencement	Some contracts call for me to receive an advance when I sign, some when I begin the record, some when I turn in the record, some when the record's released. As you can see, it takes a fair amount of juggling to make sure the advances are received soon enough to get the bills paid!
11/15/03	Advance	Oh Boy Records	Advance on turning in studio album
08/28/03	Advance	Beaver Music	Advance on signing
08/04/03	Advance	Cooking Vinyl	Advance on signing
01/15/04	Advance	JVC Victor Japan	Advance on turning in studio album
05/01/02	Advance	BMG	Buyout	When Windham Hill dropped me after telling me for two years that they wanted the next album, my lawyer negotiated a buyout that provided the start-up funding for "Billie's Bones"
06/05/03	Artwork	Maude Gilman	Graphic design	Usually there'd be one photographer and one shoot, but this album went a little differently. (See the Timeline for details.)
10/17/03	Artwork	Debra Wingo	Makeup, hair for booklet photo shoot
10/17/03	Artwork	Beth Gwinn	Photo shoot for booklet
09/26/03	Artwork	Lisa Powers	Photography front and back covers
11/14/03	Artwork	Colourworks	Processing	The artwork has to be processed - converted into Quark or another software program, plates laid, etc; sometimes the whole thing has to be turned into film, or in this case, digital film format.
11/07/03	Artwork	Colorhigh	Re-touching	Not so I'll be prettier, but so things like shadows don't interfere, and so the colors match one another in things like faces and hands.
06/09/03	Cartage	Thunderground Cartage	Cartage Balding tracking	Drummers, guitarists, engineers have "racks" of equipment, or boxes of instruments, that have to be delivered to the studio, then removed. Jeff has two or three huge hard cases with multiple layers of engineering tools; Dan has a dozen different types of guitars, dobros, banjos etc., all of which have to come to the studio - you don't want to say "Can you play mandolin on this?" and wait two hours for someone to run home and get their instrument!
06/09/03	Cartage	Session Services Unlimited	Cartage Dugmore
06/12/03	Cartage	Session Services Unlimited	Cartage Stinson
07/17/03	Cartage	Kuehne-Nagel	Moreau equipment back to LA + insurance	We thought of having Tina drive to LA and back for Marc's equipment, but it turned out not to be cost-effective.
05/22/03	Cartage	Kuehne-Nagel	Shipping Moreau equipment to Nashville
06/09/03	Catering	Frugal MacDoogals	Champagne end of tracking	Our one catering indulgence
06/14/03	Catering	Kroger	Studio food - home studio	For the home studio, we just bought sandwich makings and kept them around; on "god & the fbi" we barbecued a lot, mostly sausage & potatoes because it was cheap.
06/08/03	Catering	Sigi (Rachel Newman)	Studio food - tracking sessions catering	Rachel provided a hot meal at 1 pm for the three tracking days, with protein, carbs, and roughage.
07/09/03	Catering	Various	Studio food - vocal sessions	For vocal days, Tina would take orders, then run and bring back take-out.
04/26/03	Copyist	Judy Green Music	Charts - calligraphy pens, music paper	We could have done this a little cheaper by using a magic marker, but it wouldn't have changed much - or been half as pretty.
06/08/03	Copyist	Kinko's	Charts - copying	We Xeroxed the charts for the three engineers, rather than hand-writing them, since they could all be the same.
07/10/03	Engineer	Chad Carlson	Assistant engineer tracking	An assistant engineer is an absolute necessity when you're trying to get five songs done each day. He keeps track of the multiple takes, re-sets the board while the engineer is re-setting the computer for the next song, "logs" the session information (everything from the time (BPM, or beats per minute) to instruments played, microphones used, and on. A good first engineer was usually a well-trained assistant engineer at some point.
09/11/03	Engineer	John Saylor	Assistant engineer 2 days mixing	Jeff has two assistants he likes working with on mixes.
09/26/03	Engineer	David Bryant	Assistant engineer 4 days mixing	Jeff has two assistants he likes working with on mixes.
