#Rihanna man down download plus#

'Treating the radio guys nice' is a very fuzzy cost. 'Marketing is street teams, commercials and ads.' 'Marketing and radio are totally different,' he says. The majority of songs that are hits - that chart high, that sell big, that blast out of cars in the summertime- cost a million bucks to get them heard and played and bought.ĭaniels breaks down the expenses roughly into thirds: a third for marketing, a third to fly the artist everywhere, and a third for radio. But the record industry depends on hits for sales. Some songs have a momentum all their own, some songs just break out out of the blue. To get it there, the label pays.Įvery song is different. That's what a hit song is: It's everywhere you look. You want them to turn on the radio and hear Rihanna, turn on BET and see Rihanna, walk down the street and see a poster of Rihanna, look on Billboard, the iTunes chart, I want you to see Rihanna first. 'The reason it costs so much,' Daniels says, 'is because I need everything to click at once. How much does that cost?Ībout $1 million, according to Daniels, Riddick and other industry insiders.

#Rihanna man down download plus#

The cost of the writing camp, plus fees for the songwriter, producer, vocal producer and the mix comes to $78,000.īut it's not a hit until everybody hears it. So, our rough tally to create one pop song comes to: The last step is mixing and mastering the song, which costs another $10,000 to $15,000, according to Daniels. Riddick's fee starts at $10,000 to $15,000 per song, she says. (Yes, Riddick has had doves circling her head while she's working.)

'They'll have strobe lights, incense burning, doves flying around the studio,' she says. The rider is whatever the artist needs to get them in the mood to get into the booth and sing. Not only that, the vocal producer has to deal with the artist's rider. Or maybe: 'Sing with your lips a little more closed, a little more pursed together, so we can get that low, melancholy sound.' When Riddick works with a singer, she'll say, 'I need you to belt this out, I need you to scream this, as if you're on one end of the block and you're trying to talk to somebody three blocks away.' Makeba Riddick didn't produce Rihanna's vocals on 'Man Down,' but she's one of the industry's top producers, and has worked with the singer on many songs, including the two number one hits in 2010: 'Rude Boy' and 'Love the Way You Lie.' The vocal producer's job is to make sure Rihanna sings the song right. That's about $53,000.00 spent on the song so far- before Rihanna even steps into the studio with her vocal producer. Rock City got $15,000 for Man Down, and the producer got around $20,000, according to Daniels. The songwriter and the producer each got a fee for their services. So figure that the writing camp cost about $18,000 per song. At the end, Rihanna shows up like the celebrity judge and picks her favorites. I was shocked at how much money they were spending! But, guess what? They got the whole album out of that one camp.'Ī writing camp is like a reality show, where top chefs who have never met are forced to cook together. The writing camp for Rihanna's album 'had to cost at least 200 grand,' Daniels says. To get that twelve minutes of inspiration from a top songwriting team is expensive - even before you take into account the fee for the songwriters.Īt a typical writing camp, the label might rent out 10 studios, at a total cost of about $25,000 a day, Daniels says.

They wrote the lyrics to 'Man Down' in about 12 minutes, Daniels says. The Thomas brothers knew producer Shama 'Sham' Joseph, but they had never heard his Caribbean-flavored track that became 'Man Down.'Īccording to Daniels, the brothers listened to the track and said, 'Let's give Rihanna a one-drop! Like, a response to 'I shot the sheriff!' Here's who shows up at a writing camp: songwriters with no music, and producers toting music tracks with no words.