Stupot

Got a couple of Bessie Smith 78s that are worth a fortune apparently. Some very rare Spike Jones and The City Slickers too.

Voted too. Well I have to - I'm your record producer. Well done girl. I'll put the link up all over the place too.

He gets the figures from experience. Last holiday season ( March - 0ctober) I personally sold out of a suitcase 757 CDs at 10 each. Only last week I did the sound for roots band Waking The Witch at The Warehouse Theatre in Lossiemouth and they sold 47 CDs at 10 each to an audience of around 75.

Why not let drug addicts walk into your house and steal your food and drive your car anytime they like without let or hinderance. Oh wait, they already do. Well done kenny macaskill.

Most songwriters would be happy that their music was sampled, particularly being used in a completely new way that breathed fresh life into it.

It's not record companies who profit loads, it's the publishers. A record company might get a point or two, but the publisher gets 50%. Of course, in the case of the majors, the record company and the publisher are often the same beast. Copyright shouldn't go on indefinetely. I think 50 years or death is about right in the case of songwriters but there's a case for a shorter span for publishers. Nowadays, the world is full of people who think they should get everything for nothing. If you sample or cover a record for profit then you should pay the writer royalties. It's basic honesty. If you don't, then you're no better than a thief. You can't just help yourself to someone's car, can you? It's not as if royalties are extortionate. It's 6.5% of the retail. So on a disc of covers going for 10 the royalty is 6.5p per disc. And a sample of a few seconds costs even less. If you're using samples or covering a song for the joy of it and not making money out of it, then fine. I don't think you should have to pay royalties for it. If you're playing the song or sample at a live event, you don't pay royalties anyway- the venue does.

I hired in a M149 for a project where the singer insisted on having one. Waste of money, she sounded so bad through it she ended up recording through my sontronics orpheus-a snip at 399 and great at vocals and kick drum. It was plain she'd never sang through a M149 before and had listened to a bedroom engineer who had told her it was the bollox based an the fact it was the most expensive mic that he could remember the name of!

Flash Page It's worth pressing if you think you'll get rid of 100-200 even just taking into consideration the time factor in making up CDRs. 500 I think is around the 1.20 each area. On the record label side of thing, we distribute to itunes, sony, napster, groupie tunes, amazon and some others for digital download. Of course our label acts don't pay up front for all this or the royalty collection stuff. We've reduced studio time prices in order to attract government funding. We're now 50 per day plus 10 per track mixing and mastering.

So right. Burning them slow is a must unless you've got them in a dedicated duplicator and even then x16 is usually the fastest. Some shops will take CDRs but be prepared to replace duff ones. We can do 1000 pukka pressed CDs with the works for 72p each and I'm sure we ain't the cheapest.

Ask yourself this: At 5 per unit, are you likely to sell 100 CDs? This is what you need to shift in order to break even on a pro pressing. If the answer is yes then press them as the packaging is more attractive, the CDs will be printed and it will look more professional all round. It will save you time and the unit cost will be low. If the answer is no, do it yourself, especially as you can get good quality printing for free. You have the option then of making up only as many as you need. Say batches of 25 at first. Making them like this also gives you the option of selling them cheaper. Try to print directly onto the CDs. It's cheaper than you think and looks a million times better than a label. A good gimmick I saw one band use, was to also print up some CDs in cheap printed card wallets and throw them at random into the audience. Not too many mind! Don't press if it's a self made recording. Make them yourself. If it's professional then press if you think it's worth it. Has it been mastered? You can tell by comparing it to a commercial CD which will be much louder and punchier. Make sure it's similar material though. Don't use Kylie as it will mess with your head when you realise that her commercial CD is louder and punchier than your unmastered disc. If you go the donation route, which is a double edged sword, only put up a couple of tracks at first. Then if it fails you don't give out your whole ep for nowt. If it needs mastering, feel free to send it to me and I'll master it for nothing as an introduction to my mastering services. Then when you're delighted, you'll tell everyone else! PM if interested.

It's just that she's writing music (or having it written for her) that 13 year olds will spend their pocket money on. That's how to get in the charts guys. Use no more than 29 different words and have a great hook.

Now that didn't occur to me when we were making it, but you're right. Cheers.

She's like a drunken, really bad drag act. She even made Ozzie look sober.

Bloody music factory. Could their acts get any blander?

Ah, the Brit School end of term awards.

There are some shockers indeed, but also some good stuff too. I've been turned onto some acts by that show I'd never otherwise heard of. I don't mind some of the old has beens as long as they can still cut it. Better to be a has been than a never will be. I quite liked Seasick Steve but I wonder how much of his image is carefully contrived.

Amy Winehouse is just another graduate from the Brit School, just like Kate Nash, Lilly Allen and the rest. She could just as easily have ended up in Eastenders or in Casualty as been a singer. They take them when they graduate and mould them into whatever they want them to be. Much cheaper and more efficient than paying out for an a & r department and developing an existing act, who may get a bit lippy and demand to be treated seriously. If you care and want to know who "the next big thing" will be, buy The Stage and read the classifieds at the back. If you see an ad that says, " Female singer, 18-22, bubbly, outgoing. Wanted for musical project." there's the next Lilly Winehouse or Kate Allen or whatever their equity name happens to be. I wonder if you can place bets on it? Oh, and make sure you're aware of the difference between the entertainment industry and the music industry. If you aren't, you'll end up going, "She/he's shite, How can people buy that drivel/that's so invalid/not cool/insipid pop shite/god I can't stand James Blunt/wankwankwank/I don't believe anyone can like that even though she/he has sold 40 million records and cracked the states/etc/etc/etc!!!" Then you'll drive yourself insane with, the unfairness of it all/why can't I sell 40 million records/all I need is a chance/I can write better than that/fucking emo wank, dilemma and die.

We do large scale pressing of CDs and DVDs. Price depends upon volume and whether or not you need artwork. Can be as low as 65p a unit or less with no printing.

Nice one. Most Poles are religious, family orientated, hard working and know that Marxists are not to be trusted. What's not to like?

I think you may find that the number of local or "native" slackers and spongers may slightly outnumber that of the poles. You may not consider yourself racist and you're probably not, but you are seriously ill informed and rather ignorant.

Their letter from god to man is a belter.

Or the guy who squirts paint out of his arse onto canvas and calls it art.

Rather good that. Pretty much any studio with a seperate control room and live room could reproduce that sound for you. We certainly could, the byre could, exile too I shouldn't wonder. We have a seperate vocal booth where you could put down a live vocal coincident with the band for a live vibe. But so does the byre who are closer to you, curse them!!!

I own the recording studio and record label in lossiemouth. Flash Page main web site Some tracks up at MySpace.com - Spook Records and Publishing - Lossiemouth, UK - Alternative / Rock / Pop - www.myspace.com/spookrecordsandpublishing It's a bit out of your way really but we'd be happy to see you. If you're well rehearsed, you could knock out a good, lively demo at any competent studio but if you do your vocals seperately they'll, quite rightly, want to spend a bit of time on them.