I've just asked for a mastering quote from Songmastering.com as I really like the work of Jim Bouchard, one of their engineers. And they do a Deal for a CD, and will demo a song for you.
I have no delusions about my mastering skills.
This is with a view to actually selling this album. If I break even in th first year I'll be happy.
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Sister Savage
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/06 14:25 No...I wouldn't dream of trying to sell anything. I have too much to learn about mixing and suchlike.
Tess
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ajbrewer
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/06 16:08Wow, this is such great info. Another good reason to be part of something like RPM, the community can be such a great resourse for something like this. Had not really thought about it much before, but the way this album is shaping up, I might jump into the whole album-selling thing myself here (album still needs a couple of things/tweaks to make me completely happy with it)...the Kunaki setup looks like it might be a good deal. I'm kind of like Tangmo here...all proceeds will be going to lifting me up to the middle class too...lol. Eh, maybe not the most realistic expectation, but if it even helps put a dent into the cost of something like my test strips (for my blood-sugar meter, I'm type 1 diabetic, and those test strips are insanely high-priced, even with crappy health insurance), then I think I'll be happy.
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brykmantra
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/08 09:11brykmantra wrote: For those of you on Kunaki: The album info screen asks for "catalog number (ASIN)". What would you put in there, where would you get this??? (See, I don't even know how to ask the question!)
Plus, on the subject of the barcode: Do you have to supply specific information for that too, or just check "Yes, I want a barcode"?
I don't think I ever got an answer to this question; can anybody tell me what I'm supposed to do about the ASIN??
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Kaichi
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/08 09:22I'd like to know that, too. And also like to know how you become a new customer if you use a Mac. Their new customer page has nothing on it besides the bit about their software that you must download...which is a .exe app that will not work with Macs.
This is turning out to be a very frustrating evening.
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Gumbo
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/08 11:27Kaichi wrote: I'd like to know that, too. And also like to know how you become a new customer if you use a Mac. Their new customer page has nothing on it besides the bit about their software that you must download...which is a .exe app that will not work with Macs.
This is turning out to be a very frustrating evening.
yeah you can't run their software on a Mac
you can create your files and then transfer them to a PC and upload that way.
or you could get clever with an Intel Mac and install Windows as a separate partition. Or you could explore Emulation software such as Crossover, or Parallels. I don't don't know what gets the best mileage there. Sorry.
I'd be interested if anyone was doing this already. What works?
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Kaichi
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/08 11:35All of which adds up to stuff I can't do. I just sent them an email asking about it, since their FAQ says you can use a Mac for design, etc. If they need for you to do it a specific way, their site needs to say that, and not give the impression that you can do it without their software. I think it's kind of odd that so many of these music-related sites are not Mac friendly! How many musicians use Macs? A LOT.
*sigh* Oh well. I'll post whatever answer I get from them, in this thread. Maybe it will be helpful.
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tangmo
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/08 16:12brykmantra wrote: brykmantra wrote: For those of you on Kunaki: The album info screen asks for "catalog number (ASIN)". What would you put in there, where would you get this??? (See, I don't even know how to ask the question!)
Plus, on the subject of the barcode: Do you have to supply specific information for that too, or just check "Yes, I want a barcode"?
I don't think I ever got an answer to this question; can anybody tell me what I'm supposed to do about the ASIN??
You can leave the ASIN blank or make up your own.
You can opt in or out of barcode, but you should test your artwork with it to see if it covers essential information.
Much as I tout Kunaki, it's best to remember that they are NOT a full service company spending loads of time on customer service. That's why it's so cheap. I think of it as a Japanese guy and a robot...and that's probably not far off.
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I've run their software on a windows setup within parallels on my intel macbook pro and it has worked flawlessly.
I've used the ASIN number as a "catalog" number for my releases.... I started at 1001 and go up from there sequentially. Not sure what it's REALLY for!
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Kaichi
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/09 07:52As promised, here's the reply I got from them to my email asking about the whole thing:
You can design your artwork on a Mac and you can create your original CD or DVD on the Mac.
