About to release first CD in December, and...

[Big Jinx]

I know a couple of you on this board have done some "semi"-commercial releases, if not full ones. I have a couple of local retailers in mind such as barbershops, urban clothing stores, etc. that will more than likely allow my product on their shelves. What I need to know is:

1. How do I begin the music copyright process??
2. I'm selling for $7.99 because it contains 19 tracks, and I have pretty decent audio quality. Is that too much for my first release??
3. Should I offer an "off the top" cut for the stores selling my CD??
4. Which online sites are best for selling?? (i.e. CD Baby, Soundclick, etc)

Thanks for any information you guys can give...!!!

1. How do I begin the music copyright process??

Check www.copyright.gov. You will need to use (I think) the Form SR or is it PR? to copyright your songs. This has been discussed a lot here so you shouldn't have any trouble finding directions.

2. I'm selling for $7.99 because it contains 19 tracks, and I have pretty decent audio quality. Is that too much for my first release??

I would personally charge $15, or standard price for mine. First thing people will think is "Why is this only $8?". That's my opinion though...

4. Which online sites are best for selling?? (i.e. CD Baby, Soundclick, etc)

http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=248638

[songwritten]

19 tracks is too many. That is two albums worth of material. Be EXTREMLY critical....Do you have 19 outstanding songs? If you really think so, $8 is way too cheap to be charging.

Maybe think about two seperate releases, or bonus releases to keep people coming back to your myspace/website.

[DavidK]

Originally Posted by songwritten

19 tracks is too many. That is two albums worth of material.

Not if each song is a minute. Even if they are 3 minutes it is less than an hour.

2.

Try 10 bucks.

3. Should I offer an "off the top" cut for the stores selling my CD??

They will take care of that for you.
Stores will take them on commission. They pay you only when it sells, and it will be a small amount. If they sell it for $10, they might give you $4. You wont get rich nor will they, its usually just giving a local guy a break. If they dont sell, they will give them back and pretty quickly, so check in with them. If they do sell, they will probably want more. At that time you can say " Give me a dollar more" or something like that.

Send some to some local radio stations. Small ones, like college radio etc. It cant hurt. My CD was with a small label and they sent it to a bunch of stations. Several played cuts from it. Good luck

[TerraMortim]

Originally Posted by Big Jinx

I know a couple of you on this board have done some "semi"-commercial releases, if not full ones. I have a couple of local retailers in mind such as barbershops, urban clothing stores, etc. that will more than likely allow my product on their shelves. What I need to know is:

1. How do I begin the music copyright process??
2. I'm selling for $7.99 because it contains 19 tracks, and I have pretty decent audio quality. Is that too much for my first release??
3. Should I offer an "off the top" cut for the stores selling my CD??
4. Which online sites are best for selling?? (i.e. CD Baby, Soundclick, etc)

Thanks for any information you guys can give...!!!

Great man! welcome to the wonderful world of DIY...Frustrating, yet so rewarding if you are a success.

What was said about copyright process..just follow that.

7.99 is a bargain, and to be honest, I comend you for asking a reasonable price that isn't set by the established music industriy's illegal price fixing schemes. CD's prices were one of the huge deciding factors of it's demise. The only reason why this hasn't happened with DVDs yet ($25 for a fucking movie..what the fuck?) is that it still takes more time than the average person would want to wait to download a movie (even at a very compressed quality.)

Nope.. how it works is either.. 1. they buy all the shit right out and you don't worry about how many are sold... or they buy them at wholesale price and they mark them up to whatever they want to charge (hense making a profit)

I'd recomend cdbaby for the simple fact that if you sign up for them you get on a shitload of digital services without you ahving to do anything...and they are very easy to work with and from what I've seen, they have a very honourable ethic when it comes to music... I'd recomend them.

Good luck! DIY can be difficult, but it has it's absolute benefits. I find myself infinitely more satisfied by sales via DIY (they tend to be people who care even more deeply for the music than the average kid who saw some flashy MTV add for your "so original" music).

[DavidK]

Originally Posted by TerraMortim

7.99 is a bargain, and to be honest, I comend you for asking a reasonable price that isn't set by the established music industriy's illegal price fixing schemes. CD's prices were one of the huge deciding factors of it's demise.

I dont want to get off topic here but:

When CDs came out around 84, they were 13-15 bucks. 23 years later, they were 15 bucks. It's not the price. People bought them like hotcakes in the 80s and 90s.