This blog post’s focus is on self-publishing rather than the traditional means is very relevant to where I’m at right now. I have 17 recordings and have published them both traditionally and on my own through a self-publishing company. You may laugh, but the first recordings were on cassettes. Remember those? At least they weren’t 8-Tracks. Self-publishing is so less expensive and easier to control.
In Kimberly Craft’s book, Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution, is very
informative on how to go through the process of making a recording yourself and
getting it out yourself (self-publishing it). “Thanks to recent technological
innovations, it is also now possible for many composers, producers and
performers to self-publish their music and audio material—whether for serious commercial
gain or simply as a means of advancing their careers” (Craft, 2016, p. 62).
In looking at a few self-publishing companies (Createspace,
TuneCore, The Orchard, and CD Baby), I like CD Baby the best. I have published
three albums with them and it has been pretty easy. Their website gives a brief
description of who they are: “CD Baby is based in Portland, Oregon (land of
microbrews, overcast skies, and constant creativity). We're a company run by
artists, for artists. Almost everyone here is a musician, writer, filmmaker,
painter, dancer, tinkerer, or vegetable juggler!” (CD Baby, ¶ 2). They work
with Disc Makers to make it a “one-stop-shop” to get an album out to the
public. Once you record an album and get artwork for the cover, you send it in
to Disc Makers if you want an actual CD. Then CD Baby does the distribution
both digitally and physical CDs. You can check out two of my recordings on CDBaby (also on iTunes and Spotify).
As a suggestion to my colleagues, if you venture to go with
CD Baby, there are two routes for duplicating CDs and taking advantage of the
Print-On-Demand (POD) feature. If you want to make many CDs (like 1,000 of
them), then you should go with “duplication,” which means they use a faster
means of burning the music onto the disc. This costs less for a large number of
CDs. But, if you only sell 50 to 100 over a month, then you should choose to
“replicate” the copies, which means they burn copies onto CD-Rs. Both are good
quality, but it has a different price break.
I hope you've enjoyed this blog and experience the joy of getting your songs out to
the public.
~ Reggie
References:
CD Baby (n.d.), CD
Baby : The Biggest Little Online Record Store. Retrieved January 20, 2016,
from: http://www.cdbaby.com/about
Craft, K. (2016). Entertainment Media
Publishing and Distribution (Third). USA.
