Advice wanted - Putting out an album

**pcsanwald** · 06-26-2017, 04:00 PM

hi everyone, my name's Paul, I'm a recovering jazz guitarist who plays mainly upright bass these days. I've just recorded an album's worth of original material, and am currently mixing/mastering it for vinyl and digital release (no CDs).

This is my first album I've recorded as a leader, and definitely the first time I've done everything myself (including self-financing, luckily I have a good day job and no kids).

If you've recorded an album before, what advice do you have for me?

**rfmando** · 06-26-2017, 04:34 PM

Only as someone that consumes media in the modern era, Bandcamp.

**pcsanwald** · 06-26-2017, 04:53 PM

I'm definitely planning to go with bandcamp. Since they're my compositions, I'll also need to use tunecore or songtrust or similar for publishing. I'm never expecting to make any money off this, but I do want to get publishing set up all the same. There's an infinitely small chance someone might be interested in licensing one of the tunes to use in something.

**citizenk74** · 06-26-2017, 05:27 PM

Three things: 1) Copyright, 2) Copyright 3 Copyright

Also, Best of luck!

**Spal** · 06-26-2017, 06:47 PM

Have you considered having a ISRC for the tunes? Just in case ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) helps you getting your money and track your music when it is played somewhere.
I don't know how copyright laws work in the U.S.A. (quite different than Europe) but it's always good to get a licence for your music. If you play your music live or your record goes on the radio you'll get money for it (not a lot but you know...)

It would be good to have a bar code for your album (you'll look more serious, than you can give your cd to indie music stores etc...). You don't have to go through a label or publisher to get a bar code anymore. You can do it yourself via an online distributor (don't know any of them outside Europe sorry).

If you can it's always good to have an artistic contract with the other band players. The contract should stipulate that you are allowed to use the material you recorded with the band on any kind of support from today and tomorrow.
I know it may sound to much but let's imagine tomorrow a new kind usic file arrives and you want to release your CD in that new file... Well if one of your musician doesn't want that... Well you won't be allowed to do it. Not to mention if things end poorly with one of your musician he could also ask for the destruction of the album without the mentionned contract (this kind of things happen)

I know it may sound too much.... But you never know. If you really trust your musician you don't have to do it (personnally I didn't do it...). Up to you.

If you want to get reviews of your album you'll need to be on a label (whom will pay the magazines to get a review) or you can still pay yourself. Sad but life.

Hope I slightly helped.
Sorry for the spelling mistakes (too late to spell check)

Take care.

Salvo

**Cunamara** · 06-26-2017, 07:08 PM

1. Get mechanical licenses for every song you did not write if you are going to make a performance available to anyone. Do not skip this part. You do not need to buy a license for your original compositions that you record.

2. Get licensing protection for your original songs through a performance rights organization (PRO) like BMI, ASCAP, etc. Do not skip this part. It is how you have any hope of getting paid. Mechanical licenses and performance royalties are paid to you through (in the US) primarily the Harry Fox Agency for the former and your PRO of choice for the latter. I am a member of BMI. In America, mechanical license fees are set by US law- one set of fees if the customer gets a copy they can keep, and a much much lower fee for streaming. Information about this is readily available on Wikipedia, bmi.com, ascap.com, harryfox.com.

3. There are two halves to licensing: composer royalties and publishing royalties. Create your own publishing company that is a LLC and of which you are the sole owner (if in the US, I don't know the equivalent anywhere else). That way you get both halves of the royalty payment, if there ever is one that is. Owning publishing rights is how Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney made most of their money- they both had huge portfolios of songs they owned the publishing rights to. Like many artists, in the early days the Beatles got ripped off- in their case for tens of millions if not hundreds of millions- by not having the publishing rights. It used to be standard in management and recording contracts that the artist signed away their royalties to their manager and/or the record label. U2 has an interesting approach- they own all their music 100% and lease it to the record label.

Since you're self-publishing, many of those issues don't apply to you, just thinking ahead to someone doing a cover of one of your songs. As for distribution, I have heard that CDBaby.com is fairly straightforward and friendly to work with- although you're not doing CDs and I don't know if they will handle vinyl.

For digital release, it's hard to beat Apple's market penetration. Their math is also pretty straightforward.

**blille** · 06-26-2017, 07:44 PM

CD baby does have vinyl distribution

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**henryrobinett** · 06-26-2017, 08:12 PM

I've put out 4 of my own and several of other bands I've been in and directed others. It's a wide open question. It'd be better if you had specific questions. Copyright? Yeah. But the days of people stealing music are gone for the foreseeable future. There's no money in it. That said I'd definitely get licensing and give yourself 100% publishing and mechanicals. BMI or ASCAP or that European one.

I always managed the artwork myself. Meaning I directed it and mostly handled the printing on my end. It used to be a cost differential. No more. But also I could control color and register. Now I'm pretty sure it's all good. But since you're going vinyl (I've never done this) and digital only, it'd be easier. No booklet. I found the photo, or had the photos done. Hired the graphic designer and worked with her closely.

Barcode is important. I got mine separately rather than piggyback on tunecore or a label. I didn't like that.

**rpjazzguitar** · 06-26-2017, 08:23 PM

The only thing I have to contribute is that I used Bandzoogle to make a website (this was for an album my son made). It took a few hours, but we got what we wanted. $10/month. It's no longer up, or I'd give the link. You can sell music on it. A little tedium in reading the instructions, but not bad. Spend a little time and the site looks professional, if a little familiar because so many people use these things.

We did make a CD. I suspect that this is so shoestring and primitive that it won't be of any interest, and I know the OP wasn't planning on a CD. That said, you can buy CD blanks and record them yourself, one at a time on your CD drive in your laptop. We only needed a few dozen. You can buy labels at the office store and print them using Word. Works the same as mailing labels. We used Avery brand and they have free software on line to help. We bought a device which helps get a circular label onto a disk. We just did it by hand. A different label shape for the CD inserts. There may even be a label shape to make a booklet, but we didn't go that far.

