Jump to content

Headstock shapes


Recommended Posts

I hate it all the bands sell out and just want money. If we only charged what it cost to make the cd , like $3 or whatever more people would buy them.

There's more overhead in making CDs than you may be aware of.

- The cost of recording it: Studio time, or if you're recording it yourself, the hardware and software and electricity consumed, not to mention having the luxury of a house, apartment or garage to do the recording in... that stuff isn't free.

- The cost of designing the packaging for it: Blank CDs in empty jewel cases don't look too interesting. Graphic design services cost money. Yeah, you can do it yourself, but again, you need the hardware and software and expertise to do that. Also not free. Want a band photo on the sleeve? You have to pay a photographer for a professional photo, or at least borrow a camera and do it yourself. Oh, but then you have to pay for film and processing, and/or have a computer to deal with a digital image. There's that pesky 'money' issue again.

- The cost of marketing and selling it: You'll need a Web site if you plan on selling it online. And a computer with Internet access to design the site and upload it and an email address to receive orders on. That stuff costs money. Damn! You can't get anything for free any more!

- The cost of distribution: Once people order it, you need to ship it to them. Padded envelopes, postage, and gas money or bus fare to the post office all costs money.

Now, you could always record it on mommy's computer with pirated software, in the house that's paid for, and burn your own CDs with home-made labels and sell them out of your school locker to all of your friends for $3 and just about break even.

But if you're talking about having CDs pressed, there's a lot more to factor in than just the cost of the manufacturing itself.

The other thing you may learn is there's a perception factor in there as well. Price it too low, and people will automatically think the quality of it is crap. I mean, how good can a $3 album be? You've seen the crap that floats around the 'bargain' bins at the record shops.

If you want to make music for a living, you have to make money at it. That means covering all of your expenses, and making enough profit so you can avoid living on the street and eating out of dumpsters while you write and record your next project.

If "selling out" means having a house, food and clothing, then i guess everyone's a sell-out, aren't they? Oh, exept maybe for homeless people. They're not giving in to the capitalist machine!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 98
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I hate it all the bands sell out and just want money. If we only charged what it cost to make the cd , like $3 or whatever more people would buy them.

There's more overhead in making CDs than you may be aware of.

- The cost of recording it: Studio time, or if you're recording it yourself, the hardware and software and electricity consumed, not to mention having the luxury of a house, apartment or garage to do the recording in... that stuff isn't free.

- The cost of designing the packaging for it: Blank CDs in empty jewel cases don't look too interesting. Graphic design services cost money. Yeah, you can do it yourself, but again, you need the hardware and software and expertise to do that. Also not free. Want a band photo on the sleeve? You have to pay a photographer for a professional photo, or at least borrow a camera and do it yourself. Oh, but then you have to pay for film and processing, and/or have a computer to deal with a digital image. There's that pesky 'money' issue again.

- The cost of marketing and selling it: You'll need a Web site if you plan on selling it online. And a computer with Internet access to design the site and upload it and an email address to receive orders on. That stuff costs money. Damn! You can't get anything for free any more!

- The cost of distribution: Once people order it, you need to ship it to them. Padded envelopes, postage, and gas money or bus fare to the post office all costs money.

Now, you could always record it on mommy's computer with pirated software, in the house that's paid for, and burn your own CDs with home-made labels and sell them out of your school locker to all of your friends for $3 and just about break even.

But if you're talking about having CDs pressed, there's a lot more to factor in than just the cost of the manufacturing itself.

The other thing you may learn is there's a perception factor in there as well. Price it too low, and people will automatically think the quality of it is crap. I mean, how good can a $3 album be? You've seen the crap that floats around the 'bargain' bins at the record shops.

If you want to make music for a living, you have to make money at it. That means covering all of your expenses, and making enough profit so you can avoid living on the street and eating out of dumpsters while you write and record your next project.

If "selling out" means having a house, food and clothing, then i guess everyone's a sell-out, aren't they? Oh, exept maybe for homeless people. They're not giving in to the capitalist machine!

You just broke a poor kids heart today Darren. Next week we should let him know about Santa and the tooth fairy! More shattered ideals!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

what?? broke my heart, were you guys talking about me?? sorry i'm too lazy to read your big long post that you put alot of time and effort into it. if your cd rocks you don't need to have some fancy design. it doesn't cost that much to make a cd. you get the recording software, and you get the cd's. sure if you sell it online you charge something called SHIPPING AND HANDLING, might be a new word for the brighter ones here......even if we did want graphics that wouldn't cost $15. conformists suck. just because you guys are all 50 and you never became famous, and made lotsa money........................

Link to comment
Share on other sites

what?? broke my heart, were you guys talking about me?? sorry i'm too lazy to read your big long post that you put alot of time and effort into it. if your cd rocks you don't need to have some fancy design. it doesn't cost that much to make a cd. you get the recording software, and you get the cd's. sure if you sell it online you charge something called SHIPPING AND HANDLING, might be a new word for the brighter ones here......even if we did want graphics that wouldn't cost $15. conformists suck. just because you guys are all 50 and you never became famous, and made lotsa money........................

All the more reason for you to read what Darren wrote...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I'm sorry. Oh great darren god of making cds. Should i charge what should be charged for cds, or should i be just another person trying to screw the little guy out of his hard earned money. just because the rest of you only care about money, it doesn't mean i do.