06/11/03	Engineer	Chad Carlson	Assistant engineer vocals	On vocals, it's easier to use the same person you used for tracking, since they're already familiar with everything and everyone.
	Engineer	Marc Moreau	Engineering	Because they were engineering as well as producing, Jeff and Marc both received engineering fees, though well below their usual!
09/26/03	Engineer	Jeff Balding	Engineering
02/24/03	Equipment	Comp USA	Firewire	For making backups (safety copies) and doing transfers in the home studio.
06/08/03	Equipment	SoundCheck	Gaffer tape	For anything and everything. We go through tons of it on tour, but had none left over.
06/12/03	Equipment	Radio Shack	Headphone extension cables	Because sometimes Philip, Marc, Jeff, Tina and I all needed to be listening to a vocal or guitar overdub at the same time. You can't listen through the speakers because of leakage into the vocal or guitar mic from them.
01/31/03	Equipment	Comp USA	Home studio equipment supplies	Everything from CD's up.
01/31/03	Equipment	Walmart	Home studio insulation	See Janis on Guitar Overdubs and the Janis Diary for more information.
05/15/03	Equipment	Broadway Music	Mackie 24 track board	Philip and I carry an 8 track Mackie mix board on tour, but it wasn't nearly large enough. He found a good used 24 track, cleaned it up (made repairs as necessary, double-checked it all worked), and now we can use it for the next album as well.
01/31/03	Equipment	Sweetwater Sound	Mic preamp	Now that the home studio was truly being used as "a studio", we needed a preamp for some of the mics; it was cheaper to buy than to rent.
01/31/03	Equipment	Sam Ash	Mic stands	Because we changed from the Audiotechnica mic to a Neumann for vocals on this album, we needed some new stands.
	Furnishings	Furniture Warehouse	Home studio furniture - couch	We furnished the home studio mostly with odds and ends, but some things were necessities (tables for the computer and mixing board). And Philip found a cheap set of couches, so five or six people could sit and listen comfortably. The couches also helped to absorb echo bouncing off the cement walls of the room.
01/06/03	Furnishings	Furniture Warehouse	Home studio furniture - for Moreau stay	It was a lot cheaper to have Marc stay with Philip than put him in a hotel, but he did need a bed, so Philip found a used frame and mattress for him. We contributed some old sheets and pillows.
06/08/03	Gas	Various gas stations	Gas Abato	Tina gets reimbursed for the gas she uses driving to and from New Jersey, as well as any she uses here, since all she did was cart musicians and run around town on album business.
07/14/03	Gift	Accent Flowers	Flowers to Dolly Parton	How could you have Dolly sing and not send her flowers afterward?
07/15/03	Hotel	Extended Stay America	Hotel Abato	Tina stayed in a reasonable priced hotel because there was nowhere else to put her; the rest of our houses were full up! Brock and Davis stayed at the same hotel when we were tracking, which made life easier all around. Fortunately, none of them are divas; a clean room, working shower, decent bed was all they asked for.
04/11/03	Hotel	Travel.com	Hotel Brock
04/11/03	Hotel	Travel.com	Hotel Davis
06/11/03	Musician	Dugmore, Stinson, Brock, Davis	Tracking sessions	Musicians got paid an AF of M approved total for each day they worked.
06/11/03	Musician	Jim Brock	Tracking sessions - overdubbing	Brock got paid for the two extra days of percussion overdubs.
06/11/03	Musician	Dugmore, Stinson, Brock, Davis	Health and welfare	The union requires us to pay something toward the H&W fund for each musician.
06/08/03	Parking	BNA parking	Pickup Davis	Tina got reimbursed the two dollars it cost for parking when she picked up Richard.
06/11/03	Studio extra	Sound Emporium	Piano tuner	We brought the tuner in for only one day, and planned "When I Lay Down" and any piano overdubs around it.
06/09/03	Rentals	Underground Sound	Mic, Digidesign work station for Balding	We were lucky with rentals this album; we borrowed from friends, and the engineers had mostly their own gear. But the vocal mic and work station needed to be rented, since purchasing them was way too expensive.
