Somebody tell me where she’s finding indie musicians printing 500,000 albums!

I came across this blog post by Heather McDonald about the costs of releasing an album.  She splits up the costs into three categories: recording, pressing, and promotion.  I figured I should throw in my two cents in the area of pressing. 

Here’s one point she makes about excessive packaging options:

If you do decide to press physical copies, try to keep your spending in check. In other words, special packaging, colored vinyl and things like that may be fun, but they also jack up your costs. A common mistake is to assume that if you shell out extra for these kinds of bells and whistles that your album will sell more. Probably not. “Oooh…cool” doesn’t pay the bills, and nifty packaging isn’t what is standing between you and stardom.

This is true.  The “Oooh…cool” comes from the content you create and not some gimmicky packaging.  However, the content you create also includes your graphic artwork.  By working with an experienced graphic designer, you can produce album artwork that is attention grabbing.

Not that there’s anything wrong with getting unique packaging features.  If you have the funding, then go for it!  It will help draw attention to your album.  But if you had to choose between spending a couple hundred dollars on professional graphic design or getting a more expensive packaging option, I’d go with the graphic design.

Here’s a second point she makes about quantity:

Sure, you’ll get a better per unit price for larger orders, but it’s a good idea to press what you think you realistically have a chance of selling. Pressing 500,000 copies to save 30 cents per unit is a false economy if 499,500 end up sitting in your mom’s garage.

That’s quite the extreme example.  As a former sales guy at COPYCATS Media, I’d never discourage anybody from wanting to order a half million CDs.  However, you should give quantity some serious consideration. 

1000 is the minimum quantity for a CD replication project (if you need less, then you’d do a CD duplication project with CDRs).  The next price break is at 2000-2500 units.  If it’s your first project and you are not sure how many albums you will sell, it might be in your best interest to just get the 1000 unit minimum.  If you sell 1000 CDs in short time, you are obviously doing quite well promoting your music.  I wouldn’t worry about the few cents per unit you would have saved if you initially ordered 2000 units.

Thursday Profilin’: Ricky Coles

We thought we’d have a weekly feature to give our customers a little background about some of our employees, partners, and clients.  Check back every Thursday to get to know the COPYCATS Media family a little better.

Name:  Ricky Coles

So, what is it that you do here? I sit in a cubicle and answer phones and reply to emails

How long have you worked here?  6 years

Describe the biggest single project you’ve done at CC:  500,000 DVD mailing

Top 5 favorite albums of all time (or just this week):  Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans, Wilco – A Ghost is Born, Okkervil River – Black Sheep Boy + Appendix, Okkervil River – Down the River of Golden Dreams, Pedro the Lion – Winners Never Quite

Favorite artist/album who’s also a client of CC:  The Softrocks

Best tip to give a first time customer about getting a project done at CC:  Get your CD’s in hand before you plan a release party.

Favorite concert venue in the Twin Cities:   7th street entry