PLANNING YOUR ALBUM A - Z ( PART 1b )

E. REPLICATION and DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION STEPS

While the internet has brought about new formats such as MP3s and new distribution methods

such as iTunes, Amazon, and file-sharing, there are CD players everywhere: in homes, com-

puters, radio stations, cars, etc. If you want to get radio airplay or do a press campaign, they

expect a CD.

CD OR NOT CD, THAT IS THE QUESTION

While you may hear that CD sales are down in the mainstream media, the statistics for this come

from the major labels whose business model was selling plastic. As a musician, you sell

music, not CDs, and you need to make the best decision for yourself. This shouldn't be based

on the economics of a label. musicians operate on a different scale and model than labels.

Beyond legitimizing your album and helping to paint a complete story about who you are as an

artist, CDs may be an integral part of your revenue stream.

For musicians, the decision to make a CD usually comes down to just a handful of factors:

• Your projected CD sales

• Your publicity campaign, and

• Your radio campaign

Selling Live and Online: Press for sales

While online distributors such as CD Baby will sell your CD to the world, the bulk of your CD

sales usually occurs at shows. It's one of the easiest ways that you can sell your music to some-

one, and it's usually an easy sale: after a great show, fans often want to own their own copy of

the music. Plus, CDs are usually the biggest money makers since the cost to produce them is

far less than what you can sell them for. If you've released a CD already, check your sales from

shows and see what that number is (and if you haven't started tracking this yet, start doing so).

Once you know this, you can usually come up with a break-even-point on how many shows you

have to play to pay for the CD costs. This will help you estimate how many CDs to make.

One way to improve music sales at shows is to sell digital download cards. These cards allow

you to sell your music digitally. Disc Makers has partnered with DigStation and CD Baby to

make this process easy, for you and your fans..

Publicity campaigns: Press to impress

As we talk about in the "Get Publicized" chapter of The Band Survival Guide, the press

and media often judge your work by how things look. Imagine what you'd think if you were a

journalist or music critic and got a CD burned from a computer with your band name scrawled

in permanent marker on the front. Creating your own professionally-made disc sends the

message that you're serious about your music and they should take it seriously as well and

give it a listen.

Of course the appearance is only one factor. Another is how many discs you want to print by

hand in order to meet the goals of your publicity campaign. If you want to send a disc to 100

or more press and media outlets, it may make financial sense to do a CD run. Not to mention

saving you time to work on those activities that matter more than sitting by your printer

changing ink cartridges.

Some press and media will accept MP3s. As a result, many publicity campaigns can start with

this instead of mailing a physical disc out. However, if the press you're dealing with will eventu-

ally want a disc, you may want to send them your CD, given the appearance factor.

Radio campaigns: Press for play

If you plan on trying to get radio play, there's no way around pressing a CD, especially if

you're considering commercial radio stations. Generally, even college radio stations won't

be too interested in a home-pressed CD-R or MP3 file. Finally, if you intend to hire a radio

promoter, don't waste the money by getting them to generate interest in your music and then

following up with a home-burned disc.

1. Replicating and duplicating CDs

If you want your album to have the look and feel of a major commercial release, then, you'll

want to replicate your disc. The replication process physically stamps data onto the surface

of the plastic disc, while the duplication process encodes the data by burning microscopic

holes into the dye layer of a recordable CD. Replicated discs last longer and are more durable.

Duplicated discs, however, provide flexibility in terms of quantities, fast turn-around times,

and cost.

In general, replication is most cost effective on orders of 300 discs or more, and offers more

packaging options. Duplication is most cost effective on orders of fewer than 300 discs and

can be turned around significantly faster than replication on shorter runs

a. Determine how many CDs to make and the costs

Do you want 5 CDs? 100? 500? 1,000? 5,000? Essentially, it all turns on your goals. Are

you going to promote your release to the press? New media? Are you going to target

college radio? Or are you going to focus on podcasts and music blogs? These decisions

will help you reach a decision on how many CDs you'll want to make.

To determine the size of the print run that makes economic sense, you should do

your best to estimate the amount of copies you'll need for:

• Your Press Campaign: Determine the number of press outlets, both new media

and traditional media, that you plan to send a CD.

• Your Radio Campaign: Determine the number of CDs you plan to send to

radio stations.

• Promotional Copies: Estimate the number of CDs you'll need for promotional

purposes such as giveaways, contests, fan thank-yous, etc.

• Free Copies: Determine the number of CDs that you'll pass out to your fellow band

members, family, friends, street teams, etc.

• Copies for Sale: Estimate the number you'll want left over so you can sell them for

a profit. If you have past sales figures of CD and digital sales of your music, then

you can use these to project the number you expect to sell through show CD

sales, online CD sales, consignment sales, and any other physical CD distribution.

Depending on how many you order (and how fast you need them done), your cost per

CD could range anywhere from under $1 to $4. Once you know your cost and number

of giveaways, you can determine how many you need to sell to break even.

Short-Run Duplication

With Disc Makers short-run duplication service, you can order CDs in smaller quantities

in a number of popular packaging formats in. That means you can buy fewer CDs up

front and, when you sell out, you can simply re-order your CD.

For more information about Disc Maker's short-run duplication services, click here.

b. Decide on type of packaging (jewel case, sleeve, etc.) and what type of booklet

(1-panel, 2-panel, multi-panel)

You'll have a host of options to choose from. For example, Disc Makers offers jewel

cases, slim cases, eco-friendly Digipaks and wallets, jackets, paper sleeves, and more.

With regard to booklets, the options are nearly limitless.

With respect to radio campaigns, the CD case that you pick is important. CD

libraries used by radio stations, journalists, and reviewers are modeled around the

size of a standard jewel case. So, to the extent your goal is to get your CD in the

hands of radio and the press, you'll want to keep this in mind.

