Re: CD manufacture (OT)

[Andre LaFosse <altruist@altruistmusic.com>]

Stephen P. Goodman wrote:

> The DiscMakers stuff includes
> STORE PLACEMENT, though.  Big Plus in my book.

Allow me to chime in with a few comments on this...

I just skimmed through the Discmakers site and the only sort of store
placement offer I saw mentioned was a free signup with amazon.com's
Amazon Advantage, which ANYONE can sign up for, so long as they have a
bar code (though it's true that Discmakers does offer this service for
free.  I don't know how much Amazon Advantage costs for non-Discmakers
people).

In the past, I believe Diskmakers may have done a tie-in deal with a
company called The Orchard, which had a big slant towards getting indie
CDs into retail stores and web sites.  The problem is that the Orchard
is about a year behind in paying their artists (I personally am owed
over $70.00 for several months' worth of sales).  There's been a lot of
talk on the Music Throughts mailing list about difficulties with The
Orchard.  At the moment, I don't believe that the Orchard services to
brick and mortar anymore.  If Discmakers has stopped dealing with them,
it's probably just as well.

Just to generally gloss over the whole issue of store placement and
distribution, there are two main things you should keep in mind:

1) It's VERY hard to get a CD into stores these days, EVEN IF you have
an established or reputable distributor (a distributor is the service
that gets CDs from a label to a store, or vica versa in the case of CDs
that a store returns).  You should be EXTREMELY skeptical about anyone
who claims to GUARANTEE store placement for you.  

2) Even if you DID have "store placement," a person needs to seriously
ask themselves how that would change their situation.  In other words,
are you REALLY going to be selling any CDs in stores just because there
happens to be one copy of the "Joe Schmoe, Internet Looper At Large"
solo album sitting in every Sam Goody or Wal-Mart across the nation? 
Unless people across the nation actually know who you are, and what you
do, and (in many cases) have been told these things several times in a
row, it's probably not going to help you out.  

For all intents and purposes, no one is going to buy a CD just because
they're aimlessly rummaging through the bins in a store and stumble
across an album they know nothing about.  With all due respect to the
musicians on this list who are putting out their own material,
practically no one here would stand to benefit from having store
placement at "brick-and-mortar" record stores, because practcally no one
here has a high enough profile to foster those sorts of sales.  What's
more, record stores will very frequently return product if it doesn't
sell within a certain time frame (usually three months or less).  

I go into this very subject in considerable detail in the FAQ on my
site, for those so interested:

http://www.altruistmusic.com/altruist/index.html

Finally, on the subject of CD manufacturing, I did my album with Rainbo
out of Santa Monica, CA, and was very happy with their service.  They
don't offer nearly as many extra bells and whistles as Discmakers, but
their prices are very good (if you strip away the various extras that
Discmakers offers, I believe they're pretty much the same), and they
have several established indie labels as customers.  (It was a kick
going to their warehouse to pick up my batch, and walking past the
stacks of CDs for Priority and Moonshine records).  I have also heard
many good things about Discmakers, however, though I haven't dealt with
them myself.

Anyway...

Andre LaFosse | Disruption Theory | http://www.altruistmusic.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Andre LaFosse is an astonishing guitarist of a very different ilk. 
Fripp and Zappa, step aside."
(MOJO magazine, May 2000)

"Here is one that deserves the title 'unique'."  
(Expose' Magazine, October 2000)

"For electric guitar enthusiasts everywhere, this one's essential."
(Alternative Press magazine, September 2000)

"Disruption Theory is one of the best guitar albums I've ever heard."
(Outburn magazine #12)
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