How Music Gets Made

Johnny Abruzzo

Well this sure didn't make me want to go out and buy a Rhianna album. Or listen to the radio ever again.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/05/137530847/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-hit-song

I hope none of my favorite artists/bands make "music" like this.

rick1zoo2

That's a very interesting article. What it makes me think about is what sometimes separates a performer and songwriter - in other words there are a lot of artists out there that are very good at performing, but not at writing, and they need material to perform. There are also bands that are ok at writing and sometimes need help writing and producing - I think that is a very common situation. A lot of collaboration happens. Several of the bands that I like do this, to the point that you can kind of tell what type of album will result when certain producers are involved.

Back to the article, at the end when they say a lot of market research goes into radio playlists - I think that is almost self serving in that they are doing research on music that has been pre-programmed to be hits like the method from the article. I will bet that there is a ton of great music that we never hear becuase those artists just don't have the resources.

grwo1109

After all that work and money spending, the songs are still terrible.

I think I'll just stick with Eddie and his uke.

Newch91

They spend over $1 million to make one song?? Like someone said, too bad the songs are still bad.