ABSTRACT

Oulu University of Applied Sciences Degree Programme in Business Economics

Author: Eija Martinmäki Title of thesis: The Profitability of the Self-published CD-record Supervisor: Sami Niemelä Term and year when the thesis was submitted: Spring 2012 Number of pages: 54

The purpose of this thesis is to study the costs and the profitability of the self-published CD-recording. The thesis studies partly the Finnish record industry and partly reasons why someone is producing music at his own expense. The thesis investigates what reasons there are to make a music record at one’s own expense and what kind of possibilities and alternatives there are. How does the cost structure affect the probability of the record? The subject of the thesis is researched from the point of view of the thesis author’s own music publication. The CD-record came out in May 2011.The reason to make our own music-CD was to get a tangible permanent product of our hobby. As music is immaterial and invisible, the only thing that remains when having a presentation, is the feeling experienced by the public, which hopefully is enjoyment. The performer does not get the situation back any more. In the marketing of the record it was studied how to sell the disk with small inputs still covering the expenses. The costs of the CD-record consisted of travel expense, studio expenses and production costs. According to different sources the artist's share of the yield of the CD- record can vary from 16 percent to two percent. The profit target of the recording studied was determined at 4 percent according to the artist royalty used by the Finnish Musician’s Union. The marketing was planned to be done at the small costs in various summer events. The primary market area was mostly musician’s own municipality and neighboring towns. The marketing op-erations of this thesis took place in June-December 2011. However, the marketing of the disk continues and the realistic time of sales can be one year forward. In the study the cost structure of the self-published music-CD is also dealt with from another viewpoint than our own record to get a general view of the profitability of the self-published CD-recording. Additionally, it is clarified what the average costs of the self-published record are and how they can be influenced by one’s own choices. Any person who records music can benefit from this study.

Keywords: music, self-published music, recording music