What are major labels paying these days for music videos?

[Robert Ruffo New]

Anybody have a recent quote? Its' been a year or so that we've been focussed on other things and now I hear everything from 5K to 100K, and am having trouble submitting a quote that makes sense. What are your experiences (I know indy bands expect to pay approx $0 - but labels must pay SOMETHING, no? What is that something in 2013?

 

[Dominik Muench]

hahaha did you just mention major labels and "budget" in the same sentence ? you funny funny man
sorry couldn't resist....I cant speak for america but my experience here in australia is pretty average....most music videos I shoot for "label signed bands" are definitely sub 15K bracket these days....one day shoots....2-3 weeks turnaround for edit and post.
To give you an idea...about two years ago I hired out my...back then still RED ONE...camera kit to Wolfmother.....a fairly well known band on an international level at that time...I cant remember what label they were with but the director told me this clip had a budget of around 10K and that was for the first major single release fo their new album.......minus all the other production costs they had on this shoot I made more money with the gear hire than anyone else on the shoot...including the director.

 

[jake blackstone]

When I hear about work on the music video pad by the label I "run for ze hills". There is no money, no one, including the director knows what they want, they will ask you to re-do it many times as a result without paying for it and then they will ask for a discount. To me the only money left in music videos are the international acts involved in vanity projects, like beautiful girls from places like Russia get to do a high end music videos in exotic locations paid by their super rich boyfriends.

 

[Matt Ryan]

For Muse our budgets range between $20-$30,000 for concert visuals to $50,000-$150,000 for music videos depending on the single (sometimes more if it's the #1 single). Most videos fall between the $50k to $70k bracket for most artists (I'm talking rap artists here). Signed lower end bands and artists are usually around the $20k and under bracket.

 

[Robert Ruffo New]

@ Jake - I don't know any girls like that, but I think I need to meet some!

@ Matt - Do budgets like that come through on a regular basis? In my experience, in Montreal, you can do something nifty for 15K without abusing anybody at the crew, rentals and locations levels, and make a bit of money. Less than that and its' just charity. Above that it gets really fun. What you say makes me think there is still a business out there worth pursuing.

Thanks to all for answering with your experiences.

 

[Matt Ryan]

@ Jake - I don't know any girls like that, but I think I need to meet some!

@ Matt - Do budgets like that come through on a regular basis? In my experience, in Montreal, you can do something nifty for 15K without abusing anybody at the crew, rentals and locations levels, and make a bit of money. Less than that and its' just charity. Above that it gets really fun. What you say makes me think there is still a business out there worth pursuing.

Thanks to all for answering with your experiences.

Regular basis? hmmm. Well only once a new album/tour comes up then yes (for Muse specifically). They've had 4 single music videos and a dozen concert visuals for the tour. So in that case it has been steady. If you have the connections and portfolio to go from band to band or artist to artist and shoot video's then you can get some solid work on a regular basis and make a huge amount doing it. It's more about getting in with the higher echelon of music rather than competing for the low end gigs.

You can do a well made standard music video for $15k but as you know that's a bare bones shoot. Definitely no budget for vfx or heavy post work. The space video I posted shots of in another thread was a $5k shooting budget but had a $20k post budget for vfx. So I agree you can do some cool stuff for $15-20K, just without much post work.

There is still plenty of work in music videos if you can get in. Theres a hand full of directors who make tons of videos a year and make a fortune doing it (My friend Colin Tilley for example). The rest scrounge around for the scraps. I hear 10 years ago everyone was making a fortune in music videos. Hearing this makes me hate being young and missing the times. It pretty much comes down to who you know and what videos you've worked on that can pick you up some major work. Everyone want's the "hot" Director for their videos and once you're hot, the money starts piling up and the jobs keep on coming.

 

[Robert Ruffo New]

Regular basis? hmmm. Well only once a new album/tour comes up then yes (for Muse specifically). They've had 4 single music videos and a dozen concert visuals for the tour. So in that case it has been steady. If you have the connections and portfolio to go from band to band or artist to artist and shoot video's then you can get some solid work on a regular basis and make a huge amount doing it. It's more about getting in with the higher echelon of music rather than competing for the low end gigs.

You can do a well made standard music video for $15k but as you know that's a bare bones shoot. Definitely no budget for vfx or heavy post work. The space video I posted shots of in another thread was a $5k shooting budget but had a $20k post budget for vfx. So I agree you can do some cool stuff for $15-20K, just without much post work.

There is still plenty of work in music videos if you can get in. Theres a hand full of directors who make tons of videos a year and make a fortune doing it (My friend Colin Tilley for example). The rest scrounge around for the scraps. I hear 10 years ago everyone was making a fortune in music videos. Hearing this makes me hate being young and missing the times. It pretty much comes down to who you know and what videos you've worked on that can pick you up some major work. Everyone want's the "hot" Director for their videos and once you're hot, the money starts piling up and the jobs keep on coming.

All true - but it was always like that, nothing new.

Yeah 15K means just standard DI, maybe a little After Effects that is fast and simple, but a fun shoot with real production value - not every concept needs much VFX and mine tend to steer away from 3D animation and so on. I'm willing to work extremely hard for a label and to deliver something unusual, but they are for-profit corporations, not actual charities, and we should all remember that.