The process for self-releasing an album

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DrewPeterson7

DrewPeterson7

Sage of the Order
Hope this is the right forum...

So, I've just finished an album I've worked on forever - it's off with a mastering engineer as we speak. I'm quickly realizing that while I know a lot about writing, playing, arranging, recording, and mixing music, I know next to nothing about releasing it, and I have a lot to learn.

So, a whole bunch of you guys have done this before - any advice? Near as I can tell, I need to

*get photos, design album art or pay someone to do it for me, and select a CD duplicator - any recommendations?
*secure physical and digital distribution (looks like CD Baby is popular for physical and either CD Baby or TuneCore for digital)
*potentially create and file legal paperwork for a publishing company and/or a record label (is this necessary?)
*register with a licensing company like BMI or ASCAP (necessary), as well as potentially file copyright paperwork with the Library of Congress (not necessary but a good idea).

...as well as the typical promotional stuff and whatnot - the above is what I think I need to do to physically release an album, rather than then try to get people to buy it which is a whole different matter. :laughings:

So, who here has done a self-release? Do you have any suggestions or anything you've learned from the process? Thanks!
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
*get photos, design album art or pay someone to do it for me, and select a CD duplicator - any recommendations?
*secure physical and digital distribution (looks like CD Baby is popular for physical and either CD Baby or TuneCore for digital)
*potentially create and file legal paperwork for a publishing company and/or a record label (is this necessary?)
*register with a licensing company like BMI or ASCAP (necessary), as well as potentially file copyright paperwork with the Library of Congress (not necessary but a good idea).
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Well, first of all you can dupe at home. You probably want glass master replication. Plenty of stuff on the web regarding the difference, if you didn't know already..artwork depends on whatever packaging option you select. If this is your first release and you don't have any indication of it's viability (like a strong local following or large live turnout or serious connections), I strongly suggest as short a run as possible...maybe 300. You can always replicate more if need be. Unless you have connections or a seriously solid reputation, you may be shocked at how tough it is to get anyone to listen to, let alone pay for your music. That's an eye-opener for most folks.

Also, CDs are dying fast. I'm a huge audiophile and stopped buying them years ago....they're cheap, flimsy, and often end up as drink coasters (jewel cases are better than digi-paks for that purpose). Not many I know under 40 are buying 'em either, but you may not be shooting for that market. Still, you might want to put it online to gauge interest first (unless you're really confident)...But if you're determined, a lot of replication houses have websites, and they're mostly the same. I see you live in the greater Boston area. Howdy neighbor. Disc Makers has a website and offers replication, short runs, all the packaging options, Gracenote imprinting etc.

Sheesh, legal paperwork? Publishing company? Record label? You must have extremely high hopes. Let me put it this way... if you need to worry about any of that stuff, you know it beyond a shadow of a doubt...and if you do, God bless ya. I've been playing in bands and putting stuff out there since I was a teenager (a long time) and I've never had to deal with that stuff....and neither, I'm pretty sure, have half the bands that played SXSW last year. And not once have I noticed any of my songs being used as a Pepsi commercial. But if you can't sleep at night worrying that Nickelback is out there copping your riffs, it's as easy as sending your shit to the US copyright office. I think you can do it online now, and copyright a collection (2 or more songs) for one modest fee. Again, tutorials are everywhere.

Anyhoo, congratulations on your first formal release and I sincerely wish you heaps of success. :)
 
I don't really have much relevant info for you, but I did go with CDBaby for online distro.
The reason for choosing CDBaby was that they push the music through to iTunes if you want; Perhaps those others do that too?
For physical distro we just had 100 made by an online firm and we sell them ourselves at gigs.
If we need more there's something like a 3 day turnaround on them. No point stock piling at this stage!

Also, if you are doing online pre-release orders iTunes and hope to have an instant gratification single, you need to have 11 songs on the album.
Unfortunately we had 10 songs, but only find this out when we were registering the finished album. :(

Duno about licensing but we do register all songs with PRS, which is a (the?) UKs royalty collection agency.
Turns out it was worth doing for airplay royalties.

We had ISRC codes issued and embedded on the final copies. I don't know how important that is, but I know we had usage reporting issues with the last record and it did not have ISRCs.
Time will tell.
 
Thanks guys! PRS is UK-only, in the states it'd be ASCAP or BMI.

I'm probably looking at a first run of 3-500 CDs - I figure with a bit of effort I should be able to get through that, between sending a bunch out for review etc and selling them (I'm only a semi-regular here but I run one large guitar forum with a few buddies and am active at a couple others, so I figure a conservative 200 is probably safe. And I don't mind having a lot of coasters. :D)

I figure a record label is probably overkill, but a publishing company looks relatively simple to set up, would potentially create some tax advantages, and a buddy of mine pointed out that having some limits on my legal liability through the use of an incorporated entity might not be a bad idea.

