A few questions about selling CD's...

[Jeid]

Yeah, we do indeed. The first track from the Cd is on myspace...

MySpace.com - Astronot - UK - Rock / Punk - www.myspace.com/astronotmusic

if you check our website, there's another song on there if you click play

Astronot || Official Website

these are tracks were recorded last July at The Byre, they've not been properly mixed yet, we didn't have time. Ended up finishing our second day at 4am... nae good. Mark was good to work with.

[Old Gold]

If I liked the content, I would without a doubt pay three quid for that.

That's not to say I dislike you though!

[The Byre]

Here are some thoughts on CD-Rs - (health warning, some of this is just my opinion!)

1. If you do use CD-Rs, make sure that they pklay on things like car stereos and the old box in the kitchen. So only the best (Tayo Yuden, Sony) and burn slowly, x4 or x8 max.

2. No shop or distributor will accept CD-Rs.

3. Pukka CDs cost about 1 each for 500 and it's all done for you - no stress and all nicely packed in a cellophane wrapper etc. and delivered to your door. There are literally hundreds of CD manufacturers nowadays, so prices may even be much lower than that!

4. There is pretty much little or no money in CDs now anyway. The record companies blame cheap imports, pirating, downloads, you name it - anything and everything except themselves and the crap product they produce! The money and career is all in live performance. But a good CD is something worth selling at gigs and if someone likes a band, they will pay 7 - 10 for a full one-hour CD and 3 - 5 for an EP of four or five songs.

5. The coming product is live concert DVDs in 5.1 and hi-def. The sooner all in the industry realise that, the sooner we can go back to earning some real money and engaging the fans with great shows!

[Stupot]

Here are some thoughts on CD-Rs - (health warning, some of this is just my opinion!)

1. If you do use CD-Rs, make sure that they pklay on things like car stereos and the old box in the kitchen. So only the best (Tayo Yuden, Sony) and burn slowly, x4 or x8 max.

2. No shop or distributor will accept CD-Rs.

3. Pukka CDs cost about 1 each for 500 and it's all done for you - no stress and all nicely packed in a cellophane wrapper etc. and delivered to your door. There are literally hundreds of CD manufacturers nowadays, so prices may even be much lower than that!

4. There is pretty much little or no money in CDs now anyway. The record companies blame cheap imports, pirating, downloads, you name it - anything and everything except themselves and the crap product they produce! The money and career is all in live performance. But a good CD is something worth selling at gigs and if someone likes a band, they will pay 7 - 10 for a full one-hour CD and 3 - 5 for an EP of four or five songs.

5. The coming product is live concert DVDs in 5.1 and hi-def. The sooner all in the industry realise that, the sooner we can go back to earning some real money and engaging the fans with great shows!

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.

[Sam 45]

How many people on this site, along with the general public, buy CD's by local artists? How often, and where from?

It would be interesting to see some stats because I suspect it is hard to find a band in this city who has "released" a cd like this and broken even.

Yeah that's a very good point. Trying to think back to what local releases i have bought. Copy Haho 7", Dedalus/Politik Split EP, PVH album. I think that is about it.

What we did we a while back was;

• Buy a bunch of CDRs for as cheap as we could find
  
• Stick two songs on them
  
• Print the track names and band name on them
  
• Give them out at shows/put them in record shops to give out for free
  

It is a bit of a bastards copying all the CDs ect, but if you all chip in its not too bad. We stuck them in plastic wallets that were well cheap. I think we gave out like 150 CDs across 2 gigs.

[RobJM]

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.

You will probably find that doing them yourself may work out dearer, you've got the CDr's , jewel case, paper for the cover , front/back, insert leaflet and of course the ink.

The only advantage is the cash outlay , because you just make up what you sell and recoup the cost right away.

I am at the moment trying various ways for my sons band who where keen to record an actual CD. It is being sold to mainly family/friends just to build up some small funds for stuff that crops up from time to time.

Of course there is always the download option via itunes etc if anyone expresses interest you can always point them to the download site or hand out cards with the details.

BTW have you a site for your CD pressings, 72p is quite good, I'm sure it costs me more than that to do it myself!

Not that I'm in the market to flog 1000 CD's though!! , but you never know:rockon:

[Jeid]

Well, here's our outlay for doing our CD's.

The card for the sleeves: 0

The Printing of the sleeves: 0

The printer to print onto the Cd's: 100

The Cd's to put the music on: 15-20 for 100

Obviously, there's man time from us all, but it's a good time to have a drink and get the craic.

All we need to do is sell 40-50 @ 3 each to recoup our costs. Not bad.

I think 3 for 6 or 7 songs is a steal...

EDIT: I should include that our recording sessions were 300 a day plus vat.

[Stupot]

You will probably find that doing them yourself may work out dearer, you've got the CDr's , jewel case, paper for the cover , front/back, insert leaflet and of course the ink.

The only advantage is the cash outlay , because you just make up what you sell and recoup the cost right away.

I am at the moment trying various ways for my sons band who where keen to record an actual CD. It is being sold to mainly family/friends just to build up some small funds for stuff that crops up from time to time.

Of course there is always the download option via itunes etc if anyone expresses interest you can always point them to the download site or hand out cards with the details.

BTW have you a site for your CD pressings, 72p is quite good, I'm sure it costs me more than that to do it myself!

Not that I'm in the market to flog 1000 CD's though!! , but you never know:rockon:

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.

[Sam 45]

How many days did you spend recording?

[Spoonie]

2. No shop or distributor will accept CD-Rs.

things might have changed but a few years back we had out CD's in virgin and one up and they were all CDR's. not saying they accept them now, but worth enquiring.

[framheim]

one up will accept anything you give them.

[Jeid]

Even STI's?

Sweet!

EDIT: We're spending 5 days recording

[Sam 45]

Even STI's?

Sweet!

EDIT: We're spending 5 days recording

Gees guys. Fairly splashing out on the recording! The track on your space sounds good though.

[Jeid]

We've done 2 already. We do the other 3 next week... really looking forward to it. It's a pretty relaxed place with great gear. The track on myspace isn't properly mixed... it was done at 4am when we were all really tired(we'd been working since 10am that day). We've dedicated a day of our time this week to mixing the bitch down and getting it sounding as bestest as possible.

[RF Scott]

Here are some thoughts on CD-Rs - (health warning, some of this is just my opinion!)

1. If you do use CD-Rs, make sure that they pklay on things like car stereos and the old box in the kitchen. So only the best (Tayo Yuden, Sony) and burn slowly, x4 or x8 max.

2. No shop or distributor will accept CD-Rs.

3. Pukka CDs cost about 1 each for 500 and it's all done for you - no stress and all nicely packed in a cellophane wrapper etc. and delivered to your door. There are literally hundreds of CD manufacturers nowadays, so prices may even be much lower than that!

4. There is pretty much little or no money in CDs now anyway. The record companies blame cheap imports, pirating, downloads, you name it - anything and everything except themselves and the crap product they produce! The money and career is all in live performance. But a good CD is something worth selling at gigs and if someone likes a band, they will pay 7 - 10 for a full one-hour CD and 3 - 5 for an EP of four or five songs.

5. The coming product is live concert DVDs in 5.1 and hi-def. The sooner all in the industry realise that, the sooner we can go back to earning some real money and engaging the fans with great shows!

Where are you getting these stupid figures from? People will pay 7-10?! full one-hour CD?!

Point 2 is bullshit central, too.

[Stupot]

Where are you getting these stupid figures from? People will pay 7-10?! full one-hour CD?!

Point 2 is bullshit central, 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.