Reasonable Cost of CD for the Choristers

Date: April 5, 2010

Hi Again. Our choir has recorded a CD. I'm wondering that out there in the choral world, what are some of the best practices with regards to how much the choristers (who sang in the recording) pay for the CD. Do choristers usually get a discount, pay the cost or pay the retail price? What kinds of arrangements have you made with choristers purchasing CDs? Hussein

Reply >>

John Howell on April 5, 2010 11:49am

Hussein: You'll get lots of personal opinons. Mine is one copy for free, retail price for any additional.

John

John Pearson on April 6, 2010 5:39am

One approach is to encourage the choristers to purchase multiple CDs to give as gifts to friends and family. This can help build your audience. The price of each CD goes down the more they buy, e.g., $15 for one, $27 for two (i.e., $12 for the second one), $37 for three ($10 for the third), etc.... We found that by doing this we boosted the total number of CDs sold, and went above the number needed to get a break on the cost from the CD duplicator. Quite a few ordered 5 or more.

Phil Spencer Whitehead on April 6, 2010 5:51am

Our practice for many years has been the same as John's: one free copy, additional copies at retail. We have never had any complaints about that.

~spence

donald patriquin on April 6, 2010 6:04am

Good day. Very good question. A personal opinion, of course.

This depends on a few factors
1. Were the choristers remunerated for their efforts?
2. Do the choristers pay to be in the choir?
3. Where do any CD profits go?
4. Are there any perfomers who are paid, such as accompanists, instrumentalists, conductor(s) etc.
5. Are these arrangements being done before or after the fact?

As in the case of copyright, pair-play (i.e. fair-pay) should be your guide.

Re #1. If the choristers were paid - i.e. if they are professionals, whether or not they would receive a free CD, plus any discounts for further CDs, should be included in their contract. How you want to handle this would be up to you and your board. Do what you think is fair,and amangeable.

Re #2. If the choristers actually pay to be in the choir, they would quite possibly - and legitimately - be upset if they then had to pay for an initial recording. Concerning the purchase of further recordings, do what you think is fair and manageable, and perhaps offer the choir an opportunity to voice their opinions.

Re #3. If profits are designated for a benevolent cause, what you might do could be different than if profits go to persons participating in the recording (see re #4). Do what you think is fair and manageable, and perhaps offer the choir an opportunity to voice their opinions.

Re #4. If some participating performers are being paid directly from CD profits, the choir should certainly be in on this, and should agree (or disagree!). Again, do what you think is fair and manageable, and perhaps offer the choir an opportunity to voice their opinions.

Re #5. I gather in this instance things are being done 'after the fact'. This is a bit tricky, but if it is done with good intention and transparency a satisfactory solution can be found. When it is done before the fact things are likely to proceed much more smoothly, as long as there is good intention and transparency.

In summary: It is important to decide all of this well before a recording occurs and a CD is produced! It is also important that the 'amateur' performers, whether community, church or educational, are let in on what any financial arrangements will be. This could also help sell the CD, for example, if the choir knows that profits will be used to finance a special concert, raise funds for a worthy cause, and so on.

I've 'been there' often. Hope my advice is useful!

James Filosa on April 6, 2010 11:13am

Hussein:

Our arrangement with our choir was that we discounted from the retail, plus as one other person mentioned, we provided additional discounts for multiple purchases. I found that you needed to keep an accurate account of who took how many, if they said they would "pay you next week", this tended to get out of hand. These discounts/arrangements held true regardless if any of the singers were paid. In our case there were only a few paid singers out of approximately 120 singers. We continued to discount CD's around holidays and everyone seemed happy with what we had done.

Jim Filosa

Bill Paisner on April 6, 2010 2:07pm

Although not fully relevant, we make a concert DVD after each concert and charge the chorus members $20 per DVD. Since the videographer makes the copies for less, we use the balance to help pay the vidographer's primary charges. The chorus members seem OK with this. The cost was set by the chorus board.

Bill Paisner

Director, Southwest Women's Chorus

Reply >>