Then, borrow a PC for a few hours and use our software to configure your product, select your art work and contents. The software will upload your product to our facility.
Thereafter, you can use your Mac browser to order and manage your products at your account on the Kunaki web site.
"Borrow" a pc. Not an option. Guess I will have to look elsewhere for my CDs, even if it costs a lot more. *sigh* Why can't people just include Mac users, instead of trying to alienate us every freaking step of the way? It's not as if we're a tiny group, now. This is 2008, not 1988. Furthermore, not everyone can just "borrow" a pc, and not everyone has the money to buy a brand new Intel Mac with a Windows set up on it. I sure as hell can't.
Seriously, this Mac-user discrimination BUGS me.
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Kaichi
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/09 08:13Bigstarlet wrote: Discmakers has a web promotion deal that, for at the most $50, in addition to your first CD orders, they will give you a UPC code, send your CDs to CD Baby for you (so that you don't have to pay the $35 fee), get you signed up with Soundscan, and I even recall Itunes being mentioned in there somewhere...
This actually looks like the route I will take, when I have the money for the replication fees. With Discmakers, I can get the nifty vinyl-look CD's just like the ones I print by hand at home, AND the cardboard jackets that I prefer to jewelcases. Cardboard disintegrates in landfills; plastic does not. You can stack way more CDs on a shelf, too, if they're in cardboard jackets than if they're in a jewelcase, even a slim one. Plus...I just dig that retro look and feel. It's more like holding a real album in your hand.
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Got email from CdBaby letting me (all of us, I'm guessing) know that they are officially open as a digital distributor of albums through their own site.
This is great news to me! Set your own price, keep 91%. They include your artwork as .jpg and your liner notes. The whole album is available, not singles!! I knew this was coming and had heard it was being tested, but had not gotten any notice until today that it has been implemented.
Sounds exciting--because it IS!
http://cdbaby.com/cd/tangmo2 Hey...anybody wants it can have it free, but check out the new page, the options and the magnificent blurb written by Scott Graves.
Post edited by: tangmo, at: 2008/03/11 05:40
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jimtyrrell
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/11 17:13Don't let mac discrimination get you down. You have Garageband, and I'm jealous.
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mparker
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/11 20:01For me, as both a Mac user and professional developer, I know how easy it is to both:-
a) Write cross platform software to perform uploads/downloads via the Internet (unless its DRM stuff, but I'm sure that doesn't apply to Kunaki) b) Get annoyed with people who are too lazy to implement a) and simply find myself an alternative elsewhere.
I know firsthand about the option a) as I've literally just been tasked with writing a cross-platform download manager to work with our upcoming DRM free music download service (I work for the UKs largest music retailer in case you're wondering) that works on Mac, PC and Linux and supports IE, Firefox, Safari, Konqueror and Opera. It's taken me less than 2 days to get the basic functionality working on all platforms. Less than 2 days. It's sheer lazyness on Kunaki's part.
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mick
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/11 20:27Kunaki is strange in that they create a executable binary that holds your master.
If you haven't used it, it gets you images from you, then you put in your master disk, it reads it, and then creates a EXE file with the album title as the name. You launch this executable if you want to publish, print, or create CDs from the master.
I'm sure the brainiac decision behind that need to write an EXE is the real reason they don't support other platforms.
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tangmo wrote: Much as I tout Kunaki, it's best to remember that they are NOT a full service company spending loads of time on customer service.
So what kind of service do they NOT offer? They burn and label CDs, and print front, back and inserts, and put them in cases, right? And, if I understand correctly, they drop-ship to anyone who orders through CD Baby? What else would you need?
Seriously, I really don't know what I need ... !
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strangerepublik
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/21 04:10brykmantra wrote: Wow, I'm glad you guys are here -- this is a virtual Wikipedia for getting started as an indie act.
Thanks especially @ ILJ for the specifics ...
Hey, for those of you on Kunaki: The album info screen asks for "catalog number (ASIN)". What would you put in there, where would you get this??? (See, I don't even know how to ask the question!)
