BEYONCE DOES IT HERSELF

The story of the gestation of Beyonce's new album, Bidet - sorry, B'Day - is interesting - that she went off and did it in secret is one thing, of course. But more to the point is the way she financied it herself:

She booked her own time at Sony Studios in New York, paid for it herself and finished the album in three weeks -- a very smart move, considering that most artists have the label pay for studio time and then have to recoup it from album sales. "I'm conscious of budgets," she says. "This might be the cheapest record I've ever done. We were focussed."

In other words, mysteriously, one of the best ways to keep down costs is for the artist to know exactly where all the money is going, rather than when the label "takes care" of it all and then presents them with a bill at the end. Isn't that funny?

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