CreateSpace (music)
The actual disc setup procedure was pretty easy. There's a little bit of WTFery in that they require the audio files to be provided as AIFF instead of WAV, and they're inconsistent about which file formats are supported for art (for some, gif, jpg, and png are allowed, but for others it's just gif and jpg, which is just baffling), but their artwork templates are really easy to work with, the overall process is dead simple, and aside from some peculiarities with the pricing model, it seems like a great way to get started with album distribution.
I think for my next album I'll just start out with CreateSpace and just dropship to CDBaby as-needed (and for iTunes sales and such), and still just order copies in bulk for gig sales and whatever. They're pretty fast and cheap and while the overall maximum profit isn't as high as using a traditional short-run manufacturer and self-managed inventory, it's actually pretty close and the risk is way lower. Also, for now, CreateSpace provides the initial proofs for free, whereas with the other services you have to pay significantly for that.
It was definitely a better process than Discmakers, in any case. Plus, getting actual retail Amazon placement is a huge bonus. Being able to just drop-ship copies to reviewers, CDBaby, Pandora, etc. is also a huge plus.
The main downside is that their CD reproduction package is very one-size-fits-all; you can only do a 4-panel booklet, 2-side tray insert (clear tray), shrinkwrap, etc., which drives the per-unit price up. Given that package they're actually fairly competitive with Discmakers ($4.95/disc with CreateSpace vs. $339+shipping for a run of 100 with Discmakers; that in particular brings the per-unit price close to $4), and on top of that you get your own dedicated web-based eStore to sell your content through too.
All in all it seems like a much better setup than anything I've tried in the past, and it kind of re-fires my enthusiasm for working on my next album too (after the horrible experience I had with distributing foodsexsleep, which I still haven't even broken even on between Discmakers manufacturing, a year of TuneCore, and the CDBaby setup fees).
Comments