| In-house, staff, volunteer labor, or donated step |
Hire the task to be done |
| Set
your goals. How much are you trying to raise, and what are
you expecting the (proportioned) cost per CD to be. Consider a custom-made
CD run
of 100 to start small. If that feels like 100 is
too
small a run,
then
look
at
the pricing
for
500. Be very careful if you set your sights on more than 500. Don't be
too optimistic on sales. After the first few weeks, sales plummit. See
costing info under manufacturing— Cost difference between 500
and 1000 is typically about $150. |
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Choose
a CD theme and select the music. Brainstorm a large list
of possibilities and start narrowing down. Involve choir, clergy,
and
congregants. Consider
what the choir knows best and what will sell best. Consider also
the royalty fees, which are about $8.50 per track per 100 copies.
Consider also having 2 or 3 tracks more than you really intend to
produce,
thus you can drop a few lesser-quality tracks after editing and still
have a respectable-length CD (of consistently good quality).
|
n/a |
| Marketing
& Advertising: Plan
from the beginning how you're going to sell the CDs - don't leave 900
CDs for your successor to keep dusted in your music room. |
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| Underwriting-
Consider having a donor campaign to attract underwriters to contribute
(e.g., 25 people at $100 each) to cover the production
and manufacturing costs. Then your sales proceeds are completely donations.
Depending on your situation you may be able to obtain a grant. |
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Assemble
a dry run CD (from tapes of services, rehearsals,
etc.) This is not from final recording sessions, but rather just quick
recordings to get the "feel" of what will go well together and in what
sequence
they sound best. This also will help confirm the length of each piece
and how much will fit onto your CD.
If you have a volunteer as recording engineer, it's very important that
you test the entire process workflow so that you won't have
spent 25 hours recording to find that the format was wrong or the levels
insufficient. Make sure you know what you're doing.
Have your sample CD audience-tested by parishioners as well as critical
colleagues—it's much better to get constructive criticism prior to
the recording sessions.
|
If you
don't have in-house recording possibilities, you'll need to hire someone
to do a quickie taping. |
Plan
and execute your recording sessions-Divide up your playlist
into reasonable chunks of time that will be a variety for the performers
and not too taxing. The sessions can be separate times, or during/after
performances (services). Plan several takes per piece so that you'll
have options during editing. Be careful not to be too picky or you
won't complete your playlist for that session. Consider repeating
only sections of a piece (so you won't tire everyone out), but be
sure to include a measure before and a measure after the section
you're replacing so you can splice more easily.
Prior to the sessions, coach your performers about quietness, page
turns, silence prior and after the music begins/ends, what to do
if someone makes a mistake (e.g., keep going, and then later re-record
that phrase/section). |
A professional
recording engineer will bring equipment on site and "tape" your sessions.
Expect requests for sound tests, and occasionally a technical situation
might require you to repeat a piece.
Depending on the number of sessions and the microphone set-up, expect
to pay $500-$5000 for the sessions. |
| Offline
Editing- The director (or musical producer) obtains raw audio
(usually CDs burned from the sessions), with each track corresponding
to a take.
Make a xerox of all your scores and mark, per measure, which tracks
are not
usable (e.g.,
sirens, pages turning, pitch).
From that, determine the best tracks to use and supply these lists
for your audio
editor in a graph format that is easy to refer to. See example |
(you shouldn't need to hire a professional) |
| Online
editing- Using the above track strategy, edit each piece and
check carefully the splices for piecewise-linearity (musical-ness as
well as acoustically). |
Although
with today's offerings of audio editors that make it easy to edit timeline-based
audio tracks, you really should hire an Audio Engineer to at least
consult.
Depending on the extent of editing (and changes you need to make subsequently),
expect to pay $300-$2000.
|
| Final
composite (CD Mastering) - Your recording engineer will
assemble the final tracks in CD format, make any final EQ adjustments,
and include the spacings between tracks.
Verify
the final CD prior to sending to the manufacturer. Listen closely,
without being disturbed and without distractions. You'll live with
your decisions for many years! |
Unless
you really know what you're doing, you must hire someone to do this.
Expect to pay $100-500, assuming there's just one session of conversion
and no subsequent changes. |
Graphic
Design- This should be done in parallel with the audio process.
Collect ahead of time images and titles and personnel. Work ahead
to critically review the text, since it's very expensive either in
labor
or delays to have changes at the last minute. Note that CD printed
page "real estate" is very small and it's just not possible
to put much text on the page. Keep it short. Larger “poster
foldout” inserts are available, but add $0.30 to $0.40 per
disk. |
Depending
on the complexity and scope, a professional designer could charge $500
to $5000.
Changes really start increasing the bill!
People always come to designers saying, yes I have everything all set,
and then starts the long series of corrections and afterthoughts.
Understand up-front where the costs will be: complex cover designs,
costly on-CD duotone conversions/abstractions, fancy formatted tracklists.
If you can find an existing CD that you like, then submit that to fashion
yours after. |
Pay
the royalties- Musical selections that are still in copyright
must have
a royalty paid for mechanical reproduction. You can assign a volunteer
to research the method best for your CD, and each track (for a short
"anthem") costs about $0.085 per CD produced. Thus if 10
tracks are still under copyright and you produce 1000 CDs, you must
pay $850
in fees,
which is how composers earn a living. The license acknowledgement must
be listed in the CD liner notes, and (P) (C) copyright marks in the
liner and on-CD.
Many
composers use the "clearinghouse" services
of Harry Fox Agency so that you the CD producer make one check
to the clearinghouse and they in turn distribute to the composers(or
their heirs).
|
You can
hire the services to research the royalties, but it is pretty straightforward
to do. |
Manufacturing-
Choose your manufacturer well ahead of time and understand
clearly each line item of what they will and won't do. An important
aspect to consider is how much free time they offer for fix-ups once
you've submitted the final package. Read carefully their FAQ list,
tips list, and top-ten things people do wrong.
Often your recording engineer can recommend the best company for
your needs and situation. |
You
could do CD burning on your own computer or buy a CD replicator,
but homemade CDs
do not have the reliability and inter-operability that stamp-manufactured
CDs have.
Often the results look and sound homemade.
Professionally replicated and packaged (not “burned”) with
color printed inserts, polywrap, and UPC barcode (usually required if
you offering for sale in stores). Prices range from $1100 to $1600 for
quantities of 300-1000. Runs of under 300 are almost always “burned” copies. |
| Web
Design and audio samples- These days, it's almost a given
that a web site accompanies a CD for program notes, details, further
marketing, etc. This can be planned and begun in parallel with the
other aspects. Encourage collaboration with the graphic designer. |
Although
volunteers usually abound with varying degrees of web authoring skills,
you can hire the services of a professional designer to adapt the information
for a web site. Online sales and audio samples are recommended. In any
case, have a professional look - "image" (and audio) sells! |
Marketing
& Advertising- Brainstorm for your geographical area
and your CD theme who are the demographics that are potential buyers
and how
you can reach them. Don't stop just at your congregation, but target
also the community and other demographic commonalities. |
(not recommended
to hire a professional; not needed) |
| CD
Release party- Plan a CD release party to hype the initial
selling of the CD. Include in a church service selections from the
CD (both actual audio as well as live performance). Create suspense
and anticipation prior to the release to enhance attendance that
Sunday. |
Hire an
expensive caterer and send the bill to the Senior Minister! :) |
| Sales
Tracking & storage- Ahead of time, assign a coordinator
person who is good (and patient) at tracking inventory and income. |
(a professional
is not needed) |