Second Initial

Taking the Plunge Without Testing the Water

Hey, Steve Sobek. I like your album, Mood Swings, that was produced with Apple’s GarageBand. Good sound. I’ve got a huge word of advice, however.

I applaud the efforts of independently producing albums, but you simply cannot expect to use CD-R media and a quality of printed jewel case inserts that can be done at home and still sell the album for $15 plus $2-3 of shipping. That’s more than most commercially produced albums in traditional music stores!

The problem is especially confounded by the fact that the CD-R I received won’t even play in my home stereo system (other CD-Rs play in it just fine) and my computer had to frap around with it for a moment before it could finally play it. Cafepress is generously sending a replacement CD to see if it was just a fluke, but I’m guessing the problem is in the nature the CDs are burned and the replacement may be just the same as the first.

Until you have tens of thousands of people clogging your inbox or otherwise voicing their interest in your album, if you hope to sell enough copies to make your effort worth while, you’ve got to price them more to the expectation of a home-made album—especially when the disc may or may not play in all CD players! Capisce?

» Posted by ALBj at 07:09 PM (ET)
Category: Rant

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