Should I Burn My Own CD’s or Use A Pressing Plant?

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Well it really depends on your budget and what your overall aim is. A lot of the time, pressing up your product through a pressing plant will give your product a more professional look as they can include all the extras, such as printing and a plastic wrap. They also offer all-in-one solutions, meaning you can send off your specifications and any required material, and they’ll send you back a finished product. This is ideal if you haven’t got the time or resources to print and copy all the CDs yourself.

While it may be longer to do, copying your own CDs can save money however, as if you’ve a home computer you can copy all the CDs from that at no extra cost.

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How Many Copies Of My Mixtape, Album Or Single Should I Make?

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Many people think the best idea is to initially press up 1000 units (CD, vinyl etc) and sell them all. Many people end up with 900 plus units stored under their bed till they decide to give them out for free. It’s not as easy to sell units as many people think.

Unless you’ve built up a big name for yourself and have a proven track record of selling high amounts of CDs I suggest you start by pressing up a test batch of your new CD or vinyl, a good amount being 100. Now you may think you can do much more then this, but if you can what’s the harm in pressing up 100 at first? Then if they sell as fast and well as you expected, press up another 100 or 1000 (Dependent on how well the first batch sold) and try to sell those too. It’s just a way of being safe, no one wants to splash out money and not be able to recoup it.

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In What Format Should I Release My Music? CD, Digital, etc?

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There are a few different formats you can release your music on, the main ones being Compact Disk (CD), vinyl, and data file (E.G. MP3, WAV etc). Depending on your aim and your target market, the format you release your music in will be different. If you’re releasing your music to a more main stream audience that like to download their music to their MP3 players, you may want to only release a data file. If however you’re targeting hardcore underground music fanatics, you may want to release a vinyl as there are pockets of people who still feel they’re more “authentic”, especially DJs.

Here are the pros and cons of each format:

CD

Pros:

• The Compact Disk (CD) format is the most common tangible format around now.
• Most people have a way of playing CDs in their house, and you wouldn’t have trouble bringing your CD to other places and being able to play it.
• A lot of people are still drawn to owning their music in physical format, so it is still worth pressing up CDs.

Cons:

• While CDs are still popular, sales have decreased as sales of data files (E.G. MP3s / WAV etc, see below) have increased. It is now harder to sell CDs then before, as a lot of people favor the ‘instant delivery’ data file.
• While durable, CDs can also get scratched and damaged. If damaged too bad, this can make the CD unusable and you’d have to purchase the CD again.

Vinyl

Pros:

• Vinyl can be good if you’re targeting a niche market where the Djs within the market still favor vinyls.

Cons:

• Vinyls are very expensive to produce. On top of this there aren’t many people that still use vinyl, making it hard to find a place to use them as not everywhere has the required equipment to make them work. While you can buy your own ‘decks’ to play them on, these are very expensive and limit you to playing the music in your house.
• Vinyl is also big and heavy, so moving your music collection won’t be an easy job. It also wears down over time, so if you’re playing your music a lot you’ll be hearing crackles and jumps at some point.

Data File (E.G. MP3 Music File)

Pros:

• Data files such as MP3s, WAV and WMA can be cheaper then physical products for both consumers and artists. This is because unlike physical products, you don’t have to spend money on packaging and pressing up multiple units. Your only expense would be renting the space to sell your products, and if you get your own in house shopping cart (The way to sell your music and other non tangible products online) this is often only a one off fee. There are many websites that also let you upload and sell your products for free, only taking a commission for each unit you sell. This means if you don’t make any money you don’t have any expenses to pay.
• Of course, these savings can turn out to huge and can be risk free. Remember, you can pass these savings on to your customer, so you offer them the product for cheaper then if they were buying a CD, but still have a bigger profit margin for yourself as you have less expenses.
• Another pro about having data files is that they’re easy to deliver. You don’t have to rely on distribution companies taking them round to the shops, you can simply sell them from home on your own website or a website specially set up to sale music files.

Cons:

• Currently, data files are very easy to share. This is a problem, as with so many people getting your music for free, sales will obviously be effected in a negative way.
• While your music can still be stolen from compact disk and vinyl, having the data file make it easier for these thieves to share.
• Another con is there are still many people who don’t shop online for whatever reason. If you have a data file only release, you’re excluding some people from having your product, even if they may have wanted it.

