Re: Forced to withdraw with apologies and an important note aboutthe economics of selling CD/DVDs Rick's advice

[Rainer Straschill <moinsound@googlemail.com>]

Rick Walker schrieb:
> * For what it's worth, I have this gratuitous advice for the project:
>
> In the past four years CD sales have almost ceased to exist for most 
> independent musicians.
> I use to sell 20 - 50 CDs a show back in 2001-2003 and I don't even 
> take the CDs to shows any more.
>
> Most artists I know who still put out CDs have gone to the model of 
> having them manufactured (at a higher but not by much
> per CD basis) when they are sold (Krispen Hartung is a really good 
> resource for this method and has used it very successfully
> for his releases).
>
> One can even have 'one off' DVDs made that have the audio files for 
> playing in CD players and computers,
> high and low quality MP3s for those who want iPod play, all the 
> graphics for booklets in a printable form (.pdf)
> *
On which I'd like to comment, as well as on David's business plan (in no 
specific order):

I. There are more possible reasons to want to have a large number of 
your CDs than to make profit selling them. Some people like to give them 
away. Some are even able to generate profit out of that (using it as a 
marketing tool; I'm too lazy to do the search myself, but there was a 
lengthy post here some years ago by someone who gave away CDs simply to 
generate a fan base).

II. If you decide on having physical CDs (for whatever reason), the 
three methods available known to me for unsigned artists have their 
different advantages and disadvantages:
a) the do-it-yourself approach: I don't like it at all because it takes 
a lot of work (by you) which I'd rather spend on other things (which 
could be either making music or just getting drunk, whichever you prefer).
Pros: manufactured on a just-in-time basis. You have full control over 
the exact package (hey, if you want to make ten CDs in wooden cases and 
with hand-written liner notes, you can do that as well).
Cons: a lot of work. You need to run to a copyshop and keep track of 
various logistics, and need to burn those CDs. You need to handel 
everything regarding logistics (i.e. shipping it to the customer, or 
itunes or similar online stuff) yourself. And you either have to use 
them stupid labels (or actually pay more for printing it to disc at a 
copyshop).
Price example: using local (German) prices, you get for CDR, labels, 
black jewel case and print job (2-sided booklet 4/4, 4 label and 0/4 
insert) a cost of €1.24 ($1.69). This does NOT include burning the CDs 
and everything you have to do yourself (including assembling the products).

b) the just-in-time logistics approach - as with kunaki.
You upload your stuff to them. You can order them from there, and you 
got a page to sell it, and everything there (payment, shipping etc.) is 
handled by them. You set a price, and they charge that (plus shipping) 
from the customer, and give you your price-their price. Or you can order 
from them at their price. You only get one option, which for CDs is 2s 
4/4 booklet, 0/4 insert, 4 label, black jewel case. Printing is laser 
printing, which in my eyes looks fine. 
Example:http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00ZGZZXJ
Pros: Takes everything of your back, fine product quality, good price, 
you can order as many (or as few) items as required, and you have an 
online store! No setup fee.
Cons: Only one package option.
Price example: for orders up to 10 pieces, it's always $1. For more, it 
depends on how much "traffic" they just have - the price varies between 
$0.75 and $1.75.

c) typical CD manufacturing place - traditional approach.
"Traditional approach" here means glass master, and that only makes 
sense for quantities of at least 300 CDs. Added are printing costs (and 
again, due to setup costs, minimum quantity for offset print is 1000 
most of the time), and with all that, the per-piece-price starts to 
scale down properly over 1000 pieces. Some do offer screen printing for 
smaller quantities, but then again, this is on a quallity level equal to 
or lower than the kunaki approach. However, depending on the place 
you're doing it, you often have a lot of package options.
With regard to the order handling, see a)
Pros: Real glass-master-based CD (no CDR), professional printing options 
available (for larger quantities), lots of package options, good prices 
for large quantities.
Cons: large minimum number, high prices for small quantities.
Price example: take the place that David recommended - with the same 
package options we've always considered and screen printing, it's 
$1.1/CD for a 1000 CD run, but $2.7 for the minimum 300 CD run.

d) typical CD manufacturing place - low-volume approach.
Similar to c), but using technologies fit for low volumes (CDR, laser 
printing). With regard to package options, see c), with regard to to 
handling, see a).
Pros: allows for low volumes, lots of package options.
Cons: high prices.
Price example: too lazy now to do a proper research, but for our example 
product, you're landing at around $3.90/CD for a 25 CD run.

Summary: for everything below, say, 800 CDs, kunaki is by far the 
cheapest and easiest thing to do. If you want some fancy special 
packaging, you'll either need to diy or get a big number of CDs.

III. Comments on David's example.
With the prices of wonderdrugrecords, there's $1300 left in the estimate 
for mastering and "everything else". As the plant does the prepress 
themselves and David specifically asked for a volunteer for the cover 
art, most of this (minus David's cut) can go into mastering - and I 
firmly believe that with a goal towards high-quality work and the fact 
that it's a compilation, this isn't necessarily too much - form my point 
of view. On the other hand, I believe saving on the mastering might just 
ruin the CD, but then again bring the price down by more than 
50%...tough call.


The personal perspective:
Yes, I'd like to have CDs to give to people. And just for the sake of 
it, if someone (kunaki) offers a web shop service free of charge, I even 
use it (and hey, look for the link above and buy the goddamn CD! the 
cover art is stunning by my own standards! And I even like the music - 
http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00ZGZZXJ ;).
However, I would never need as many as 1000 (or even 500) CDs of the 
same CD - it's just not the way my market position works.

Rainer

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