Manufacturing The
Song Of The Summer
Some
people may think when they are purchasing a song on iTunes that they are paying
a lot for something that they just listen to.
I understand that $1.29 adds up per song; but out of the total cost it
takes to produce and make a song, we are only paying a small fraction of
it. There are many economic factors that
contribute to making a top song, all of which were discussed in this podcast.
Planet
Money takes Rihanna’s song “Man Down” to explain all of the costs that go into
producing the most popular song of the summer.
Hit summer songs are important to people because it reminds people of the
good memories from that summer. I know
that I categorize my summers by songs that were my favorite at that time and
where I was when I listened to them the most.
For example, in the summer of 2009 my favorite song was “I Got a
Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas. During
that summer I was playing softball in Florida for a nationals tournament. Every time I here this song now I constantly
think of that summer. That is why I was
surprised Planet Money used “Man Down” as the song of the summer for 2011. It is definitely not the song that reminds me
of Summer 2011. Regardless that is the
song they chose to represent the hit song. 
Creating
an album starts in little sweat shops known as hit factories where writers
spend two weeks trying to create lyrics to melodies that are handed to
them. At the end of the two weeks, the
singer, in this case Rihanna, will come in and pick the lyrics that she likes
best. This part along cost approximately
$25000 per day, which includes the cost of the writing space, room and board,
salaries for the writers, and other expenses.
This alone totals to $18000 per song.
After that, the songwriter is paid around $15000, the song producer is
paid around $20000, and the voice producer is paid around $10000. At this point the total cost per song is
$53000, and that is even before Rihanna’s voice is recorded on the song. 
After
RI RI’s voice is recorded, the next thing record labels have to do is get the
song out to the public. This is done
with marketing to radio stations and getting the singer our there to promote
their own album. Approximately $1.8
million dollars goes into marketing and promoting one song. That does not include any extra money that
record labels slip into the pockets of radio DJ's. It has been said that in the past record
labels have tried to slip radio station bribes so that there song can be played
more than other songs. Although this has
been deemed illegal, it is still being done in other, not as obvious ways. 
All
together, it cost Rihanna’s record label $1,078,000 to create “Man Down”. Once they created the music video to go along
with the song, it raised the cost to $1,250,000. A lot of money goes into producing a “hit”
song. Most of the time record labels
take a chance by spending that much money to produce the song, and never end up
making a profit off of it. In this case
the record label did not make as much as they hoped they would with “Man Down” because
the song did not last as long in the number one spot as they thought. The profit that these labels make is also
diminishing because people do not have to purchase a whole album to listen to
the one song they actually like. With
inventions like iTunes, people can pick and choose which songs they want to
purchase. Not to mention people can also
illegally download music online, which also lowers profits for record
labels. Music is more than just
listening to music and the singer making money.
Economics plays a big role in the production of music, a bigger role
than most people would think.
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