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The following is a list of the most expensive albums made with a recorded sum of over $1 million, sorted by the most money spent in promotional campaigns and album covers. The recording process traditionally requires an investment in studio time and skilled record production labor, and the process can be expensive.

In the late 1950s, the cost of producing pop albums ran from $3,000 to $7,000. The average cost of producing an album climbed to $15,000 in the 1960s. Early examples of record-breaking expensive albums include Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) with a reported sum of £25,000, alongside Tommy (1969) and Pet Sounds (1966) each with a cost of $70,000, as well as unfinished album Smile whose single "Good Vibrations" (1966) alone had a budget between $50,000 and $75,000, more than most entire albums cost in those days. Multiple albums were budgeted with a cost between $350,000 and $500,000 by late 1970s, whereas popular rock albums had an average of $100,000 and as high as $500,000 by the midpoint of the decade. Some albums were produced on a $1 million budget by 1981. Accountant John McClain gave an estimated cost of $2.5 million for a Michael Jackson record in 1987. Nowadays, according to IFPI, production costs for popular albums are "generally budgeted for at least $200,000, and if much studio time is used, costs can soar well past $350,000". Some artist's sponsorships covered the cost of producing the album, most notoriously Mariah Carey between the Bahamas Board of Tourism with her album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009).

The first album to cost over $1 million is believed to be Tusk (1979) by Fleetwood Mac. Chinese Democracy (2008) by Guns N' Roses, once included as the most expensive record in the Guinness World Records, probably cost over $1 million per year during its recording sessions from 1998 to 2006. With a cost between $30 and $40 million, Michael Jackson's Invincible (2001) remains the most expensive album ever produced. Both Michael Jackson and Kanye West have multiple appearances, with at least four each.

List of albums by recorded costs

List of albums by promotional budget/campaign cost

Overview

Michael Jackson's HIStory (1995) has the most extensive marketing campaign in popular music history, spent by a record label. Up to that point, a label might spent an average of $2 million in promotional campaigns for artists such as the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and Madonna, per release. The lattermost, had the biggest Warner Records promotional campaign for an album up to the release of Like a Prayer (1989) with $2 million. In contrast, according to Hank Bordowitz in Dirty Little Secrets of the Record Business (2007), mounting a successful promotional campaign for radio stations can cost between $250,000 and $1 million per song.

Examples of associated campaigns outside record label's efforts include Born This Way (2011) by Lady Gaga, with a reported sum of $3 million provided by Amazon, and Rihanna's sponsorship with Samsung for $25 million which covered the release of her album Anti (2016) and its tour.

List of album covers/packaging by cost

This is a list of record-breaking historical expensive album covers or CD packaging.

• Elvis Presley (1956) – reportedly was the most expensive album cover ever up to that point.
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) – The cover, costing £25,000, was reportedly the most expensive cover design up to this time. Most covers up that point had a cost of about £50.
• Aladdin Sane (1973) – reportedly was the most expensive album cover ever up to that point.

Notes

1. Also cited with a cost at $100,000.
2. Also cited with a cost at $25,000.
3. By this point, Queen's A Night at the Opera (1975) began to be advertised as "the most expensive album ever made", although the estimated cost was only £40,000 and such a label was later denied by the band.
4. ^ Other sources give a total cost of $65 million. Most likely divided in the reported budget of $30–40 million and $25 million for promotional purposes.
5. ^ Overall cost was at $20 million, which includes promotion and recording.
6. Recording the album alone only cost $700,000.
7. Another sum cited has been $800,000.
8. Another sum cited has been $750,000. Then most expensive country album ever made.
9. Also cited with a cost at £3,000.

See also

• Hollywood accounting
• Lists of most expensive items by category
  • List of most expensive music videos
  • List of largest music deals
• List of most expensive films

• Music
• Record production
• Lists

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Book sources

• Dillon, Mark (2012). Fifty Sides of the Beach Boys: The Songs That Tell Their Story. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-77090-198-8.
• Love, Mike (2016). Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-698-40886-9.
• McCulley, Jerry (1997). Abbott, Kingsley (ed.). Back to the Beach: A Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys Reader. Helter Skelter. ISBN 978-1-900924-02-3.

Further reading

• Michael Jackson's Ups And Downs (Forbes, 2003)
• Whose Master's Voice? (1997), pag 233
• American Popular Music and Its Business: From 1900 to 1984 (1988)
• How Lady Gaga Pulled Off a $3 Million Album Launch Party With No Sponsors (The Hollywood Reporter, 2013)
• How Much Does It Cost To Make A Hit Song? (NPR, 2011)
• Rap's Most Expensive Albums (HipHopDX, 2017)
• Kanye West paid $85,000 to put Whitney Houston’s drug-ridden bathroom on the cover of Pusha T’s album (NME, 2018)

• Entertainment-related lists of superlatives
• Lists of most expensive things