Conclusion:

If you’re on a low budget, a data file only release may be the way forward. It won’t involve much cost to sell your music (If any) and you’ll be able to get music to your fans instantly. If however you have got more of a budget and want to appeal to people that don’t buy music online, it may be best to go for a digital AND CD release. This should appeal to all potential customers and ensure you’re music’s easily obtainable (Provided it’s in the right shops of course).

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Get FREE Graphic Designs For Your Single, Album Or Mixtape!

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If you can’t design your own art but don’t have the money to pay for someone to design for you, don’t worry, there is still hope. One way of getting free graphic design is to ask any designer friends you may have to do you some. Depending on your relationship with them, they may do you a one off piece, or a whole series of free graphic design for your project.

If however you don’t know any designers, you can always find some online. There are many up and coming designers who would be willing to do free graphic design for you in exchange for getting their work seen. These designers can be found of forums, social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, and via search engines.

When you approach someone to do you free design work, always make clear the benefit of them helping you with your project (Their work will be seen in shops, you will be digitally distributing the product to thousands of people, or whatever the case). DON’T however over hype how far you’ll be pushing your project, if you do and you fail to deliver, most likely you won’t be getting help from that designer again. It is often best to be honest (Even if you aren’t expecting to get your project that far) and let the designer make their own mind up about whether or not they’ll do free graphic design for you. If they like you and need to build up their portfolio, there’s still a good chance they’ll work with you.

One downside of getting free graphic design though is you can’t get everything your way. Some of these up-and-coming designers won’t have all the skills and knowledge a professional graphic designer will have, so may not be able to do everything you want. If this is the case you also won’t be able to complain that much as you’re not paying them for their services. Also as they’re not being paid, some graphic designers will work a lot slower and not to a set time line, as they may be focusing more on paid work or other non related priorities. Having said that, there are some very talented up and coming designers out there and it’s worth trying to get free graphic design from these up and coming designers.

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Getting A Graphic Designer To Design Your Music Artwork

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Another option is to pay a graphic designer to do your artwork for you. If you choose to get a graphic designer, make sure you look for graphic designer who would be suitable for your project (As in has experience doing the type of design you want). Make sure you look at their previous graphic design work, discuss what you want from them, and see if this graphic designer will be able to achieve what you want.

There are many graphic designers that are willing to design your project for a fee, from the big design companies to the freelancers. I’d recommend using the second type of graphic designer, reason being they are cheaper and can often get the job done just as well. Many also do graphic design for a specific target market (EG for a niche type of music), so may actually have the edge over a bigger company as they can relate to your needs better.

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Designing Artwork For My Mixtape, Single Or Album

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One way to get art for your project is to do it yourself. This however is not recommended if you don’t have any previous knowledge in this field and / or don’t know how to use a graphics design program such as Photoshop (Or free graphic design software such as GimPhoto).

If you do however, this is the cheapest way to go about it and potentially the best, as you will have full creative control. You can try out as many ideas as you want and tweak it till you get it just right.

Using free graphic design software can well will of course help keep down costs, as programs such as GimPhoto and Paint.net can be downloaded and used for free. While Adobe Photoshop it more expensive, it’s currently seen as the best graphic design software around.

Having said that, if you don’t know how to use graphic design software and aren’t willing to put the time in to learn, there’s not much point even if you can get free graphic design software. In that case it’d be better to use a graphic designer.

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The Best Recording Studio Techniques & Tips

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Good vocal recording techniques can help you in many ways. They can speed up the time you spend in the recording booth, and make your whole project much easier to execute.

One of the best vocal recording techniques is learning how to relax in the studio. There’s nothing to be nervous about, the studio engineer is there to help you, not judge your music. Feel free to try out new things, even if not very conventional. When recording your vocals it’s only you in the recording booth, you have complete creative control and the final say. So relax and do whatever you want, and remember, YOU’RE IN CHARGE.

A tip is to always bring water or your required liquid into the recording booth with you. Throats often get dry once you’re been recording vocals for a long period of time, and without liquid there’s not much you can do about it. This will of course affect your vocals, which may come out more croaky or stop you from being able to record altogether. So keep a bottle handy and give yourself more staying power.