However, every rule is made to be broken. George Hrab, a successful musician

and podcaster out of Pennsylvania (GeologicRecords.net), has done a fantastic job

packaging his CDs in unique ways to help them stand out from the crowd. For example,

one of them comes in a tin box, another in an embossed paper sleeve, and another in

a large DVD-style box. All of them feature detailed liner notes, photos, and other

extras. Each one stands out as a piece of art, giving his fans a genuine reason to buy

the physical CD; his sales have benefited from this approach.

c. Get artwork design templates from the CD manufacturer or use their online

design services

Always use the approved templates for your artwork. If you don't, it may cost you time

and money down the road to get it right (not to mention your own grief and frustration).

d. Determine formats required for album art and text, CD art and text, etc.,

and use this format

Sometimes different formats are required for different parts of the CD. For example,

the on-disc print might be different than the booklet print. Your supplied file may need

to be a CMYK image, or RGB, or be in a specific file format. For these tasks, you can

use professional products like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop or free software like

GIMP. Disc Makers provides a document that spells out the file requirements if you

are supplying your artwork. Click here to read and download the document.

2. Print your own discs

Depending on how many discs you want to print, it may save you money to do it yourself.

Disc Makers has its own line of duplication machines and CD/DVD printers, priced anywhere

from $200 to over $5,000. Keep in mind, this is just one cost. You'll still need inserts, ink,

cases, and blank discs (preferably one without a brand logo on them). Disc Makers sells blank

media, including blank CD-Rs with your artwork silkscreened on them. This beats writing the

name of the album in permanent marker and adds a level of professionalism to your one-off

CD manufacturing.

3. Digital download cards

Just like iTunes sells gift cards that allows the purchaser to buy any music from its site, you can

now sell your own digital download cards specifically for your album. Disc Makers can create

custom-printed cards with your album's artwork for downloads on DigStation or CD Baby.

On the back are instructions and a unique code that allows your fans to download your album.

This is a great new way to sell your music at shows or anywhere at all. You don't have to tote 25

CDs around with you, just stash a stack of download cards in your wallet and you're ready to sell

your music on the go. Once you purchase the download cards (currently it's $98 for 100 cards),

they are yours to sell or give away as a free promotion. Each card is good for only one complete

album download.

F. ARTWORK and DESIGN

One of the things that separates a CD from an MP3 is the artwork, design, and depth of

information you can convey. Below is a comprehensive list of what you may want to consider

for your album art.

GETTING PROFESSIONAL HELP WITH ARTWORK and DESIGN

Designing the graphics for an album tends to be one of the more time consuming parts of the

CD creation process. How your CD appears is just as important as the music inside — especially

when it comes to promotion and publicity.

But if graphic design isn't among your talents, you can always find someone to do it for

you — whether in your skill network, a professional graphic artist, or an art service. The Design

Studio at Disc Makers offers professional design and artwork services for those who don't have

the expertise to do it themselves.

A design studio can do more than just prepare album artwork. If you don't have a good set of

logo images ready to go for your website, T-shirts, merchandise, banner ads, etc., you can get

their help to make a set of graphics that you can use over and over again. Merchandise plays

such an important part of an indie musician's income nowadays that many musicians and bands

take the time to create a variety of brand-related images based off their name and logo so that

they can make an assortment of merchandise for their fans to choose from.

1. Choose a name for the album

Self-evident, but a major choice nonetheless.

2. Get a UPC barcode

If you want to sell your album in any store or online digital retailer such as CD Baby, you'll

need to have a unique Universal Product Code (UPC), or barcode. Not only do many of the

sales outlets require a barcode to sell music, but the primary sales tracking authority, Sound-

scan, only tracks albums with barcodes. If your release becomes a big hit, but doesn't have

a barcode, Soundscan won't know about your sales. The Billboard charts, as well as other

charting authorities, base their rankings on these Soundscan numbers.

You usually need this at the artwork stage since the barcode needs to be incorporated within

your design (typically on the tray card). For a fee, the CD manufacturing house may provide

you one, but know that other services such as CD Baby will sell you one as well.

3. Work on the artwork

How much artwork is needed generally depends on your packaging, but in general you'll need

to design:

• Cover art

• Tray card

• On-disc print

• Booklet/liner notes

4. Replicate the CD

Once all the artwork is finalized and your album is mixed and mastered, you're ready to

get it replicated.

a. Send/Mail the mastered album along with artwork

Once finalized, you'll need to ship the mastered disc and artwork.

b. Proof artwork

Always proof your artwork, and have someone not involved with the creation of the

artwork proof it as well. Once approved, any missed errors or misspellings are your

responsibility, and what's worse, you'll have 1,000 or more copies printed with the

same mistake. It's a good idea to proof a physical copy, not just an online PDF, as

there's something about holding a physical proof in your hands that can help you

spot problems better than checking images on a computer monitor.

c. Sign copyright release and grant approval

Before anyone can replicate or duplicate your disc, you need to sign a release stating

the work is original or that you have the required permissions. See the "Legal (Part I)"

section above for more information.

LINER NOTE CHECKLIST:

Must-Haves:

Optional:

Album Title

Artist/Band Name

Copyright and publishing information/notices for:

Music (original or covers)

Artwork

Text

Performance Rights Organization the songs are

registered to (if applicable)

Track Listing

Your website

Contact Information — You never know where your CD may

end up. Be sure to include ways you can be contacted.

Where and when the album was recorded

Where the album was mastered

Who played what

Running times for songs

(this is helpful for DJs to know if you're seeking radio play)

Guest musicians

Other albums for sale and where they can purchase them

Song notes

Lyrics