I was asked an interesting question the other day...

Have an artist, a song, and an idea, but no (repeat no) budget. How do you estimate pay back of a video in CD sales?
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Thanks for your question. Would be glad to tell you more about what we do, etc... Your main question about how do you estimate payback of a video in CD sales?.. Bottom line... a video is an exposure tool and becomes an integral part of an artist's marketing plan. The only way to sell a quantity of CDs is to build an artist's exposure level through radio promotion & video promotion to a point that a person is willing to go to a store and find that artist's CD. That level of familiarity with an artist and their music can take several singles & a couple of videos to achieve. It's at that point where an artist is selling CDs on a consistant basis that you start to see some return on the career investment, including the cost of the music video.

Budgets... Very important that you find a video production company / director that has the same visual direction for a video that you and/or your artist does. When you select a single that you will be shooting a video for, you need to contact several video production companies or producers and ask them to write a "treatment" for the video. A "Treatment" is the visual representation of the song that is put down on paper and submitted to you as what that director would shoot if he/she is hired for the video.

Money... There are some excellent videos being shot on Digital video (24P) and on HD that start in the 10,000 to 20,000 range (costing is influenced by what is entailed in the video shoot... single location / one day or multiple days / multiple locations / planes, trains & automobiles. If you have the budget, especially if the artist is female, you could have the video shot on 16mm film or Super 16mm film... expect to start your budget in the low 20,000 range and it goes upward from there. Make sure you ask your director for a full budget breakdown so you see where the money goes.

Video promotion... Costs vary, but you will have a cost for video promotion and a cost for closed captioning / duplication / mailing.