LaMarca, I loved your post on the "cheap CD" thread. Your writing impresses me, it is so well thought out and expressed.

First, I don't have a CD of my own, but I have thought about it, read about it, listened to others who have been there and done that and here is what I have gleaned.

There are many reasons to make a CD. You and your husband would need to decide what your reasons are. You may want to make a lot of money. You may want it to promote yourselves as an "act." You may just want to hand it out to friends.

Despite what has been said in the "cheap CD" thread, making a CD outside of your home ain't cheap. At my income level it rates as a major expense. So if you want to make money (or even break even), it takes some time and effort. Say you spend $6,000 on your production (this is way low). At $15 a pop, you have to sell 400 CD's to recoup your investment. Do you have 400 friends to whom you want to give a CD or whom you want to buy your CD? Maybe. That takes care of the "gift" or just for friends idea.

If you want to get "serious" about promoting your music, you must have a CD, a least a demo, preferably the real thing. That is how promoters who have not heard you can make a decision on whether to hire you. It is how the public gets to know about your music over those limited folk airways or web sites. You will not be taken seriously as artists beyond your home town without a CD.

Perhaps you want to make some money at this. If that is your plan, then you really need to sit down and figure out how you are gonna sell those suckers. It's called a business plan. CD's make lousy coasters and door stops so you don't want many left over. Diane Rappaport (sp?) has written a book that describes the process of making a marketable CD. I highly recommend it to any one who wants to follow the path of profit.

Think about it. The typical starting out venue for folkies runs 30 - 50 seats. If you fill the seats, perhaps 10 may buy your CD. Then you have to perform at 40 venues to break even. If you want to break even in a year, that means 3 performances a month. Nice work if you can get it.

That others who have heard you play think you should record (translation: I'd buy one of them suckers!) is the first sign for "do a CD." That nice guys and gals with good ears like those above also say so is a better sign.

But the ultimate decision will rest on not "Gee, I could do that!" but more on "I could achieve my goal by doing that."

Good luck, however it goes. Hope this has been helpful to some poor soul out there.

The only reason I have for myself at this time is: "Yeah, I could do that!" I will wait until I am ready to be serious about "playing out" before I spend that money.

Roger in Baltimore