To summarize the summary, ISRC codes are a special digital sort of fingerprint that goes with your music where ever it goes so it can be tracked. This plays into sales, royalties, and promotions.

To read more about the ISRC codes, click here to go to the website.

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To Duplicate or Replicate

The differences between duplication and replication can be confusing. This short article clears up a lot of the ambiguity.

If you’re not familiar with the difference between “duplication” and “replication,” here it goes… duplication utilizes CD-R technology and it has a standard turn time of one to two days (at DF Dub’s Green Room, Inc). That means an artist can have 50, 100, 300 or 1,000 retail ready CDs in just two days.

Replication is the process where CDs are pressed from a glass master. This process has a standard turn time of eight days and a minimum of 1,000 CDs. Many companies offer lower quantities, but if you check the prices, you find that there is a very small difference between the price on 1,000 units and 300 units.

The printing of the paper and the cases that hold the discs are identical. At DF Dub’s Green Room, you can have retail-ready CDs in as little as one day. Actually, we can have them for you today, but a small rush fee would be incurred.

So why choose one over the other? The main reasons are going to be cost and the quantity of CDs you know you’ll sell in a short time and cash flow as well as the amount of time the artist can wait to receive the final product. I always ask customers how long they want to have how much money in their closet and for what period of time. Or another way to think about it is to ask, “how many CDs will you sell over the next week? Four weeks?” What I’m trying to suggest is that cash flow and a delivery timeline are huge factors when determining which process to use. Usually, CD-Rs are a good choice up until 300 or 400 units (withstanding a rush situation such as a case where you could hit a home run if you had a thousand CDs tomorrow). If you have the time to wait, it generally becomes more cost effective to use the replication process and get a pressed CD if you’re wanting more than 400 discs. If you don’t have time to wait, (your show is two or three days from now), you’re going to do better to order CD-Rs.

Another factor is color. Pressed discs come standard with three colors and CD-Rs are most cost effective with a black imprint — adding color to a CD-R is .85/disc. When doing color CD-Rs, it usually starts making sense to convert to a pressed CD after 250 to 300 units. Again, turn time is always an important factor.

So to sum up, an artist needs to really think about what quantity best fits his or her budget, cashflow and disc graphics as well as consider the time line he or she has to work with. At DF Dub’s Green Room, Inc., we can work with any of these situations and help you find a solution that works great for you.

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Parable of the Car Wash

I have a favorite story that I tell my staff all the time. It takes place one day when I was on my way to get some chicken for lunch. I came up to the stop light and there was this sheepish looking young man standing on the sidewalk with a piece of paper in his hand. It seemed like he was almost lifting it for me to read… a little apologetically. I couldn’t tell what it was at first, but finally I saw that the second word was, “wash.” Finally, I put together that it was a car wash sign with a very faint arrow underneath. I thought maybe it was just a joke and drove on.

About fifteen seconds later, I pulled into the parking lot for the restaurant and saw some 8.5 x 11 inch pieces of paper taped to cars written in colored pencil. When I got right up next to the signs, I could tell that they said, “Car Wash.” But I looked around and I didn’t see anything that looked like a car wash. I started to pull around to the drive-thru and noticed about five kids sitting on the sidewalk – in the shade where they were barely noticeable. One of them had another of these small signs in his hands.

I doubt you’ll be surprised to learn that there were no cars in line for the car wash. I was shocked at how somehow this group of people had not learned what seems to be common information for every teenager in America.

All my life, I’ve seen kids with big signs, covered in colorful magic markers and huge arrows. One kid usually thrusts the sign at my car over and over while another jumps up and down and still another forcefully points where I should drive my car. Sometimes they’ll plea sometimes they’ll scream. Never in all of my life have I seen what I saw on that funny day.

However, I find myself doing the same thing with my own business some times. And I constantly see artists making the same mistake. They assume that if they’re good enough, people will just show up somehow.

If you want people to know about you, you have to be aggressive like most kids putting on a car wash. You have to have a big, bold sign that moves back, forth and sideways and cannot be mistaken. You have to have someone saying in very simple terms, “drive your car here” or the equivalent for your business. And you have to have someone who is willing to say over and over with some sort of loudness, “I am here! Buy my product.”

If you follow the parable of the car wash, history has proven a consistent outcome.

p.s. We duplicate CDs.

