Music CD duplication is the last stage you need to go through in putting out your CD. Then all the hardcore marketing can begin. In this article I want to give you some advice on how to get your album ready to send, so the product you get back matches your ideas as closely as possible.
But first you need ask yourself if you really need to get a whole bunch of CDs produced at this time?
Many bands make up 2000 copies of their latest album without even having a market out there to sell them to.
The only reason you should ever do music CD duplication is if you already have a loyal base of fans who are constantly asking for your stuff. Otherwise it’s just a big waste of time and money.
There are plenty of ways for bands to do a small digital release to a site like iTunes for very small costs.
And there is another school of thought that suggests you should only ever sell your music using paypal though you own website. That way you will get paid instantly and there will be no itunes fees. Another upside of this method is that you will be driving traffic to your own website and building your own mailing list.
Music CD Duplication Guide
If you still want to go ahead with music CD duplication you can follow the steps below for success:
- Mastering: This is the process of making sure that all your tracks are the same level and sounding at their best. You mastering engineer will also include special codes into the CDR used by websites to recognized your music.
- Artwork: You can either do this yourself or get a designer on board to help you. If you decide to do it yourself speak to your music CD duplication company and get the guidelines for the artwork they need to receive to be able to print.
- Many duplication houses will also offer a service that will let you send in your rough ideas and they will do all the artwork for you. Although this will cost you a lot more money.
- Delivery: Send your master CDR, artwork and number of album you would like printed to the ordering house.
- Think long and hard about how many CDs you will need to sell to make your money back and what’s a realistic number. Remember that you will need to give some away to radio stations and magazines for reviews. The rest you can sell for up to $10.
- The worst thing in the world is to have a basement full of CDs you can’t shift.
- The proof: is a test version of your CD that the duplication company will send you to make sure everything is OK.
- Check your stuff: Once you have the albums back put one in a CD player and listen all the way through to make sure all the tracks play.
Also check everything looks good with the printing.
Good luck
Tags: Music CD Duplication, music distribution, music marketing, selling cds
Leave A Reply (No comments So Far)