The album is 13 songs, so I'm good there. :)

fat fleet - where in the Boston area are you? If you don;'t mind my asking. Always looking for new live music out here...
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
fat fleet - where in the Boston area are you? If you don;'t mind my asking. Always looking for new live music out here...
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Actually about 15 minutes north of Providence. Major Stars is always fun, and I've heard good things about Ghost Box Orchestra...depends on what you're into I guess.
 
Oh cool, lived down there for a couple months right after college (Providence). I'm definitely a ways north of you, though.
 
fat_fleet said:
Not that that's remotely a big deal, if you know those two places... :D
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Haha, actually, yes I do - down in Union Square, right? I've actually never made it down to check out either place, though I've been meaning to - it's about a mile down Somerville Ave from where I live, which is too close to take a cab, and just barely too far to walk on a Thursday night where you have the best intention of going out and then right about the third beer decide it's just too much effort. :laughings: Which is kind of pathetic when you get right down to it. :D

I do make it down to the Middle East on occasion - I'd absolutely love to play that venue some time, but since the market for instrumental rock is something like 12 people in Boston, I haven't even bothered gigging. :lol:
 
Another neighbor!

Copyright your album with the Library of Congress - $35 to do it all in one package, you just upload the MP3s, very easy.
Register with BMI, free for musicians/songwriters. You don't need a 'publisher', and as writer you get 200% of royalties. :thumbs up:

As mentioned, CD baby willget you on iTunes. Tunecore is another place that offers similar services. IF you want to do it allyourself, Discmakers offers some not-too-expensive dupe packages. You're ambitious with 300+ cd sales expected! I'm counting mine in the dozens, so use CreateSpace and Kunaki for copy-as-ordered service.
 
Thanks dude. If it's Lowell St. in Somerville, I have a buddy that lives down there, not far from Magoun's, and come to think of it I do remember walking by once and through an open door or window or something (I forget) seeing what looking like a couple people tracking acoustic guitars through a studio window. I almost stuck my head inside to introduce myself - if that was your place, I wish I had. :laughings:

I guess I'm mostly asking because while not many musicians bother with this stuff, I don't know if it's because there's no need, or because most musicians are just REALLY bad at business, lol.
 
:lol: Too bad. I was totally going to invite myself over with a bottle of whiskey and then stumble home at the end of the night, since it's like a half mile walk. :lol:
 
my 2 cents....

Register your album and songs with copyright.gov. As Mike said, you pay a one time fee of $35 online. easy as pie. To register all at one time, all songs need to be written by the same songwriters. If you wrote all the songs yourself, you're good to go. Or, if you and your buddy wrote all the songs, then you're good to go. But if you and a buddy wrote a couple and he wrote a couple and you wrote the rest, then you can't register the songs as a collection. You would have to register them separately.

Use Kunaki.com for duplication (replication??? Never get the two right. CD-Burner stuff) I think it's well worth it especiially for the printing costs. Inkjet ink can get expensive. They can print on demand and mail to your customers. They can drop ship to CDBaby, if necessary. You can set up your website to place orders with them. It's all pretty cool if you don't mind doing the work yourself.

CDBaby definitely. They ask for only 4 CD's, but you'll never sell them. LOL. CDBaby offers the option for digital distribution and they will place your album everywhere. Everyone knows about iTunes, but there is also Spotify, Rhapsody, Verizon and Amazon. Amazon is the big one because selling on Amazon is a requirement for Pandora.

BMI as Mike suggested and no need for publishing company or record company or anything.

Promotion is the key to it all. Good luck with that!!!!

I think doing the artwork is half the fun of making an album. You can find templates on the internet for CD inserts. I use Photoshop Elements. Nothing fancy.
 
Createspace and Kunaki both have the artwork templates on thier sites, too.
 
Chili said:
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CDBaby definitely. They ask for only 4 CD's, but you'll never sell them. LOL. CDBaby offers the option for digital distribution and they will place your album everywhere. Everyone knows about iTunes, but there is also Spotify, Rhapsody, Verizon and Amazon. Amazon is the big one because selling on Amazon is a requirement for Pandora.

.
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So what is the minimum you need to get on CD baby? You need 4 different CDs each with 11 songs? or you mean 4copies of your CD? Why do you need 11 songs? Does the length matter? or just having 11 separate titles on your CD?
 
Not sure where you're getting 11 from. :confused: CDBaby requires 4 copies of your CD. And they tell you right up front, that they will most likely sit on a shelf in their warehouse. And I believe it. All my sales have been downloads.

You can have however many songs on your CD as you want. It's up to you to determine price versus product.

I like CD Baby because they hit all the digital distributions without you having to think about it.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Also, if you are doing online pre-release orders iTunes and hope to have an instant gratification single, you need to have 11 songs on the album.
Unfortunately we had 10 songs, but only find this out when we were registering the finished album. :(
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Not sure what this means either?

Chili said:
Not sure where you're getting 11 from. :confused: CDBaby requires 4 copies of your CD.
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Thanks, OK 4 copies makes more sense than having 4 complete records. Do you have to have your own site for downloads or does CD baby have a download feature on their site?
 
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