1. Record a CD
2. Book a venue
3. If you are doing a performance make sure any sound requirements are dealt with.
4. Advertise in appropriate media
5. Pray for sales
You may want to get a website or other way of selling the CD organised. Think if you want a distributor (they don't pay a lot, especially the US ones) or shops to sell them (some don't pay a lot, some end up paying you not at all and some are very reasonable).
Better make sure everyone invited is old so that they still think some old fashioned, out dated medium like CD is viable.
Why don't you go the whole hog and press vinyl or maybe cassettes, 78's or 8 track cartridges.
Wax cylinder, anyone?
Interesting, Krick. I just did a CD for (well, I'd better not say, but they're a big UK council). The CD was for use by families with young children.
Even our minimal research suggested that these end-users were unlikely to buy CDs as a whole and would be much more likely to download onto ipods or use their phones.
We proposed a companion web page (which we used anyway to develop and test out the music with end-users before the CD was finished) - the idea being that people could download directly from it, and also add their ideas on how to use the music at home. This ...unnamed...council simply didn't understand the concept that a web page and downloads might be at least a good parallel channel to them giving out CDs. Bonkers!!
But in this case, much as I am in favour of downloads and not physical things, don't you think people at say a gig, might want to take home a keepsake? Give it to someone else as a gift? Buy on impulse? And how do you do that with a non-physical product?
Not knocking where you're coming from, just that in this case the question was, after all, about "organising a CD launch".
My 2 euro - why not have a web presence as well. But there are plenty of people out there who still want CDs alongside those who want files. Most media lived alongside their earlier equivalents (after all, TV didn't kill off radio, etc etc). Mind you, why on earth anyone buys newspapers is a total mystery to me!!
As it happens I'm a great newspaper reader. I buy the two above nearly every day (and the Sunday Times on, er! Sunday!).
You can't beat the transportable-ness and convenience of them. I like sitting in the pub' with a pint or upstairs on the 'bus reading them, watching the rest of the world go by. And you don't just read them for the news, you read them for your favourite column writers, editorial, comments, analysis and so forth.
It's worth the 50p for the Evening News just to emmerse ones self in the fab writings of Brian Sewell every friday...
A very much more relevent medium than poor old Compact Discs!
I like CDs - I can play them in my car, they have artist photos, notes, and credits, as well as lyrics often included.
You can also get them (or the inserts at least) autographed, and friends can browse through them casually and borrow them.
...
And I love the use of the apostrophe in pub' and 'bus, Krick!
Oh yes - on the Original Topic -
Nobody mentioned getting your music endorsed - preferably by a respected muso/celebrity type who might speak at the launch, but at least by your fellow musicians, whom you invite to play at the launch night.
You could push copies on this site-what's it called, what's it like and what's it cost? Does it feature Máirtín? Do we get signed preview copies that will become collector's items rather than technological curios?
O.k. Then!
These idea's are good guys! Thanks a million! (For the record-I still like cd as much as mP3 because you always have a backup if your computer goes on the fritz! )
I like the idea of endorsement!
This is the cd. It's not out yet. As I'm sure you've seen already, tdh, it is a duet album featuring myself (On banjo and Mandolin) and Máirtín Quigley (on Pipes, Flute, whistle, and bodhrán). Our guest musicians names are also on the page.
It's a nice little recording that we made with Martin O' Malley in Milltown. It was our first time in a studio and our first recording session, and in my opinion it turned out great!
We play some nice little tunes and add our own ornamentation into them...Two tracks feature Guitar and electric bass, which actually works well into the melody of them
We have some nice planxties in one track on mandolin and tinwhistle (The concertina joins in during the second planxty), and they are followed by a jig named John McHugh's and it works great!
There are no songs in this recording, but we make up for it by breaking up the cd with Máirtín's slow air and a mandolin hornpipe alongside the bodhran.
I'll post more soon,
Thanks!
Sure you could probably sell the tracks on iTunes too if you wanted - anyone ever done that here? But really good luck with it. I'm sure it'll be great!
Organising a cd launch...?
Organising a cd launch...?
Hey guys!
I was just wondering what everyone thinks would be the best steps to take in organising a cd launch?
Thanks!
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by jlocky
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
1. Record a CD
2. Book a venue
3. If you are doing a performance make sure any sound requirements are dealt with.
4. Advertise in appropriate media
5. Pray for sales
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
You may want to get a website or other way of selling the CD organised. Think if you want a distributor (they don't pay a lot, especially the US ones) or shops to sell them (some don't pay a lot, some end up paying you not at all and some are very reasonable).
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
it used to be that you needed a record company to have access to the equipment necessary to make a high quality recording.
That no longer is the case. I have in my house a more powerful recording studio than the one I worked in back in the 80s
but what the record companies have is distribution contracts with Blockbuster Entertainment
So we just play a gig and have a friend selling T-shirts and CDs at the back of the club
that's all a working stiff from the neighborhood can do
and we always thought it was better to just sell stuff at shows and not try and put on a big CD release party, but some bands do that
the most important thing for your sales is to get your price point down so that you can get a drunken impulse buyer.
and lets be honest, drunken impulse buys are our bread and butter
so if you price them like they are in a regular store at the mall, they're hard to sell
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by Nate Ryan
Re: Organising an obsolete media launch...?