Plus, on the subject of the barcode: Do you have to supply specific information for that too, or just check "Yes, I want a barcode"?
Thanks again, in advance ...
The catalog number is whatever you want it to be, just make up something. It's just a way of identifying your release. In retail this is kind of like an SKU number. If this is your first album you could put:
YOURNAME001
You're free to add whatever arbitrary digits you want. Usually it's an abbreviation of the record label and release number. Sometimes companies will use the barcode as the release number, which makes the most sense imo. But if they give you the barcode number only after submission, I guess it isn't possible.
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strangerepublik
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/21 04:11Bigstarlet wrote: Discmakers has a web promotion deal that, for at the most $50, in addition to your first CD orders, they will give you a UPC code, send your CDs to CD Baby for you (so that you don't have to pay the $35 fee), get you signed up with Soundscan, and I even recall Itunes being mentioned in there somewhere...
Yeah, they do all that, but you have to sacrifice your first born to pay for it. Their manufacturing fees are quite ridiculous.
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strangerepublik
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/21 04:13Gumbo wrote: mparker wrote: For me its important that my music is not available on any music sites that force DRM use - at the moment that means that I'm only submitting to iTunes and Amazon.
Most of these sites just splat your music everywhere without giving you a choice in the matter. I prefer to have that choice.
Can you have your music drm free on iTunes now? I thought that was only an option for major labels. Cool if you can.
Yes, all Tunecore submitted music is now sold DRM-free on iTunes.
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strangerepublik
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/21 04:21robphas wrote: Gumbo wrote: mparker wrote: For me its important that my music is not available on any music sites that force DRM use - at the moment that means that I'm only submitting to iTunes and Amazon.
Most of these sites just splat your music everywhere without giving you a choice in the matter. I prefer to have that choice.
Can you have your music drm free on iTunes now? I thought that was only an option for major labels. Cool if you can.
Yes, all Tunecore submitted music is now sold DRM-free on iTunes.
I can't find it right now, but I learned about the DRM-free thing from an email Tunecore sent me.
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mparker
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/30 17:14Gumbo wrote: mparker wrote: For me its important that my music is not available on any music sites that force DRM use - at the moment that means that I'm only submitting to iTunes and Amazon.
Most of these sites just splat your music everywhere without giving you a choice in the matter. I prefer to have that choice.
Can you have your music drm free on iTunes now? I thought that was only an option for major labels. Cool if you can.
Just to confirm, my album has now appeared on iTunes in the "iTunes Plus" category, i.e. DRM free.
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Gumbo
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/04/06 12:52mparker wrote: Just to confirm, my album has now appeared on iTunes in the "iTunes Plus" category, i.e. DRM free.
Thanks Matt. And congrats - it's showing on the Irish store, now.
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brykmantra
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/04/06 20:02Gumbo wrote: mparker wrote: Just to confirm, my album has now appeared on iTunes in the "iTunes Plus" category, i.e. DRM free.
Thanks Matt. And congrats - it's showing on the Irish store, now.
Um ... that link's not working for me, Stu ... just FYI ...
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mparker
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/04/06 20:20brykmantra wrote: Gumbo wrote: mparker wrote: Just to confirm, my album has now appeared on iTunes in the "iTunes Plus" category, i.e. DRM free.
Thanks Matt. And congrats - it's showing on the Irish store, now.
Um ... that link's not working for me, Stu ... just FYI ...
That's an iTunes store URL. If you don't have iTunes installed, it goes nowhere.
If you're looking to pay money for my effort (LOL - RPMers get it free if you PM me) and you don't have iTunes, it's also available on Amazon - http://tinyurl.com/4mcsdh
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No...I wouldn't dream of trying to sell anything. I have too much to learn about mixing and suchlike.
This is turning out to be a very frustrating evening.
I just sent them an email asking about it, since their FAQ says you can use a Mac for design, etc. If they need for you to do it a specific way, their site needs to say that, and not give the impression that you can do it without their software. I think it's kind of odd that so many of these music-related sites are not Mac friendly! How many musicians use Macs? A LOT.