The Social Artist

This past week, The Dallas Observer featured an article entitled, “Rockin’ the Suburbs.” It suggests that the most significant music act(s) happening in Dallas are not happening in Deep Ellum or any of Dallas’ largest arenas, but instead in the same out-of-the-way trade show hall where the quilters meet in Plano.

As an observer of the Dallas music happenings over the past twenty years, what was most striking to me was the way the article described how the approach to the overall music business has changed. It suggests that going to a concert is no longer about just going to hear some good music, but instead going to get closer to something a fan is already immersed in somehow… usually by way of social networking.

The bands and artists aren’t performing their sets and then going to their dressing rooms to bask in their stardom, but they’re hanging out with their fans. The fans have the opportunity to go on the tour buses and “kick it” with the artists. I got the feeling that they were looking for ways to reach the ultimate accessibility.

It’s a great article for artists, bands and promoters who are looking for ways to evolve in connecting with their audience.  To read the article, click here

Obama’s Interview About Hip Hop

I was looking through music videos the other day and I came across an interview with President Obama about his thoughts on hip hop music.  It’s striking from the beginning as he is asked if he listens to hip hop music and replies, “of course.”  He talks about why he likes Jay Z’s latest album, things that he doesn’t like, and then settles down to what sort of role hip hop might play in his administration.

One complaint of President Obama’s is that hip hop tends to be looking at life through a rear view mirror.  He wishes that the music could be balanced by looking forward with hope.  This resurrects the age old question: “is art imitating life or is life imitating art?”  

I think I’ve decided that it’s both.  Both art imitating life and life imitating art are happening in a cycle.  Kids listen to hip hop music and want to imitate it, but eventually someone stops being the button that is pushed and decides to become the button pusher.  Something new ends up being created and eventually, if it’s great, it is imitated.

If you’re interested, you can check out the interview here…

Cat’s in the Griddle

I saw a video article today that I thought was a pretty good example of knowing just enough to be dangerous.  The hosts of the video were explaining how Cat Stevens was accusing Coldplay of plagiarizing one of his songs from the ‘60s.  The hosts of the video play part of the Coldplay song and then go on to play part of the Cat Stevens song – the hosts were very surprised by the similarities.

For those reading who aren’t musicians, let me explain that this is complete nonsense.  The similarities between the songs were part of the chord progression and maybe half a bar of rhythm.  What the most non-musician-types don’t realize is that this particular chord progression could be found in, (I’m not exaggerating), thousands of songs.  It is one of the most basic and common chord progressions in Western music – (and I don’t mean Country Western music!)

Fans like to believe that the music in songs is original and created by some incredible stroke of genius.  This is crazy.  However, sometimes I see similar ideas hold artists back.  When a writer starts thinking that he or she needs to come up with something entirely original, they are doomed to either be in a weird denial or to create something that only they can understand.  (Wait a second, I sense some artistic egos drawing their pistolas… hear me out.)

When I was in my late teens, I was practicing the piano ten hours a day with the goal of going to a fancy music school.  After a while with this crazy regiment, I developed tendonitis in both of my arms and had to stop playing for several years.  So instead of giving up music altogether, I studied composition. 

My teacher would have me copy every note, staff and articulation on all sorts of Bach and Beethoven pieces and then we would diagram the form of the piece.  He said several times that every composer was standing on the shoulders of his or her predecessors.

One day I was in the music library at UNM and came across one of Bach’s children’s scores – (several of Bach’s children were composers).  I was very surprised to learn that the first sixteen or so bars of this Bach piece were nearly identical to a piano piece that I had played… by Beethoven.  The Beethoven piece must have been one of Beethoven’s learning exercises and he was building off and learning from Bach.  (If this weren’t an exercise, I think it would actually qualify for plagiarism). 

During these same composition lessons, my teacher broke some very bad news to me.  He explained that the Western music, that we’re all familiar with, is all out of options for new inventions.  There is nothing new to invent.  He compared it to a deck of playing cards which has limited variables and the variables have all been used up – no new games can be invented.  Soon after, I learned about other systems of music that were developed to enable the potential of “new inventions.”  We won’t be hearing any of these on our pop radio stations.

All of this to say, it’s a good thing to build off of a strong musical vocabulary from the past; there is no easy way to come up with a chord progression that is new; and Cat Stevens is really just trying to get some press with the hope of selling a few more CDs.

