Re: Beer Budget CD Release Strategy as an Alternative to The Way It's Normally Done

["Krispen Hartung" <info@krispenhartung.com>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rick Walker"

> It's funny, too.........................you either duplicate the digital 
> media yourself or you have someone mass duplicate 
>it....................it 
> seems ridiculous that people draw a distinction.

I think we have had this discussion before, but the main distiction for 
me, 
Rick, is time and quality. Even with a high quality color laser jet, which 
I 
have in my office, I can't reproduce the quality of Kunaki with my home 
made 
versions. Not a chance, especially the art on the CD face. Second, for me, 
time is money and creating my own CDs, I hate to say it, feels like 
administration work that should be outsourced.  :) I refuse to print out 
labels and package my own CDs.  I'd rather be playing, and with the 
shortage 
of time that I have with a full time job, family, performing, festivals, 
other hobbies, etc...creating my own CDs is about 100th on the list of 
priorities. If I have time to do that, then I'm not playing enough, bottom 
line. Making homemade CDs for me, is like changing my own oil.  I refuse 
to 
do it, given how cheap and easy it is to pay someone to do it.

> Also,  one thing that noone has mentioned that is really salient in this 
> discussion is > that no one is buying CDs anymore.............or rather, 
> CD sales have dropped> to nearly nothing.  I"ve asked artist after 
>artist 
> in 15 countries how their sales are
> and the lion share say that no one is buying them.

I know, it is depressing, but totally predicable.  Current research, at 
least the graphs, charts, and figures I saw six monthsa go, shows that the 
process that led to the replacement of vinyl and cassettes by CDs is now 
occuring between CDs and MP3s, and that in the next decade, CD sales will 
be 
be down to almost nothing...not worth marketing or selling by any record 
company.   So keep your CDs, because they will be collector's items in 
about 
15-20 years! Mabye not... So, the new thing, whether we like it or not, is 
on the way. I think it is going to be something more than MP3, but a new 
and 
radical way of packaging an artist digitally, into MP3s, video, bios, 
bi-directional communication, promo, 3D, holographs, user interaction, etc.

But then again, I just saw an article that vinyl sales are up, and CD 
sales 
down! Crazy. Wouldn't that be cool if we went back to vinyl. I would love 
to 
have that much space for artwork, etc.

Kris


Kris