To release a CD or not? Read before voting please!

Should you put out a fully replicated CD?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 22 88.0%

  • No.

    Votes: 3 12.0%
  • Total voters
    25
C

ChadAustin

Member
Never thought I'd ever be asking this question.

Here's the arguement of putting out your own CD (full replication, no Burned CDs, as a performing artist) -

One Side Says - Do it!

Don't ask questions about it... it's your calling card... it's to let the industry know you know the business side as well as how to write songs. Whether the music is written and performed well enough is too subjective to be debated, let's just hope that you believe in it. If you're looking for help within the industry (be it a record company, producer, etc.) it certainly looks better if you can show you already know how do "most of it". Also, it's nice to be able to show that you've accomplished something professionally for your efforts.

The Other Side Argues: Waste of Time!

If you don't know anyone "on the inside" then you're going to wind up with a bunch of boxes of your "product" in your closet. Most bands live in areas that can't possibly play enough venues to reach enough people that will buy your CD... and that's hoping that it's good enough to where they will want to buy the CD. And as far as getting the distributed online... that may not work either because how are enough people even going to know about it and be interested? You should save your money, and, if you want to put out a CD, go ahead burn copies as you need them.


So what do you think folkses? The other poll on here prompted the debate within my band.

thanks,
Chad
 
ChadAustin said:
Never thought I'd ever be asking this question.

Here's the arguement of putting out your own CD (full replication, no Burned CDs, as a performing artist) -

One Side Says - Do it!

Don't ask questions about it... it's your calling card... it's to let the industry know you know the business side as well as how to write songs. Whether the music is written and performed well enough is too subjective to be debated, let's just hope that you believe in it. If you're looking for help within the industry (be it a record company, producer, etc.) it certainly looks better if you can show you already know how do "most of it". Also, it's nice to be able to show that you've accomplished something professionally for your efforts.

The Other Side Argues: Waste of Time!

If you don't know anyone "on the inside" then you're going to wind up with a bunch of boxes of your "product" in your closet. Most bands live in areas that can't possibly play enough venues to reach enough people that will buy your CD... and that's hoping that it's good enough to where they will want to buy the CD. And as far as getting the distributed online... that may not work either because how are enough people even going to know about it and be interested? You should save your money, and, if you want to put out a CD, go ahead burn copies as you need them.


So what do you think folkses? The other poll on here prompted the debate within my band.

thanks,
Chad
Click to expand...

Here's my take:

Full Replication: A lot of this comes down to a matter of money, time, and resources. If you have the money, you could probably go through DiskFaktory and get their $200 package. Of course, you'd have to burn the initial CD and send them all the artwork, which requires a little time, but I've heard good things about DiskFaktory.

If you don't really have the money, but you have the time & resources, you can actually control how many you actually produce by burning them yourself and printing the artwork from your computer (your second point).

If you're worried about having extra product, you may want to consider going completely digital. Put together a good website, get yourself some good marketing materials, read some good marketing articles (try www.musicbizacademy.com for some good articles), and go from there.

What you can do, if you're wanting to sell online, is go through CDBaby (http://www.cdbaby.com or http://www.cdbaby.net). Once you set up your account, you can opt for them to digitize your music for sale on sites like iTunes. Check CDBaby.net for that info. You only have to send them 5 CDs at first, and then as more orders come in, you send them more.

Of course, to get your music out, try giving out singles. Take 1 song, burn copies of it, and hand it out with some nice artwork and either some contact information, or a way for them to buy your CD.

You may have a lot of product left if you go the mass-production route, but there are costs to either route you take.
 
right now, at this stage, we do all the printing and replication ourselves... so we can make one at the time it is ordered, but we bring about 100 to our shows and sell a lot there. then you can use that money to get them replicated if you're selling enough.
 
Chad Austin Soap Box

OK, this is the part where I get flamed and battered.

I don't personally consider a "burned" CD a professional product. When friends give me a CD (of their current band or project) that they burned, I literally think to myself, "hmmm.... must not take their craft too seriously if they can't even try to do a small 300-500 run in replication."

*flaming starts here*

I honestly think that. I understand that budgets get tight (I pay for the financing in my band... I know what it means when things go financially wrong) but I also believe that we're a professional act and deserve professional repesentation (I will, however, take care of the graphics myself as I'm a designer by trade- ha).

