BRAIN / BOC INdy CD's and Royalties/The Costs

[John A Swartz]

Adrian says in response to the following:

>        How much does it cost to put out an independant CD?

In this area you can get deals to press 1,000 cd's and 500 cassettes for
very little money.  The real cost is probably in distribution, how do you
get it to record stores, escpecially the big chains, for a reasonable price.
 I've seen labels produce cd's with different companies responsible for the
distribution.  Mail ordering is probably less expensive, especially when the
consumer pays shipping costs both ways.  Still you have to spend some money
on advertising.


Costs of making a CD are definitely coming down - although these costs
are more associated with putting the finished audio product on the CD.
I believe this thread got started regarding a new BOC album.  And, the
real costs are probably not so much in pressing CDs, but in producing
the music to put on those CDs.  For a quality recording, alot of work
goes into the recording, mixing, sequencing, etc. of the various tracks.
And, the resultant CD will only be as good as the master recording is.

While not trying to turn this into a "BOC vs. The Brain Surgeons" thread,
I want to point out the Al/Deb/et al have demonstrated how to put out
a very fine independent release on CD.  But, knowing the amount of work
that went into it (I believe they spent 3 days to record, and then something
like 3 weeks to mix *Trepanation*), there's certainly more to the
costs than actual production.  Now, I don't know the status of BOC
putting out new stuff, but it is possible that the tracks that they've
already worked up need more than just being pressed onto CD - they
may need to be re-recorded, re-mixed, etc.

Anyways, my point of all this was that for a truly quality product,
there's more costs involved than having the CDs/tapes pressed.

John