Better make sure everyone invited is old so that they still think some old fashioned, out dated medium like CD is viable.
Why don't you go the whole hog and press vinyl or maybe cassettes, 78's or 8 track cartridges.
Wax cylinder, anyone?
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by Krick Stahlschwanz
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Get reviews from Geoff Wallis and Siobhan Long.
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by ʎɹoʇısuɐɹʇ
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Whatever you do, make sure to alert the paparazzi.
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Irish Music Paparazzi... I never knew there was such a thing, until I started going to festivals.
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by Splendid Isolation
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Mmmm.....Paparazzi.....oh wait, I was thinking of Pepperoni. D'oh!
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by Mark Harmer
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Interesting, Krick. I just did a CD for (well, I'd better not say, but they're a big UK council). The CD was for use by families with young children.
Even our minimal research suggested that these end-users were unlikely to buy CDs as a whole and would be much more likely to download onto ipods or use their phones.
We proposed a companion web page (which we used anyway to develop and test out the music with end-users before the CD was finished) - the idea being that people could download directly from it, and also add their ideas on how to use the music at home. This ...unnamed...council simply didn't understand the concept that a web page and downloads might be at least a good parallel channel to them giving out CDs. Bonkers!!
But in this case, much as I am in favour of downloads and not physical things, don't you think people at say a gig, might want to take home a keepsake? Give it to someone else as a gift? Buy on impulse? And how do you do that with a non-physical product?
Not knocking where you're coming from, just that in this case the question was, after all, about "organising a CD launch".
My 2 euro - why not have a web presence as well. But there are plenty of people out there who still want CDs alongside those who want files. Most media lived alongside their earlier equivalents (after all, TV didn't kill off radio, etc etc). Mind you, why on earth anyone buys newspapers is a total mystery to me!!
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by Mark Harmer
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
...as in, Newspapers are a totally pointless, dead medium.
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by Mark Harmer
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Thanks guys... Points well made!
# Posted on March 11th 2009 by jlocky
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Tell me about it Mark. I used to be a very successful newspaper designer.
# Posted on March 12th 2009 by llig leahcim
The Gaurdian and the Evening Standard
As it happens I'm a great newspaper reader. I buy the two above nearly every day (and the Sunday Times on, er! Sunday!).
You can't beat the transportable-ness and convenience of them. I like sitting in the pub' with a pint or upstairs on the 'bus reading them, watching the rest of the world go by. And you don't just read them for the news, you read them for your favourite column writers, editorial, comments, analysis and so forth.
It's worth the 50p for the Evening News just to emmerse ones self in the fab writings of Brian Sewell every friday...
A very much more relevent medium than poor old Compact Discs!
# Posted on March 12th 2009 by Krick Stahlschwanz
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Krick, you must be either old or unemployed.
# Posted on March 12th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Or fabulously rich...
# Posted on March 12th 2009 by Krick Stahlschwanz
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Isn't fabulously rich the same thing as unemployed?
# Posted on March 12th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
I like CDs - I can play them in my car, they have artist photos, notes, and credits, as well as lyrics often included.
You can also get them (or the inserts at least) autographed, and friends can browse through them casually and borrow them.
...
And I love the use of the apostrophe in pub' and 'bus, Krick!
# Posted on March 12th 2009 by RockyRoader
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Oh yes - on the Original Topic -
Nobody mentioned getting your music endorsed - preferably by a respected muso/celebrity type who might speak at the launch, but at least by your fellow musicians, whom you invite to play at the launch night.
# Posted on March 12th 2009 by RockyRoader
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
You could push copies on this site-what's it called, what's it like and what's it cost? Does it feature Máirtín? Do we get signed preview copies that will become collector's items rather than technological curios?
# Posted on March 12th 2009 by greg sheils
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
O.k. Then!
)
These idea's are good guys! Thanks a million! (For the record-I still like cd as much as mP3 because you always have a backup if your computer goes on the fritz!
I like the idea of endorsement!
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display.php/3209
This is the cd. It's not out yet. As I'm sure you've seen already, tdh, it is a duet album featuring myself (On banjo and Mandolin) and Máirtín Quigley (on Pipes, Flute, whistle, and bodhrán). Our guest musicians names are also on the page.
It's a nice little recording that we made with Martin O' Malley in Milltown. It was our first time in a studio and our first recording session, and in my opinion it turned out great!
We play some nice little tunes and add our own ornamentation into them...Two tracks feature Guitar and electric bass, which actually works well into the melody of them
We have some nice planxties in one track on mandolin and tinwhistle (The concertina joins in during the second planxty), and they are followed by a jig named John McHugh's and it works great!
There are no songs in this recording, but we make up for it by breaking up the cd with Máirtín's slow air and a mandolin hornpipe alongside the bodhran.
I'll post more soon,
Thanks!
# Posted on March 12th 2009 by jlocky
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Sure you could probably sell the tracks on iTunes too if you wanted - anyone ever done that here? But really good luck with it. I'm sure it'll be great!
# Posted on March 12th 2009 by Mark Harmer
Re: Organising a cd launch...?
Thanks very much
# Posted on March 17th 2009 by jlocky