As much as itās a good thing that SAMRO gives artists funding, itās frankly a disgrace that they feel R25,000 is an appropriate budget for the listed use cases.
@SAMROMusic, when will your organisation realise that life inflates? This R25,000 youāre offering has remained unchanged for years and years. As a studio owner, what exactly do you expect artists to produce with this tiny amount? A full album? No. Maybe a very cheap music video at best. This fund is essentially useless.
Everything in life goes up ā production costs, content creation, audio engineering, albums, etc. You need to raise this amount significantly. Think logically.
Iāve had artists come to me in the past with this budget, only to realise once they receive it that they canāt actually complete the project. In order to meet SAMROās expectations, they end up having to inject another R70,000āR100,000 of their own money. Many are forced to take loans and go into debt because of this. The grant needs to be much higher and far more realistic. SAMRO, things donāt cost what they did when you first launched this fund. Please account for inflation.
As a studio owner, I simply cannot produce a professional EP or album at that rate. Itās just not worth my time. The unfortunate result is that youāre going to end up with a lot of poor-sounding releases because your budget only supports back-alley studios instead of professional ones