I also think the songs matter. But I'm talking about presentation. Do you take the cheap way out with all your epuipment? When & if you go on stage do you present yourself in your best possible image? Do you play good equipment or do you just obtain as little as you can? Do you record on the cheapest thing you can find? What about your songs? Don't they deserve to be delivered in the best way possible?

It's OK if this is a hobby for you. It really is! I like to play video games as a hobby. As a result, I have a GameCube (more flaming opps here). I play it 1-3 times a week, time permitting. I don't have the biggest TV, or all the fancy control gadgets.

But it's only a hobby.

Another issue: I've taken the burn as you go route. And I think burning promotional copies is a given... be it full copies or singles... you have to be prepared to market yourself... continously... so you don't wind up with a closet full of product. But there is also a time issue. And I haven't seen or heard of one miracle band where all members share in the responsiblities of burning, creating labels, creating the innards of the jewel case or other packing. I'm sure someone will have to chime up that their band does just that. Good for you! But I'm not new to this and I've never seen it.

I just don't have the time to do all of it- nor do I want too.

And just to satisfy the curious... I've done it (burned CDs) almost 1000 times in the last 7 years. Forget it. It just too time consuming.

I use to bartend when I put out my first professionally packaged solo CD in 1998. I was not playing out at the time. I only had word of mouth... granted, I was the head bartender in a very popular bar.... however... I sold almost my entire stock (1,000)... I vacationed in Hawaii that late spring for 10 days on the money from that CD.

Put your money into professional replication and use your precious (and even more limited) time to promote and investigate new and creative avenues.

I have listened to a lot of people's music on here. Some of it is damn creative and more-than-worthy of being in the public. Damn, folks, give it to 'em so hard they don't know what hit 'em and get the crap off the radio.

Chad
www.thelogicmusic.com
www.chadaustin.com
 
well... it comes down to the money I guess, I'm not going to flame you Chad, but we burned and printed labels for our first CD (which is not great obviously), but we got the best CDs we could and created the best artwork we could and made it look as nice as possible - we put effort in to it and we all had a part in designing and creating it. it definitely looks professional, the ONLY thing that doesn't seem like it came from a manufacturing plant is the fact that it has a paper label on a CDR... but it looks good and few consumers really care.

we did this so that now when we get ready to release our second album, we can just do a pressing of them with the money we have made.
 
actually I think we might have sold more because of that whole DIY indie attitude, even if some of those kids are ridiculous.
 
GRN.

That's OK... sometimes money is a definite factor.

Since I'm graphic/multimedia/web designer (try saying that when your messed up) I would also take the time to make my labels and presentation look as god as possible. And some of the CDs I've created and burned on my own did great.

But time is also a factor for me.

I don't have a lot of it... I have to work the day job, go to the gym, have dinner and try to spend a little quality time with my girlfriend and her son, then I go home to the studio by 9pm where I have to divide up the responsibilities of song writing, engineering, producing, managing the band, writing, vocals, guitars, rehearsing, maintaining the web site, learning new material.

Somewhere in between all this I find time to shower & shave.

I have tried to sit back and deligate some of these responsiblities to the guys within the band, but they have their own agendas and lives. They also don't have the equipment I do to do all this. So I'm stuck with it, whether I like that fact or not.

Replication is a service I'm willing to pay for. Plus, I think manufactured CDs are far more durable that burned CDs.

Not everyone can afford to do it. Believe me, it's tough to go to the guys and say, "sorry, we're putting $200 from this gig aside for the CD." But, 5 years from now, it's damn cool to look in my CD collection, and see a CD I helped to create, still wrapped in cellaphane (I always keep one wrapped for myself).

I'm just a spoiled, I guess. :D

I also like to lie in a bed of roses after rolling around peanut butter & sunflower seeds and let my neighbor's parrots fly into the room.... that's not wrong is it?

</end of bad visual>
 
ChadAustin said:
Never thought I'd ever be asking this question.

Here's the arguement of putting out your own CD (full replication, no Burned CDs, as a performing artist) -

One Side Says - Do it!

