Independent Music Distribution

Say your band has already recorded your album. The mix is right, the songs are in top shape, and the entire band is happy with the results. Your worries are not over yet! Recording an album is your most important step, but it isn’t your last. If you are planning on selling your CD as merchandise, you’ll need to follow all the steps necessary to get your CDs ready to be sold, or as they say in the music industry, “retail ready.” The following article will help you gain a basic understanding of your options as you prepare your CDs for commercial sale.

Mastering your CD

It is absolutely essential to master your music well; this is what separates a home recording from a commercial recording that lands you record deals. Nevertheless, software is becoming cheaper and better, so mastering your project is easier than ever.

Be wary of mastering businesses that charge as little as $20 dollars per song. You might not get what you bargained for unless the mastering business offers references, honest quotes, and a realistic equipment list.

Mastering on your own is another option. Get a software compressor that will give you a professional result without having to tangle with complicated settings. Make your music sound polished and commercial. This is also an essential tip for when you submit your CD to record labels and executives.

Duplicating or Replicating?

First off, the advantage of duplication is that it’s less expensive to do in a short run. It uses CD-R discs very similar to the ones used in home computers. However, be mindful that the printing quality is never as good as the silk-screened artwork of replicated CDs. Duplication costs two to four dollars per disc. This includes the jewel case, shrink wrap, bar code, and printing. However, you must pay more than the wholesale price if your CD count is less than 1,000.

Replication, on the other hand, is for larger orders of one thousand CDs or more. Although this process is more expensive than duplication, it involves the actual manufacture of the discs with material pre-recorded onto these discs. Thus, the cost of replication is not practical on a smaller scale.

Distribution.

As soon as your copies are made through duplication or replication, it’s time to start selling your CDs. You can do this in several ways. You can go the more traditional route and find a distributor, which is a company that sells your CD in exchange for a fee. The other route people are taking is online music distribution. This is where you find music hosting sites through which you can promote and sell your music. If you are going this route, keep in mind that every site is very different. Be sure to do your research about yearly fees, CD sale profit cuts, pay-for-play, or pay-for-d

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Podcasting – What Is It And How Can You Benefit From It?

Traditional radio is slowly becoming obsolete as technology in modern times grows in leaps and bounds. We last discussed internet radio, which is basically audio files streamed over the internet to whomever chooses to listen to it. And in this article we’ll be discussing podcasting. Which is very similar to internet radio, yet has its differences. Basically it is an updated version of streaming internet radio, and then some.

What is podcasting?
A podcast is a multimedia file that is distributed by subscription over the Internet using different syndication feeds. Podcasting is an automatic mechanism whereby multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client, which pulls down XML files containing the Internet addresses of the media files. In general, these files contain audio or video, but also could be images, text, PDF, or any file type. You can playback these files on mobile devices such as iPods, and personal computers. These podcast subscriptions can be both paid and unpaid, allowing the podcasters (author of the podcast) to be compensated. One of the big differences between podcasting and internet radio, is that with podcasting you have the ability to download the podcast automatically using software capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom. The feed is a list of the URLs by which episodes of the show may be accessed. This list is usually published in RSS format, which provides other information, such as publish date, titles, and accompanying text descriptions of the series and each of its episodes. Standard podcasts consist of a feed from one author. More recently multiple authors have been able to contribute episodes to a single podcast feed using concepts such as public podcasting and social podcasting.

How do I create a podcast?
The process of creating your podcast is almost identical to the process of creating content for an internet radio station. If you haven’t read my article titled “Setting Up Your Own Internet Radio Station”, I suggest that you go back and read that for a primer on what gear you’ll need to create your final podcast (most likely) MP3 file. When you do have your final content in hand, you’ll need to submit it to different podcast listing sites. One very visible podcast site you should look into is Yahoo podcasts, and also check out this massive list of podcasting site links. http://www.podcasting-tools.com/submit-podcasts.htm

This is a simple description of what a podcast is, and very basic directions on how to record and distribute your own cast. With the popularity of iPods and other portable media players, podcasting seems to be the next step in the evolution of standard radio. With the large amount of people utilizing this media outlet, it stands to be something that has yet to display its full potential of use and usability. If you have something to say, say it via podcast.

About Author:
Jason Cole and DiskFaktory Jams offer free downloadable music videos and music lyrics. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting DFJams.com.

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