My band did actually produce a CD, so i know what costs go into it. We did it on the cheap, and we were selling it at $8 to just barely cover the costs involved and maybe put away a bit of money to help pay for the upfront costs of recording the next one. We also didn't sell out of our entire production run, so we're left with a couple hundred CDs that we paid for out of our own pocket. I don't even think we broke even.

You many not want to make money from your music, but why would you choose to lose money on it? Why not just go down to the street corner and start burning $20 bills and call it 'performance art'? That'll have the same net result, and you'll still get to keep your integrity! With a bit of business sense, you can make the music you want, get it out there to the public, and if you so choose, not make a dime on it. But shoveling money into a black hole just makes no sense to me.

If you're not willing to listen to people with experience, then fine. But i guarantee you'll start caring about money when you move out of your parents' house and start trying to pay the rent, feed and clothe yourself on a minimum-wage job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

dude, you're cd must have ruled if you had a couple hundred left over. my brother made a cd with his old band, and i was there. it didn't cost them 8 a cd. i don't know how you coulda spent 8 making a cd unless you got ripped off or something......anyways,screw this place. just because i'm 16 and you guys are 50 you think you know everything. i never said i know everything, but i know about cds. i don't care i'm just gonna leave this place. every time i say anything, 10 guys try to sound smart and important by telling me i'm wrong. so screw you all, i'm not coming back

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The actual cost of the CD manufacturing cost us less than $2 a piece. But as i said in my previous post, there were other costs that had to be factored in, like giving away a few dozen to radio stations, promoters and Web sites that post reviews. Every free CD we gave away pushed up the price we had to sell the others for in order to cover our costs. Scroll up and read what i wrote before, or at least try and figure out how business works.

But you're probably already gone. Or at least sitting there reading this and trying really hard not to post another asinine reply.

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

dude, you're cd must have ruled if you had a couple hundred left over. my brother made a cd with his old band, and i was there. it didn't cost them 8 a cd. i don't know how you coulda spent 8 making a cd unless you got ripped off or something......anyways,screw this place. just because i'm 16 and you guys are 50 you think you know everything. i never said i know everything, but i know about cds. i don't care i'm just gonna leave this place. every time i say anything, 10 guys try to sound smart and important by telling me i'm wrong. so screw you all, i'm not coming back

Please dont let the door smack you in the arse as you leave.

<deleted rant>

(Darren, please, can you kick the door as he leaves?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I'm sorry. Oh great darren god of making cds. Should i charge what should be charged for cds, or should i be just another person trying to screw the little guy out of his hard earned money. just because the rest of you only care about money, it doesn't mean i do.

My band did actually produce a CD, so i know what costs go into it. We did it on the cheap, and we were selling it at $8 to just barely cover the costs involved and maybe put away a bit of money to help pay for the upfront costs of recording the next one. We also didn't sell out of our entire production run, so we're left with a couple hundred CDs that we paid for out of our own pocket. I don't even think we broke even.

You many not want to make money from your music, but why would you choose to lose money on it? Why not just go down to the street corner and start burning $20 bills and call it 'performance art'? That'll have the same net result, and you'll still get to keep your integrity! With a bit of business sense, you can make the music you want, get it out there to the public, and if you so choose, not make a dime on it. But shoveling money into a black hole just makes no sense to me.

If you're not willing to listen to people with experience, then fine. But i guarantee you'll start caring about money when you move out of your parents' house and start trying to pay the rent, feed and clothe yourself on a minimum-wage job.

I can't agree more with Darren on this issue. With the legal fees, the cost of setting up my home studio, getting my CD's made, I still am loosing money as a musician.

I still love doing it and I won't stop. But I have to agree that even a CD done on the cheap where I did everything except print the CD's, I'm just getting back my investment when I sell them for $6 to $8. I'd like to charge more, wouldn't we all, but anything more than $9 for a CD from some unknown like me is pushing it.

Also, graphics do matter. People hear with their eyes first. Les Paul learned that when he slapped two wings on his log guitar. That same priciple applies to CD's too. People want the nice fold out, liner notes, all that icing on the cake. If it's not there they see the CD as cheap tat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If we only charged what it cost to make the cd , like $3 or whatever more people would buy them.

If you only charged what the disk cost, there wouldn't be a point in selling more. Unless you believe that your music can help people better understand their differences and bring about world piece. :D

FYI:

Golden Rule is, "He who has the gold, makes the rules."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Didnt realize that this thread would turn into a flame war. Yikes...

On the commercial music front, there are alternatives to the standard record company paradigm of mass marketed music that are a result of the internet. http://www.magnatunes.com is one that has some pretty decent stuff. You pay what you think the album is worth and they split it 50/50 with the artist.

On the topic of copyright and trademarks, I see the word "steal" used. One cannot steal a design... fender still has their head design if you use it... you infringe on the trademark or copyright which is under a completly different set of laws. It is the MPAA and RIAA that have pushed the concept of "stealing" and "piracy" to make it more sensational and evoke more of an emotional response. (I have yet to see boatloads of dead people as a result of software piracy).

Of course... I want my guitar to have its own design... I want something thats a cross between the one ormsby came up with (cool design!) and the one on tobias basses. I am working on a neck through that is based on a custom guitar that tobias built for Trevor Rabin (photo in 1987 guitar player mag). I emailed Mike Tobias which questions about it and he was very nice and helpful.

Matt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...