By WAH LOK

Introduction

When I released my album "Every Time I Pray" in 2001, I established my website www.tabernaclemusic.net at the same time. Interestingly, my website generated quite some interest registering 108000 hits in 15 months. The sales of my CDs have also surprised me personally. Originally, I thought of it as a small project which will probably sell 1000 copies to my friends to cover the recording expenses. However much to my surprise, the sales have now far exceeded my expectations.

The CD has now been reprinted several times and are currently being sold in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. In this article, I would like to share with you about the things to bear in mind when you would go about recording an album. I hope this article will give some helpful tips to some upcoming songwriters and artistes who aspire to produce albums.  I hope this article will give some helpful tips to some upcoming songwriters and artistes who aspire to produce albums.

Here are the things you need to consider before recording.

1. Do you have a passionate message in your songs ?
   
   Before you think of recording, you must look at your songs first. Do you have good songs ?
   
   Do you have a message in your songs that will make a difference ? There are thousands of songs available in the market today. The difference lies in - some songs are birthed from real life experiences and have good messages and lyrical content. These are the songs people want to hear - songs with passionate messages.
   
   Wherever I went, I shared with people why I wrote my songs. When they hear testimonies of my songs "Every Time I Pray" , "Approved in Every Way" and "We're here by Grace', many were genuinely touched. They discovered that these songs were written from the heart.- the message in my songs helped sell my CDs.
   
   If you have good songs with good messages, you should seriously consider recording them. But if you have average songs with weak messages, you will eventually find that it is very difficult to market your CDs.
   
   

2. Do you have a budget ?
   
   So you have your good songs. You need at least 10 songs for a complete album. The next thing you should ask is how much are you willing to spend on recording and how can you recover the cost of production and duplication of CDs.
   
   The cost of recordings vary significantly depending on the quality of recording you desire. It could be as cheap as RM 1000 per song to RM 5000 per song in Malaysia. In the United States, it could vary from USD 1500 -5000 per song depending on the choice of your producer.
   
   But if you are Michael Jackson, then it could cost you as much as USD 5 million per song (ie video clip).
   
   Here is a simple budget for recording 10 songs and a calculation of the breakeven point.

Recording costs:	RM 25000.00
Duplication of 1000 CDs:	RM 2500.00
Artwork :	RM 2500.00
Total costs for 1000 CDs :	RM 30000.00

This means that you will need to sell 1000 CDs at RM 30.00 to cover all your recording and duplication costs.

1.  Select your producer
   
   So you have got your songs and your budget. Now, you will need to find a producer. A producer is someone who is experienced in latest recording techniques, arrangement of songs, selection of musicians and knows the industry well. He is also knowledgeable of the resources available. Most people who have not recorded an album before often think they can do it themselves. However when they do this, the albums fall far below the expected minimum quality. In the recording industry, even stars like Amy Grant or Celine Dion do not produce their own albums. A professional producer does it for them. 

About the author Wah Lok

Wah Lok has emerged as one of Malaysia's most prolific song writers, writing more than 80 songs spanning a period of 22 years. He is also a Bible Teacher and has written many teaching materials for worship, song writing and prayer.