Let's do some, especially since there's a lot of folks out there saying, "Get a professional demo of this done." Okay, so based on the lowest of these numbers ... and assuming:
4-piece band (Guitar/leader, Bass, Drums, keys)
3 singers (Lead, 2 Back Vocal)
All musicians/singers for: (3 hours at demo rates)
Studio Time (1 day) at mid-scale
Now this doesn't include anything for the engineer ($75/hour in my experience). I'm assuming we're not going to have a Producer on this project. So here goes:
Band Musicians: $160 + $80 + $80 + $80 = $400
Singers: $160 + $80 + $80 = $320
Studio Time: $1000
Engineer: $75 X 8hrs = $600
Grand total for your slick demo that guarantees you absolutely nothing in terms of getting your song "cut":
$2320
Throw in the tape stock costs, which your bill for studio time will not include, along with safety masters and CD duplication, and my bet is your total check's going to come to something around $2700. FOR ONE SONG DEMO ...