For art, we used photos we took with our cellphones and modified some clipart. We wrote the liner notes in Word and cut/pasted it onto the background art. We used the same art for the website.

I don't know if there's a more clueless or primitive way to do it, but, that said, the resulting CD's looked great and cost very little.

**cosmic gumbo** · 06-27-2017, 12:24 AM

Having storage space for unsold product is always important.

Unless you already have a large loyal fanbase, there isn't much point in releasing album length product anymore, most music buyers purchase music one track at a time via download.

Release your best song as a single download and promote the heck out of it.

As far as hoping someone will hear your music and want to license it, know that you're competing with the entire music publishing/music library licensing industry that employs fulltime people to pitch their client's music...

**rpjazzguitar** · 06-27-2017, 12:37 AM

I agree that most people get music without a physical CD.

Some players sell them at gigs. Some sell on line.

I think there's an appeal, possibly more to the older musician, to having a physical album to give away or sell. Or maybe, just to hold in your hand and experience a sense of accomplishment. It's also nice to have the physical art.

Doing a CD may require more detailed mastering then if you sell individual tracks on line. But, for my son's album, the engineer did something akin to mastering right there in the studio. Sounds fine as far as I can tell. I don't know exactly what he did.

**henryrobinett** · 06-27-2017, 02:44 AM

For me radio has always been important. I always got fairly strong radio support. For that I need physical CDs. We might be talking in different tongues but I'm just telling you my experience. And I needed both a full length CD and then I also printed up about 300-500 singles of the song that was getting the promo.

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**Spal** · 06-27-2017, 02:58 AM

Henry is quite right. It is true that the industry changed but for some reason it is still a thing to give out material cd's. It is still a good and valid visit card. I always try to have some copies of mine on myself and give it to quite anyone slightly interested.

About websites, I made mine with Wix but I heard a lot of good things about Wordpress.

**christianm77** · 06-27-2017, 04:47 AM

Originally Posted by pcsanwald

hi everyone, my name's Paul, I'm a recovering jazz guitarist who plays mainly upright bass these days. I've just recorded an album's worth of original material, and am currently mixing/mastering it for vinyl and digital release (no CDs).

This is my first album I've recorded as a leader, and definitely the first time I've done everything myself (including self-financing, luckily I have a good day job and no kids).

If you've recorded an album before, what advice do you have for me?

Recording it is the easy bit?

Vinyl is very cool, so expensive to produce though. I assume you'll be making a loss on those, perhaps using CD sales to compensate a little?

Anyway, I have an album coming out next year, and my band released an album this year (not my money.) The thing I learned about that is that you should get all your ducks in a row. Book a tour in, find a launch venue and get some PR if you want reviews in national press.

I expect to spend a further 2,000 on top of recording and production costs.

**David B** · 06-27-2017, 06:10 AM

Vinyl can be prohibitively expensive to press in small quantities for independent musicians. You're looking at a minimum order of 250-300 copies and if you want good weight vinyl and a gatefold sleeve, you're looking at around £1500 (call it $2000).

**Alter** · 06-27-2017, 06:10 AM

It makes sense to go vinyl and not cd, since some vinyl does actually sell

, but if you gig with your music cds sell also. A few each gig, it adds up. Best of luck with your music

**Tomcat** · 06-27-2017, 06:21 AM

Like already said - the radio people want CDs and IF and ONLY IF they will play your music you will sell the music - streams, downloads, cds, vinyl, whatever. And at the gigs.

**christianm77** · 06-27-2017, 06:38 AM

Yeah agreed, CD's sell only on gigs.

Vinyl will sell, but you won't make any money.

Bandcamp best deal for downloads.

What do you want to achieve with your album? Sales might not be the point?

**destinytot** · 06-27-2017, 08:09 AM

Read what I think is a great tip in another thread (can't remember which, but I'm pretty sure it was in a comment by Robertkoa): "Don't announce your originals as such when playing them live." I think this may have implications for anyone putting out an album.

While I do believe that originality can be an asset, I think assumptions about its importance among criteria are easily exaggerated.

I don't believe that the listener attributes the same relative worth to a piece of work as its creator does.

Moreover, I think the worth attributed by listener and creator respectively remains in inverse proportion at each stage of the sales process - 'pre-' and 'post-', to put it crudely.

In my own case, my 'original' product is conceived as an Act of Persuasion, i.e. a live show. Actually, the format for the physical CDs (on sale at gigs) is quite original - I'd love to show it, if anyone's interested in seeing it.

**christianm77** · 06-27-2017, 08:58 AM

I'd be interested. This is all sounding a bit Derren Brown

**destinytot** · 06-27-2017, 09:40 AM

Originally Posted by christianm77

I'd be interested. This is all sounding a bit Derren Brown

Derren Brown - love it!

Anyway...

**pcsanwald** · 06-27-2017, 06:56 PM

lot of great advice on this thread, thanks.

My main goal is certainly not to make money on anything, I'm really happy with the quality of music and really want to do something physical. Since I love vinyl and listen to a lot of vinyl myself, it's definitely the most attractive format for me. The very, very few physical copies that I will sell at gigs will probably mostly be to people with similar format preferences to me. I'm definitely not expecting to recoup any money I've spent on this project, which is for sure just a labor of love and fueled by my desire to present my music in a formal way.

recording is definitely the easy part! hopefully I'll be able to use the recordings to get some gigs, but, we'll see.

the main reason I brought up the part about the music being all original is I figured it would be relevant to some of the advice, which is likely different if it weren't all my music (royalties and such).