Don't ask questions about it... it's your calling card... it's to let the industry know you know the business side as well as how to write songs. Whether the music is written and performed well enough is too subjective to be debated, let's just hope that you believe in it. If you're looking for help within the industry (be it a record company, producer, etc.) it certainly looks better if you can show you already know how do "most of it". Also, it's nice to be able to show that you've accomplished something professionally for your efforts.

The Other Side Argues: Waste of Time!

If you don't know anyone "on the inside" then you're going to wind up with a bunch of boxes of your "product" in your closet. Most bands live in areas that can't possibly play enough venues to reach enough people that will buy your CD... and that's hoping that it's good enough to where they will want to buy the CD. And as far as getting the distributed online... that may not work either because how are enough people even going to know about it and be interested? You should save your money, and, if you want to put out a CD, go ahead burn copies as you need them.


So what do you think folkses? The other poll on here prompted the debate within my band.

thanks,
Chad
Click to expand...

This really depends on you, and what you are willing do do with it. There are so many variables here that are unanswered. It's kind of like saying should i buy a car or rent one. Both will work, but which will YOU get the most out of?

Do you play live? Have catchy music? Do random people you've never met LOVE your tunes? Want to tour? Write your own songs? Have a full band? Want to pimp the hell out of your music?

If you've answered NO to any of those, you might want to hold up on getting a CD replicated. If you answered yes to ALL of those, you might be ready, and it might be worth it to get your CD replicated.
 
having a girlfriend with a son, working a day job, and working out - as well as other things like eating or showering aren't the necessities of a rock star. neither is having band members with lives and/or other agenda's. ;)
 
Going with replication you'll get killed on the per-unit cost for short runs. If I thought I could only move 300 CDs, I'd have them professionally burned, just for the better quality labeling.
 
mshilarious said:
Going with replication you'll get killed on the per-unit cost for short runs. If I thought I could only move 300 CDs, I'd have them professionally burned, just for the better quality labeling.
Click to expand...

you can, we just got ours back in the digipack format...300 of em'. check here...

http://www.discmakers.com/music/products/dp400.asp

they look fantastic (at least we thought so), you can see some photos of ours at... http://www.bagoftoysmusic.com

so far they're actually selling pretty well, so we'll probably go with the 1000 pack next.

Cheers!
Tait
Bag of toys
 
Robertt8 said:
you can, we just got ours back in the digipack format...300 of em'. check here...

http://www.discmakers.com/music/products/dp400.asp

they look fantastic (at least we thought so), you can see some photos of ours at... http://www.bagoftoysmusic.com

so far they're actually selling pretty well, so we'll probably go with the 1000 pack next.

Cheers!
Tait
Bag of toys
Click to expand...

That's what I mean, the unit cost is more than twice what a full run is. Look at it this way, if you sell your CDs for $10, with 300 your breakeven is 148 units, with 1000 it's 189 units.

Burning is a little cheaper, probably $100-200 for a run of 300, but you can do it in smaller increments at the same cost.
 
I recorded my band(still in highschool)'s first album at my house last year. We sold about 200 copies of it. I burned them at home and printed them with an epson that prints on CD's. The only way you can tell they are not professional is that they are blue on the bottom :D

I was at a new years eve party last week and this kid I hardly knew brought a BIG folder of CD's.....My bands cd was in the front. We popped it in and the kid knew all the words.

Made me feel like a million bucks :p
 
mshilarious said:
That's what I mean, the unit cost is more than twice what a full run is. Look at it this way, if you sell your CDs for $10, with 300 your breakeven is 148 units, with 1000 it's 189 units.

Burning is a little cheaper, probably $100-200 for a run of 300, but you can do it in smaller increments at the same cost.
Click to expand...

No, i hear you. Hell, if you get a million printed up, you could probably get them done for 10 cents each. My point to this is we didn't want to blow $1700 on 1000 CDs if we could only sell 40. Then we'd feel like total jack asses. We want to test and see that we can sell the 300. before we jump in and go crazy. Infact, if we sell the 300, it should pay for a run of 1000. I've head many more stories about people with delusions of selling thousands of copies, and it turns out they sold 20 to friends, and that was it. We didn't want to get stuck in that trap. I mean what are you going to do with 963 coasters at $1.50 a pop?
 
