Publishing start?

Subject: Publishing start?
From: GUEST,JoMo
Date: 05 Nov 00 - 02:57 PM

Can anyone point me in the direction to start my own publishing company for a cd I'm recording? There must be websight somewhere....

Subject: RE: Publishing start?
From: jeffp
Date: 06 Nov 00 - 01:59 PM

Refrest - can anyone help?

Subject: RE: Publishing start?
From: MMario
Date: 06 Nov 00 - 02:02 PM

you don't need to start a company - you can self-publish.

Subject: RE: Publishing start?
From: Hollowfox
Date: 06 Nov 00 - 02:48 PM

Can't help with websites, but you might want to hit the library. Here are two books that might help: "Musician's Guide to Making and Selling Your Own CD's and Casettes" by Jana Stanfield, 1997, Writer's Digest Books. "Making and Marketing Music" by Jodi Summers, 1999, Allworth Press.

Subject: RE: Publishing start?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 00 - 07:41 PM

You don't really need to "start a company." All you need to do is place an order with a company that manufactures CD's. Their salesman would be more than happy to sell you all the services you need, and then some. Of course you might end up like me, with thousands of unsold CD's in your basement.

Assuming you've got some sales resistance, you've got nothing to lose by talking to them, getting some price quotes, and picking their brains for good advice.

Start by looking in your Yellow Pages under "Compact Discs, Tapes & Records - Wholesalers & Manufacturers." Probably every major city has several companies in this category. There are some that publish catalogs and do business by mail order, but I don't have their names right now.

Here are a few companies located in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis - St. Paul, Minnesota):

Aggressive Records

MX Digital Media

Millwind

The Musicians Resource Page has lots of links to companies of this type.

Subject: RE: Publishing start?
From: GUEST,Guest still
Date: 07 Nov 00 - 10:36 AM

Jim, is your CD on sale here at the Mudcat? Gs

Subject: RE: Publishing start?
From:
Date: 07 Nov 00 - 11:33 AM

JoMo, as the others have stated, you don't NEED to start a company in order to put out a CD.

It helps to organize if you do.

You should get your record sorted out, (songs, # of songs, what order, how long should each be, what type of song, tempo, etc. [Copyrights checked into if they aren't your original songs, I assume]). Then record it, putting it on a Master, preferably, DAT/CD. If you hadn't before, get any artwork, etc. done and in your hand.

With all of that ready at hand, contact the companies which produces finished copies. Find the best deal. Note some of them will do up as few as 500, but not shrink wrapped, etc. For that usually, it seems to be 1000 minimum.

This is what I'm told by friends who have done their own CDs. They take a good long time, sorting out the CD at the beginning. Minimize the studio time to produce the master, and then shop around. Typically from start to finish, it could conceivably be a year, but the hardest time is at the beginning.

Once in the studio, it could be as quick as 2 months, assuming every thing else has been looked after.

Note the massive amount of $$ is the studio time, unless it is your own. Tweaking levels, and sound to get the "right" balance can take a long time. From the time you send off to get the CDs manufactured, can be as quick as 2-3 weeks.

Subject: RE: Publishing start?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Nov 00 - 12:00 PM

Guest: No, the CD's in question are not currently being offered for sale at Mudcat. It's something I never really thought of. Anyway, my wife is the musician in the family. I guess you'd have to call me a silent partner, since I am technically a 25% owner of all those CD's, but my name doesn't appear on them.

She and her music partner form a duo called Amaryllis. (Not to be confused with a British duo with the same name; that's just a coincidence.) They play mainly Celtic music. She plays flute and hammered dulcimer. Her partner plays fiddle, guitar, banjo, and harmonica. There is also a third person, a woman who sometimes sings with them. By using overdubbing, they were able to work out some complicated arrangements that they can't reproduce in real life.

The trouble is, this is only a part-time job for them. They don't want to give up their day jobs. (She is a teacher. He is an occupational therapist.) They have never gone on tour. They have rarely performed more than 100 miles or so from home. They have played at several local festivals, craft sales, historic sites, schools, music-in-the-parks programs, coffeehouses (for tips and a pound of coffee beans), lots of weddings, and one bar. (My wife hates playing in bars because she hates the smoke.)

They thought of the CD's mainly as something to sell at gigs and thereby to make a little more money. And indeed, sometimes the gross CD sales are more than they get paid outright for performing. But it's not really profit until you make back your original investment, and I don't think we've done that. (I could look up the numbers and post them here if you're interested. We've kept pretty good records. We've even done it all "on the books" for tax purposes. I just don't have the records with me right now.)

Neither my wife nor her partner is very ambitious or aggressive about trying to get gigs in new venues, and they don't have a business manager or agent. As time goes by, they seem to be getting less enthusiastic, especially about the business aspect of music. They seem content to keep playing at the same venues over and over, and CD sales have tapered off because, I think, the local market is getting saturated.

There are venues in town where they theoretically could make a lot more money, and get a lot more exposure, but those places are highly competitive and "professional" and they just haven't had the nerve to try to get gigs there.

Ironically, I think they are very good musicians - better than some "professionals" I know - and their CD's (there are 2 titles) are excellent, mainly because of the complex arrangements. It's a sad situation, from my point of view, but I don't quite know what to do about it. I am reluctant to take on the job of agent myself.

The moral of the story: Even if you produce an EXCELLENT CD, the world will NOT beat a path to your door. You've got to go out there and sell, sell, sell. If you don't have the stomach for it, you might never make a profit on your CD.

Subject: RE: Publishing start?
From: GUEST,dick greenhaus
Date: 07 Nov 00 - 03:16 PM

Max and I are in the process of setting up a Mudcatters' section at the Mudcaty shop, with a couple of sound clips, a picture of the CD box face and a tracklist. This are will be reserved for Mudcatters with CDs to sell.

If you fall into this category, please make sure you send me a sample of your CD.

Subject: RE: Publishing start?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Nov 00 - 07:34 PM

Here are a couple more resources you might find useful:

Nu-Artists.com

AFIM - Association For Independent Music

Subject: RE: Publishing start?
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 09 Nov 00 - 04:33 AM

Your comments are worth saving (I am) and I am making a special note about the arrangements that they can't duplicate--I did a home recorded demo of a song I had written, with a catchy little guitar thing in the bass--I played it for some friends who were putting together material for an album, and they wanted to do the tune--only I couldn't ever figure out how I did it--

Subject: RE: Publishing start?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Nov 00 - 07:42 PM

M. Ted: Perhaps I wasn't clear. It's not that they can't figure out how they did it. I bet my wife has it all written down somewhere. It's just that on the CD, she plays hammered dulcimer and flute at the same time, something she can't do in real life. She did this though the miracle of laying down different tracks at different times. Likewise, there are all sorts of other interesting instrument combinations, like 2 or 3 flutes at once playing harmony. It gives them a much richer sound on the CD than any 2 people can achieve "live." In fact, their title tune, "Amaryllis," the tune they named the duo after, is a rather boring tune when played "straight" with only 2 instruments. They were able to make it interesting by varying the instrument combinations on each repeat, and as a result, it's probably the best tune on the CD. But they never play it in concert.

You can download a sample of their music here and here. The second sample better illustrates what I'm talking about.