Mic Placement for Vocals

There are so many recordings coming in these days from artists who are recording in their apartments or houses. Software is so inexpensive that it’s pretty easy to setup a recording spot, load in the beat and make some noise. I find myself having more and more conversations with guys looking for ideas on how to improve their sound in these situations. So here are a couple ideas related to micing.

Since we’re used to seeing performers with their mouths right on the mics when they’re performing, the tendency is to think that’s the way to record. It’s not. So the next question is, “how far should the singer/rapper be from the mic.” For a general rule, you’d be safe to stay four to six inches from the mic. However, I’m hoping to persuade you to listen to what’s happening and make a choice that fits the song.

If you had the time to experiment, here’s what I would suggest. Get one or two lines from any song; start recording with the artist’s mouth two inches from the mic; back up to four; back up to six; continue all the way to one and a half feet. Then go back and compare. Jump from the beginning to the end to the middle and all around so you can get a feel for the differences.

There are two important things that are going to happen that you need to pay special attention to. First, you will notice that when the vocalist is closest to the mic, there will be much more lo end. And as he or she moves away from the mic, the lo end will diminish. Second, when the vocalist is closest to the mic the sound of the room will be the least noticeable and as he or she moves further away from the mic, the room will become more noticeable.

In the old days, we designed studios so that sound could not bounce around a room. There would be a hard surface on part of one wall and if you looked across the room you would see it was paralleled by a soft surface. These days, those luxuries are usually not available and frankly, I find them a little sterile and unwanted.

I’d prefer that engineers become familiar with the sound of a room and then use the mic to make it work with the track. Of course this means that you need to be aware of what’s going on in the track. If you have a really aggressive track with a lot of low end, you don’t want to have a vocal that was recorded a foot and a half off of the mic because it will sound too thin and it will feel like it doesn’t fit with the track. On the other hand, if you have a track that’s very orchestral and gives the sense of a large room, it’s going to sound really off if you have a vocalist that is recording right on top of the mic. This situation would call for some distance from the mic to help the vocals match the openness of the track.

In the latter example, you might run into a situation where getting too far off the mic reveals that you’re in a very small room which also wouldn’t match the open sound of a symphony hall. In this case, you might come in until you lost the room sound and then use your EQ to roll off some of the lows so that the vocalist sounds like it belongs in the same room as the track.

Experiment with it and let me know what you come up with.

Greatest Design Tip

If you’re feeling like you want to do your own design or even if you just want to have meaningful input into a design that someone else is doing for you, I have some simple, but great advice.

Go over to your favorite place for perusing CDs and look at a fifty designs. Take a notebook with you and make three columns: “artist/band;” “album title;” “rating” (from 1 to 5). The idea is to get enough of a list designs that you can give ratings of 4 or 5 that you can look them up later on your computer. You could bypass the step of going to the store and just look at designs online, but if you do, you’ll miss a lot of creative ways to use the reverse part of the traycard to compliment the insert — this occurs when a design uses a clear tray and the left side of the tray shows through on the left side of the jewel case. You will also miss out on seeing how certain choices can get lost once they’re covered up with shrink wrapping.

Once you get back home to your computer, go to your favorite music site and track down the artwork online. You can generally copy the thumbnail by right-clicking on the artwork. If you don’t have a graphics application, paste it into Microsoft’s standard Paint program or some other application that will allow you to see the images quickly and refer back to them.

Then start working your way through the design. What is the central photograph or object on the cover? Where is it positioned? How is it framed? What is the background? Is it a texture? Is it simple or complex? How is the designer using text? How many fonts are being used? How are fonts used differently? What do you like about the color combinations? Which is the boldest color? What is the most subtle color?

As you work through three or four designs this way, try to begin asking yourself if any of the elements that you’ve listed could represent you and your music well. Also ask yourself why you feel like certain design elements would not represent you and your music well. Being able to tell which elements you shouldn’t use is just as important as discovering which you should.

If you invest the time to work through defining the elements you like and dislike, you will have a much stronger vocabulary when it’s time to either start your own design or sit down with your designer.

Keep in mind that, especially for new artists, generally when a person goes to a store to buy a CD, the main representation that they get is not the music itself, but the graphic on the cover. It’s important that you take some time to find a design that represents you and your music well.

If you have other helpful ideas for artists who are headed toward the creation of their CD artwork, please add a comment.

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