robertt8 - that cd looks quality... when i'm CD shopping, i sometimes like to buy a CD by a band i've heard, and then another based on the artwork or anything which makes the CD jump off the shelf at me... feels like its earned the right to be bought :D, and yeah, i'd have a problem putting that CD back on the shelf, based purely on the packaging...

at the same time, i like to see a band selling CD's where they've intentionally done something different with the artwork... i went to see a friends band play their last gig (they were all moving off to seperate ends of the country for university :( ) and they gave everyone there a CD for free, with their three most popular songs on ... for the artwork, they'd got a load of Jewel cases, made a stencil with just the name of the band on it for the front, and used that to scratch their name onto the front of the case. really simple, but everyone was really chuffed when they picked theirs up... it was obviously done on the cheap, probably by the band members that afternoon - but it wasn't trying to be anything it wasn't, and was different to anything else being sold by any of the other bands on on that night. a nice personal touch :)

i think generally though, you'll move a lot more CDs if they look good - i.e. 'professional' (a lot of my faveourite Sounding CD's are also my faveourite for the artwork, funnily enough) - and if you can't get them to look good on your own, its probably worth getting them printed properly.

Andy
 
I'll say yes, but it has to be worth it!

If I'm buying a CD, I'll want quality, so I'd expect a professional run. It shows that the band is serious about what they're doing.

I guess my band is lucky. Our first album was created the do it yourself way. Not being in the band at the time (but on the production team), I was able to assist in the creation of the CD, but I didn't have a real say.

The inital product came out looking okay. The photographs were scanned at a low resolution and weren't cleaned up. There were many small details that could have been changed to enhance the product. This short run was completely sold out and it was decided to do a run of 500 copies, and later an additional run (the dup. company had made extras in case we ever wanted more).

To date, we believe over 500 copies have been distributed. We've been pretty lucky!
 
If you aren't willing to spend money, you'll never make money. Music is a business. A burnt cd isn't a quality product, therefore a manager can't pitch/sell it to anyone. (If your manager says otherwise...then you should probably giver that manager second thoughts.) Therefore if you ever want a manager, then you'll need to spend time and money anyways...so why not just do it now? Plus fans connect better with something professional...they will think you are professional instead of just a "local band."
 
prestomation said:
I recorded my band(still in highschool)'s first album at my house last year. We sold about 200 copies of it. I burned them at home and printed them with an epson that prints on CD's. The only way you can tell they are not professional is that they are blue on the bottom :D

I was at a new years eve party last week and this kid I hardly knew brought a BIG folder of CD's.....My bands cd was in the front. We popped it in and the kid knew all the words.

Made me feel like a million bucks :p
Click to expand...

Amen, I just did a new disc myself in a similar manner, home recording Epson Printer and all. By signing up with CD Baby, I was even able to snag a UPC Barcode that's good for life (for the paltry sum of $20). The technology just keeps getting better and more affordable for those of us who couldn't give arat's bunghole aboout getting signed to an Uber-Label that would rip us off anyway.

Here's the end result:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/owlwatches

And I'm careful to buy blank CD's that are silver on the bottom to add to the illusion of "professionalism" so to speak, though if this disc shows signs of taking off in its particular niche market (instrumental/prog-rock), I may well have the discs pressed at Discmakers or something like that.

But anyhooooooo, I give big kudos to ANYONE who does it out of their home and has their own little cottage industry so to speak!
 
Depends what you want the CDs for?

If you have the money, there's an argument for going for full replication and producing as professional product as you can afford even for purely promotional purposes.

It's more impressive for club owners, promoters, labels, fans, etc, to give them a professional looking product than something that looks and feels like you knocked it off at home on a burner and using a PC.

If it's a 'vanity publishing' CD, meaning you just want to capture your songs for posterity then you need to decode how professional you want it to look for your OWN satisfaction.

If you have around $900 to spend and are able to find your way around a desktop publishing package, and of course assuming you've produced the music to a high standard on your home recording equipement, then you can pay for a professional product (500 copies) that looks no different to something a major label would put out. Now THAT is satisfying in itself, even if you never sell any and only give them away.

If it's a money making project, and you can sell at shows, then you need to keep costs down and the duplication home-made route might be better in order to cut costs and boost the profit margin.

I know from experience that you can easily get rid of 250 promo copies if you send them out for review etc, so 500 replicated copies is not too many even for a bedroom artist who doesn't gig.
 
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