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Looper's Delight
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This has been a very interesting discussion. The points below seem valid to me, but there may be some mitigation. Several years ago I offered to coordinate a Holiday CD of songs grouped around the concept of "Peace On Earth" to be sent as a free bonus for a small indie outfit in OK. The artists all donated their music and I did the overall mastering and sequencing. I used my Alesis Masterlink ML-9600 which makes red-book compliant copies but takes about 20 minutes to burn a single 70 minutes of music. I had the artwork printed up as a contribution by another member of the group who ran a small print shop. Now, how to manufacture 500 of these without being a slave? I set-up the ML-9600, CD cases, an egg timer, and pre-folded artwork on a work table in my living room and gave basic instructions to my wife and friends. Whenever anyone was in the house, they would plop in a CD, set the timer for 20 minutes, and go on with whatever else they were doing. Whenever we were watching TV, we would just keep pushing out CD copies and inserting them with the artwork into the cases. It took less than a month to complete the 500. At no time after creating the master copy did I spend any time on it when I wasn't doing something else with my time (reading, TV, listening to music, playing with the dog & cats, washing dishes, etc.). I do like to calculate the value of my personal time in deciding how to spend it. In this case, multi-tasking and the help of others were the only viable way to make this cost-effective. The power supply in the ML-9600 died at copy 503. Thankfully, Alesis was good about covering the cost of the replacement (it was the second time it had blown and it turned out it was a universal defect in the very early runs and since fixed in the design). -----Original Message----- >From: Rainer Straschill <moinsound@googlemail.com> >Sent: Dec 31, 2008 2:53 AM >To: loopers-delight@loopers-delight.com >Subject: Beer Budget CD Release Strategy as an Alternative to The Way >It's Normally Done > >Rick said (about handmade CDs): >"Anyway, This keeps my cost down to well under a dollar per unit. If >I do sell a CD then I am making $9 - $14 profit PER CD depending on >who buys it." > >Really, Rick? By my calculation, that would mean that your hourly rate >while doing this is -$1.1 ;). Seriously, by my calculation, counting >in equipment use (ink etc.) but not equipment depreciation and things >like electrical power etc., you can come out slightly below the kunaki >price (at something like $1.35) - however NOT counting in any >logistics processes (actually going out and buying stuff and thus >wasting gas, or ordering it by mail and thus having to pay for >that...), and, more importantly, no manual labour. > >So basically, if you do not value your own spare time at all (or even >give it a negative value), then that can be ok, if, on the other hand, >you value your spare time a great deal (like Krispen), then by all >means don't make your CDs yourself! It does not pay off. > > Rainer > >(an interesting topic: how much worth is your spare time? A business >administrator would say it's the net hourly rate he earns when doing >work - which could vary from zero (or strictly speaking, a negative >value) for someone on the dole to something well in the three-figure >range for e.g. Krispen, making the outsourcing more valuable to him >then to you because his time is so much more expensive than yours. An >economist would actually ask "how much is it worth to the person in >question?". This could vary greatly from the figures we got before, >because while you, although not a big earner, have a lot to do in your >spare time, could actually value that more than a highly successful >lawyer who spends his spare time sitting in his multi-million dollar >house and being bored). >