Another good studio tip is to keep one eye on the clock. There’s nothing worse then running out of time when you’ve still got work to do, so always be aware of how long you’ve got, and record the most important things first. Then if you’ve got any spare time at the end, use it to achieve your secondary goals such as non album tunes or skits.

When you’re actually in the recording booth recording your vocals, it’s a good idea to regularly listen back to at least a section of what you’ve recorded. This way you can hear if everything’s coming out the way you want it to, and change anything that’s not straight away. If you record the whole song without listening back then find you don’t like the way you recorded the base vocal, you may have to record everything again and have wasted a good amount of time. And remember, time is money…

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Plans Before Going To The Recording Studio

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There are a few things you need to think about and prepare before you go to the recording studio. Remember, in the studio time is money, and if you leave all your planning till you’re in the vocal booth, it could cost you hundreds if not thousands of pounds more to finish your project. Things to think about include:

• What is the aim?

What do you want to come out of the studio with? How much further into your product do you want to be?

• Have you practised all your vocals?

Do you know all your words off by heart without reading them? Do you know where you’re going to include any adilibs? Do you know what tone you’re going to do your tune in?

• How long will it take?

Have you got a realistic estimate of how long you’re going to need in the studio? Put in time for any unexpected occurrences, such as lateness and fire alarms etc.

• Have you got everything you need?

A CD with the backing track? Your lyric book? Water or medicine in case of a sore throat? Any instruments or samples if needed?

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How To Find A Recording Studio To Make Music?

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So now you have an idea of where you want to want to go with you project, the next step is actually recording your material. I will assume you already have your lyrics written down and memorised perfectly, now you need to find a recording studio to record your vocals.

There are many different recording studios out there, with varying price, quality, and recording style. There is no right or wrong studio to go too, it all depends on your budget and what you’re looking to achieve from your project. Remember, listen to some material recorded in that studio before you use it yourself so you can see if it’s at the quality you want. There are three main category of studio:

• Home Recording Booth

This is the cheapest (Sometimes free) type of recording studio available to you. However, it will often (But not always) also leave you with the worse sounding music.

The home recording booth is often set up in someone’s house, another music lover who wanted to take their passion that bit further and had the finances to do so. Some home studios can actually do you an good quality recording, but many leave your product with ‘feedback’, distortion and background noise. It all depends on what level of equipment the engineer has invested in, and how well they can use it.

You can find home recording booths usually through word of mouth as many aren’t listed. Some will charge you a small amount of money, others will let you record for free if they like you.

Unless you find a good quality one, home studios are best for people with a low budget that are only giving out their product for promotion (Not selling). Be warned however, if the quality of the studio is too poor it could make you sound poor too. If you give out a poor product, even if it’s free, people will remember you for it and avoid your material in future.

• Mid Level Studio

This is the type of recording studio that I would recommend using. Using these recording booths you will come out with a professional sounding product that is radio quality, some of them even matching the industry standard recording studio. They are however, a lot cheaper. Most of the time, the only difference is the final mix down, and even then sometimes you’ll get a better mix down in the mid level studio as it’s more about the studio engineer knowing what they’re doing. You can usually book mid level recording studios for £15 – £25 an hour, and are able to pay hourly.

• Industry Standard Studio

These are the bigger recording studios who charge a lot more money to record your project in. They usually have a lot of other ‘extras’ available for you to use, such as a kitchen, entertainment (Pool table, computer games etc), and more. This however, is usually where the extras end. When it comes to the quality of your recording, a lot end up sounding the same as mid level recording booths. This is why I find it hard to recommend these type of recording studios, as they encourage you to stay longer so you spend more money without getting much back. Many also have a minimum booking requirement, so you have to book the studio for a few hours or a few days.

Some of these recording studios do however have superior mixing down abilities, this however isn’t always the case.

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Budget For Starting A Record Label

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Another important thing to think about when setting up your record label is the amount of money you’re willing to spend on it. Things like registering a record label will cost you money, as could releasing people’s material and promotion efforts. If the record label is just a name and brand you want to build up with your music being the main focus, you shouldn’t look to invest financially in the label but instead into your music. If however you want to build a strong record label that runs professionally in the eyes of the law, you will have to spend money.

If you’re releasing other people’s music too you need to think about how much money you’re going to spend on them if any. When setting a budget, try and stick to it. It’s easy to over spend and have finances get out of control, causing a bad knock on effect for the finances in the other areas of your project.

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