Creating a CD Using Amazon's CreateSpace

Beginnings ...

Our group - Spring Song - actually not a lot of touring. We play locally and most of our work in our studio. However, we wanted to see the three years of work that went into our first attempt - a subject collection of original instrumental music - see wearing a ready, shrink wrapped and distributed CD.

I first heard about CreateSpace long after our CD temporarily placed on hold for lack of funds. CreateSpace has our CDsecond option, the light of day. As a comparative benchmark, the average cost of producing an "indie" CD (if the CD consists of all your own original material and no mechanical reproduction rights are affected) about $ 2200 for a standard CD case, 4-up insert booklet, and only 1,000 copies. Then you have to sell a stack of CDs and not really possible (unless, of course, you're a touring band, or you will be able to sell them out of the trunk of your car!). OfComparison CreateSpace allows us to publish for free.

Background ...

On a trip to San Diego in the summer of 2008 I spoke with my brother-in-law, a writer who happened to mention to CreateSpace. He already has two books with their instruments and their placement of his novels on Amazon.com gives him both exposure and driving sales. When I investigated further, I found that not only offer CreateSpace Self-publishing tools for writers, but alsoshrink-wrapped, bar-coded CDs and DVDs for musicians and video producers, with a digital download option made available to Amazon.com. Better yet, so they always take up-front cost of travel from your CD on the market! Best of all, CreateSpace was recently bought by the giant Amazon.com, so that unknown authors the same potential impact as larger players by sharing their creations seen by millions and searchable directly on Amazon.com.

We decided to tryCreateSpace to produce and distribute our first CD, "Old California - In Search of a Lost World" and found her easy to follow guided process. With Adobe Photoshop templates, we have all the artwork for the CD, upload, including the brochure, cover, CD face artwork and tray (inside and out). The finished product was provided as JPEG files in the specific dimensions in its guidelines available. For me, this process was approximately 10 days to work on it Part-time, but I learned some of the tools for the first time, including Photoshop. You must have access to Photoshop, although CreateSpace provides all the necessary templates, and you can download a free trial version of Photoshop from Adobe, download for 30 days.

Proof Positive ...

First, we had intensified in all phases of the CD creation process, because a bar code (for free), for entry into all the track information. Produced for a> CD-Audio files should be uploaded to CD quality WAV or AIFF files - we have the title of the final master CD, which we Discmaker from when we first finished production / recording phase of our CD or two years earlier. This required files are compressed and the space to create site with WinZip (winzip.com) or, in our case, the Mac OS X equivalent to "archive" option you get when right-click upload to a group of files.

After all, what wasbe entered (including our checking account information so that Amazon and CreateSpace were able to transfer funds into our account, for sales of the month), we received a copy in about five days. In our case, we found numerous corrections to the details that we missed out on the first lap, so we end up requesting seconds and then third and final review of the evidence for the production of information and tweaks, the cover design. Side note: we were never charged for this evidence, even if subsequent evidenceSnail-mail has been sent, and lasted about seven days to reach each.

Once we approved the final proof, we could allow the CreateSpace website, start selling our CDs on CreateSpace and Amazon simply by logging into our account, and "approval" of the evidence online. Immediately on our CD on CreateSpace was bought, and then two weeks later than it appeared on Amazon.com. At Amazon, we had to watch it with our own mini-website on the intended users of the CD, read theDescriptions, sound clips and decide if now for about $ 8.95, or download the acquisition as a normal CD for € 16.95, including shipping. Here's another caveat: CreateSpace and Amazon is a percentage of the profits of each sale. However, you also have the option of ordering large quantities of each for themselves directly from the CreateSpace website at a very reasonable price of about $ 5.

There are marketing options as well - we decided to launch an ad campaign on WordsAmazon with specific keywords to attract traffic to our site, but we are also peer networking - related music sites - in order to gain visibility. In any case, Amazon is better than searchable only to sit outside in the vacuum! All CDs are shipped as shrink-wrapped, bar code professional product.

Some technical notes ...

CreateSpace uses "on-demand publishing, a field in which they and Amazon are pioneers. It does not matter if someone orders 1 or 1000Copies - which are sealed in foil discs created only when needed, and then shipped the same day. For this reason, these CDs are not the same as mass-produced CDs, but are "burned". This may not be playable on some old CD player from the 1980s, but in all other aspects of the product substantially free from mass-produced CDs to the barcode on the disk compression, and stretch film.

Notes ...

It is advisable to register yourfinal proof copy of song titles with Grace Notes prior to the release of your CD. CreateSpace for a consistent "proof" copy of your first CD, so that if you set iTunes (or other products GraceNotes.com) to all of your original track name with the Grace Notes online database, which can register all purchasers of CDs, you see the track information on your laptop or iPod. This is a free service and is the industry standard - virtually every commercially available CD is the commercialGrace Notes.

In addition, you should choose, ASCAP or BMI when you publish your own CD. Immediately after the publication of the CD, you can use their Web sites to track performances of music on the radio and Internet stations - and will receive quarterly royalty checks. I am a member of ASCAP and I like it, my royalty checks. As a member I have the ability to log in and upload MP3 versions of CD tracks. In this way, they have a digital "fingerprint" for each song. Iincorporate BMI has a similar service.

Finally COPYRIGHT CD using an SR (Song Recording) form for download in the Library of Congress. Can they simply a form to register all the songs on a CD, and last time was considered the fee above $ 35. This legally protects your CDs protected by copyright even further, though technically easy to publish your CD at Amazon is an implicit. However, do not take any chances. To obtain these forms or http://www.copyright.govFollow the links on ASCAP or BMI.

Sales ...

The jury is still the bottom line - SALES - but always producing the CD was the process easy to follow and the response at Amazon / CreateSpace 's staff were excellent displays, always within 24 hours.

The link to our Amazon site can be found be found on our own website at songspring.com. Our CD - "Old California - In Search of a Lost World" - is a collection of original instrumentalMusic.

To visit CreateSpace website, go to CreateSpace.com.