[Dixielandjazz] True Cost of Producing CDs

[Edmetzsr at aol.com]

Dear listmates, having recently produced a new Bob Cat CD, these low ball 
estimates I've been observing are well off the mark. To wit:
    1) Using a real "professional" Producer, Engineer, Mixing specialist, 
Mastering specialist, all working in a high quality studio environment, is 
expensive - far more than having a fan or a friend of the band with a portable 
recorder and 3 mikes at a live gig or in the piano player's home should be held 
suspect.
    2) Payment of musicians for two days in the studio is mandatory. The 
going rate has been established for top notch players by labels such as Arbors or 
Nagel Heyer. Anything less should be unacceptable if you are producing a 
"quality" product using musicians who consider themselves true professionals. 
Musicians who "donate" their recording services should be held in high suspect.
    3) Quality CD replicators/packagers will no longer accept your project 
without mechanical licenses (yes, those that you get through Harry Fox), and 
those that do, should be held suspect. Obviously, those CDs that were stamped out 
in someone's basement shouldn't even be allowed on the same Festival CD sales 
table (where a lot of festivals dictate that stage side sales are a no-no) as 
real quality products (perhaps that's where the copyright violation posse 
should hang out).
    4) The design and implementation of quality CD inserts should adhere to 
some standards. Was the cover artist paid (another area of "donation"), and was 
the typesetting done by some armed with something more than a home computer? 
Were all the credits properly included on the package? Was a bar code 
included? etc., etc., etc.

I would be interested in knowing of anyone who can bring in the first 1000 
packages, adhering to the above for under $15,000. NO PROFIT YET!!!!!! Who can 
account for the sunk cost for those CDs sent to festival bosses who lost the 
one that was sent last year, or the promoters who still insist that hearing the 
band on the Internet web site leaves somthing to be desired, and so on and so 
on and so on.

I'd be happy to plug in the real numbers for all of the above for anyone 
interested - at least based on our experience. Just contact me on a seperate post.
Regards, Ed Metz
PS I'm not interested in debating the merits not doing things as 
professionally as possible.