On-Demand CD publishing through Amazon & TuneCore

[jim]

Just saw this on slashdot. Only $31 in up-front costs per year for publishing. Should be interesting....

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/amazon-to-unveil-on-demand-cd-printing-service-with-tunecore/


Cheers,
Jim

[Per Boysen]

Interesting if you are interested in putting out physical CDs. I must say I'm more into the idea of pure digital online distribution. I would promote that at my concerts by giving aways small printed paper cards simply saying "www.itunes.com/perboysen"

If you turn around the card it says:
"Who The Hell Wants A CD?"
(or maybe not, just leaving the other page blanc.. or the URL on both sides - hmm.... yeah, that's best I think)

[Music_For_All_To_Hear]

Everything you always wanted to know about disc production, but your recording engineer wouldn't tell you...

Time, Quantity and Money, and Packaging.
These four things will dictate what you do and how you do it.


Time:
TWO WEEKS IS REALLY HOW LONG??

Turn and shipping times for CD and DVD production runs of less than 1000 pieces are typically two weeks. That is two weeks from the submission of the final paper work, audio master, and approved preflight proofs of all print associated with the project e.g. CD inserts, tray cards and the disc art. The proofing process can take upwards of a week and is not usually included in a quoted turn time. This is one of the many reasons to approach a project fully prepared.

Exceptions: Large quantity orders (1000 +), Last minute changes, Shipping snafu's or an act of God himself

Note: Turn times for large quantity orders (1000 +) depend on many different factors and will be officially quoted at the time proofs are approved.



Quantity and Money:
A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD

Fantastic! You just made a CD for only $1.00!! Too bad you had to buy 1000 to do it.

You can't talk about quantity without mentioning money, unless of course your budget is unlimited or you have presold an entire order. If you are lucky enough to be in either of these positions, please skip to the How it Works portion below.

To get the most affordable price PER PIECE you typically need to buy many hundreds or even a 1000+ discs. Why is this? Digital media such as CD's and DVD's adhere to standard print industry quantity discounts. The more you buy, the less expensive it is on a per piece basis. The other edge of the sword is this: yes you will probably sell all 1000 discs over the course of your life time, but who really wants to move box after box of unsold inventory every time you move across town? (Hopefully you are successful, and this isn't the case.)

Prices for discs (and any other petroleum based product) quite literally are dependant upon the weather, and on the job. No two jobs will ever be alike nor should you feel obligated to choose from one of only a few pre-packaged options.

Music For All To Hear wants your CD package to be as unique as you are and does not profit from you confining yourself to one of only a few options.


Packaging:
"You can have any color... as long as it's black"


Henry Ford really said it best. In disc production his famous statement translates to; "You can have any packaging you'd like as long as there are only three colors on the first panel of the insert and black and white on the remaining. Your disc can only have two colors on ...unless you want to pay more...Oh and by the way, the tray card can only have three colors on it." Talk about a buzz kill! You've slaved away until 2am every night for how many months, only to be told that you need to restrict your creativity to three colors and black and WHITE!


Only in rare circumstances will Music For All To Hear ever ask you to limit yourself to two or three colors.




I run Music For All To Hear Inc. a publishing company in Idaho that takes pride in our customer service, attention to detail and great turn times and prices.

We duplicate CD's, DVD's, publish sheet music and books and even offer order fulfillment services.

We are so confident in our ability to offer the best FULL color packages at the lowest price, that we will meet or beat any company's price period.

Lowest price, highest quality, guaranteed.

www.musicforalltohear.com

-Aaron Bradetich
CEO