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  • From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Eschewing the physical CD itself in favor of....
  • Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:10:31 -0500

You want to know what's even sadder? Many of us judge CDs we get by the cover art. Not necessarily in the sense that we'd try to predict the style of music based on it (though after you've seen a few thousand, you can do that, too), but rather that there are certain cover-art mistakes that are apparently 100% reliable indicators that your band sucks. Go figure.

No, I'm not going to tell you what they are, either. I don't think you (Gilbert) made any on yours, though, so you're OK there. But I wouldn't want to spoil this valuable time-saving tool for the rest of us.

Suffice it to say that your drummer's girlfriend who's "good with computers" may not be the ideal candidate to do the design, at least not every time.

Ross

Baby Messy wrote:
Larry Karnowski wrote:
If you send me a CD, you've got 75% chance I'll listen to it. If you
send me a link to an mp3, about 10%. I bet if you actually sent me an
mp3 file, though, I'd listen to it about 50% of the time. No one ever
does that, though.

Larry

P.S. Calvin, we need to compare notes offline, dude.

On 2/26/07, Calvin Powers <calvin AT cspowers.com> wrote:
I have to agree with Larry on this one. I get lots of CDs submitted to
Taproot Radio each week. And I do my best to listen to every single one of
them. Basically any time I'm in my car I'm listening to new music that I've
received.

Even so, there's lots of music that I can never manage to get to. BUT, many
of the CDs I get have been sent by people who have obviously not read the
info on my site that talks about the type of music I'm looking for, which is
strange because it's right there on the same page that has my mailing
address.

So I agree with Larry, it's not so much a waste _if_ you research who you
send the CD to and target your mailings. Also, definitely put together a
press kit of some sort. Either include it in the mailing or at least give a
web address for it.

On the other hand, I don't tend to put as much effort into lisatening to
MP3s that get sent to me and even less effort into following URLs to artists
myspace page. I feel a little bit guilty about this and I keep thinking I
need to put a process together to make it easier to incorporate submitted
MP3s into my rotation. The thing is, I'm completely set up to promote CDs. I
have CD reviews, I do aa top 10 CD list every month, etc etc. So it will
take some significant changes to get more tuned into prmoting MP3 singles.

I'd be curious what other radio show hosts do to handle MP3 submissions to
their show.

Calvin Powers
The Taproot Radio Show <http://www.taprootradio.com/>

On 2/25/07, Larry Karnowski <larry AT hickorywind.org> wrote:
As one of the folks who gets a lot, A LOT, of unrequested CDs to
review... I can tell you that the vast majority do end up in the "junk
pile." However, I try really hard to listen to at least a couple of
songs from each CD (the first and last, usually). Most, however, are
simply awful or inappropriate for my readership and are discarded.

The best thing to do? Spend a little time to research your target
reviewers. If you think an individual would spend time to listen to
your CD, then go ahead and send it to them. However, if you really
don't know anything about the target and are trying to get a foot in
the door, send the EPK that Skillet recommended. It's much cheaper,
and the folks who are going to listen to you are still going to listen
to an EPK.

I'll be honest, though. I try really hard to listen to every CD
that's sent to me, but I don't try as hard to listen to every online
MP3 link. So if it's a really important reviewer to you, definitely
send a CD. Just be sure to gauge which ones are the "really
important" reviewers for you -- again, a little research goes a long
way.

(I can't tell you how many die-hard-puke-metal CDs I've received
because of one stray remark in a blog entry years ago that still shows
up on Google! Yet these folks don't ever check my site and see that I
*clearly* cover almost entirely twangy music! Their money and my time
wasted.)

Good luck with your next CD!
Larry


On 25 Feb 2007 15:42:03 -0800, skillet.gilmore AT gmail.com
<skillet.gilmore AT gmail.com> wrote:
making and mailing cd's to folks that haven't requested them is a
waste of money, resources and time. 99.9% of all those cd's will wind
up in the trash. put together an EPK (electronic press kit) with a
bio, any reviews you have and links to your songs online. hell, just
use myspace. then hit up people in the indie bible (although i
personally don't believe in any books of that sort) and if they
request a press pack you can send it to them. print enough cd's to
actually sell and x amount that you can use for promotional purposes.
think of cd's as product for sale and let the introweb do the rest.

sg







On Feb 25, 1:49 pm, Baby Messy <bil... AT baggins.con> wrote:
It's been about 3/4 of a year since I had my first CD done. I've
learned
a lot of lessons that will come in handy next time.

I was thrilled. THRILLED when that UPS man showed up with my 1000
discs.
All pretty. I think I still have maybe 400 left and I've pollinated
pretty well.

The next release, I was thinking of what I've learned since the first
one:
1. The songs that I thought were killer, the songs I put first on the
CD, were actually not the strongest songs. Ouch! The first song,
Jesus,
has confounded some, angered others, and frankly left most people
nonplussed.

2. The reproduction and mailing of the CD has been the most expensive
part of the process. $1400 (Oasis, love 'em) + mailing about 12 a week
for three months to people in the Indie Bible. (I stopped after
getting
too few results and almost no reviews---google my name). This is not
to
admit failure but to perhaps try not fit the profile of an insane
person
so closely.

3. I have a slab of music that I worked on for a while and have in
perpetuity to share with my children and theirs. Is that enough? It
was
once, but if it isn't, what else do I want?

I plan on getting the next one mastered at the Kitchen just like I did
DTBWM, but how should I minimize my costs? Can I have, say, 300
printed
up and do the rest digitally? What strategies can I use?

Do I need a physical CD at all?
-- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene


All very prescient food for thought. Thank you all.

Sad thing is that this process seems to make one categorize and therefore limit the potential audience of the music, which I categorize as soul/pop, but I was painfully wrong about some of the steps I made along the way, so maybe this one is wrong too.
-- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene






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