[Dixielandjazz] True Cost of Producing CDs

Wed Feb 28 11:52:06 PST 2007

Two years ago I did a one man concert for Christmas and was trying out some 
new equipment.  My bright idea was to make a CD from it and send it to a few 
friends as a Christmas card.  The layout for the CD cover took me about 
three hours.  The photography and re touching in Photoshop took me another 
hour or so.  If someone had come to me for that service I would have charged 
them about $250-300.  I produced the CD myself and the covers as well.  The 
cost was about $15 for the 50 I did and there was some cost in printing the 
CD its self.  Fortunately I didn't have to pay royalties.  The total time 
writing the cover, producing the CD's and editing the recordings,  was about 
20 hours.

Considering the time involved and expense though small, next time I'll buy 
Hallmark.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Edmetzsr at aol.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 12:11 PM
Subject: [Norton AntiSpam] [Dixielandjazz] True Cost of Producing CDs

> 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.
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