07/03/03	Shipping	Various	Various	We shipped everything from the worktapes and rough mixes to musicians, to the final parts that went out to our affiliates in England, Hong Kong, and Japan.
06/11/03	Studio time	Sound Emporium	Studio A, tracking, 3 days	We rented the studio on a "buy-out", meaning we paid a flat fee per day, whether we worked one hour or fifteen. That way we made sure our set-up could stay exactly as it was from day to day; nothing would be disturbed by another band coming in inbetween our sessions.
07/14/03	Studio time	Sound Emporium	Studio B, vocals & overdubs, 4 days	We moved to Sound Emporium's smaller studio for these, mainly because it was a lot cheaper, but also because the smaller studio was more intimate. We thought of doing vocals in the home studio, but it wasn't time-efficient because of outside noise.
10/10/03	Studio time	Independent Mastering	Mastering	Includes making copies for the affiliates.
09/23/03	Studio time	Emerald Sound-Moore Recording	Mixing 6 days
06/06/03	Sundries	Costco	Home studio - sundries	With up to 6 of us spending 8-10 hours a day there, we needed things like bathroom supplies, paper towels, and extra detergent - Philip shouldn't have to pay for that out of his pocket, just because the studio is where he lives as well.
09/08/03	Tape & writeable formats	NTS Promedia	AIT-2 tapes for mixing, backup	While working digitally saves a lot of money on tapes, you still need something to backup the music. Usually one set of backups stayed with the engineer and the studio, and one set came home with me. That's because once you've finished tracking, the paranoia of "what if the studio burns down, with my only copy in it?!" isn't really paranoia - it's just common sense.
05/01/03	Tape & writeable formats	Comp USA	CDR's and jewel cases	Worktapes to players, production crew; rough mixes; everything gets thrown onto the CD's.
09/05/03	Tape & writeable formats	NTS Promedia	DATS for mixing, backup	Sometimes we use DATs instead; I don't know why, but Philip, Marc, and Jeff do.
06/06/03	Tape & writeable formats	MacHollywood	Hard drives and tape	We had to buy extra hard drives for the recording and mixing; Philip searched around for the cheapest and safest (too cheap, and you risk them not accurately holding data.)
06/08/03	Tip	BNA skycap	Davis bass arrival	A tip for the skycap who carried Richard's bass to the car, since he couldn't handle that and his luggage.
06/07/03	Tip	Pho Bac 54	Dinner production team et al	Our final pre-production meeting, two days before we began tracking, was in an inexpensive local restaurant. Heck, I wasn't going to cook for eight people two days before the sessions!
04/14/03	Travel	Airline	Flights Davis	We booked everyone's flights months before, so we could get them for less.
07/16/03	Travel	Airline	Flights Moreau - date change	Marc ended up staying longer than planned, so there was a date change penalty from the airline.
12/31/02	Travel	Airline	Flights Moreau - preproduction	Marc flew in for the pre-production weeks (see the Timeline).
04/16/03	Travel	Southwest Airlines	Overweight Moreau	Marc brought all the equipment he could carry, to cut down on shipping costs; even with the overweight charges, it was still less.
06/12/03	Travel	Northwest Airlines	Overweight Richard Davis	Unfortunately, there's no way to disguise an upright bass in a hard case as an ordinary piece of luggage.
06/13/03	Travel	Jim Brock	Travel Brock	Brock drove to save us money, but he still had to be reimbursed for his gas both ways.
06/13/03	Union	AF of M Pension Fund	Pension fund payments	While the union allowed us to pay the musicians directly for their payment and H&W, we still had to pay into the union pension fund for each of them.
08/06/03	Utilities	Philip Clark	Utilities extra home studio	Philip's utility bill was considerably higher with Marc staying there and all of us working there, so we factored in a little extra on the budget to reimburse him.
07/25/03	Vocalist	Harry Stinson	Vocals "Forever Young"	Harry didn't get paid much, but he did get paid for his vocal part.
07/16/03	Vocalist	Dolly Parton	Vocals "My TN Hills"	Dolly took the same low fee Chet Atkins and Willie Nelson took when they worked on "Memphis" with me; still, it was part of the budget.