Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

[bassboysam]

But with a double LP 250 vinyls actually means 125 albums. That's not as much.


My guitarist wants to start a kick starter for the vinyl release but I'd rather just pay the money from our pockets and then sell them, how ever long that takes, and also make a chrude pre order list to help offset the cost a little bit. Also hoping the CD and other merch sales help a little too. There is a screen printng company up stairs that will give us a great deal on shirts. Hence staggering the CD and vinyl releases. Idk crowd sourcing eh idk, just doesn't feel right to me.

Not sure about that Max. When I asked Pirates Press about double vinyl they said the min order is 250 per plate. So that's 500 records and 250 albums.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

Yeah if you do a double LP you can't just do half. They have to cut two different platters so what Sam said.

 

[mc_muench]

Well fvck, never thought of it like that...


That's a lot of scratch...


Thats a plan changer right there.

 

[bassboysam]

yeah unfortunately i don't know of anywhere that will do a run of less that 250 per plate. Well there is a place in Montreal that does it but they charge $2000 for 100 records and that does not include any packaging. you'd have to go DIY for the jackets or find somewhere else to print them. But then you'll find that most won't do less than 500 jackets and it's expensive too.

 

[Ron Now]

Not into bands using indiegogo or kickstarter. Every band I've ever been in has done shows, made shirts or CDs, and put in our own money to make records or other merch. It's not always easy, but bands take work.

Those sites just come off feeling like begging to me.

 

[mbelue]

I don't have allot of respect for crowd sourcing funds used for bands to record. If it's like a repressing of old material that's different. It is basically trying to judge consumer interest. Especially a new band (relatively) or a first release. Too much opportunity to piss off folks that might have spent more on you later.

 

[Pelham Bleu]

NSD. Traded a QOTSA shirt I picked up for a buddy at their show this week for a Ghost shirt he picked up for me at their Chicago show.

 

[Corey Y]

If a band can't get together the funds to make an album on their own, they probably don't have what it takes to sell it. Some people might disagree and if you have a personal passion for funding a project, that's great. It doesn't come off like DIY to me at all, it comes off like just expecting crowdsourcing to take the place of the old fashioned pie in the sky major record label signing dream. Show up, get money for free, make more money...worked out so well for so many bands in the 80's and 90's. If you're running a business, you pretty much have to be successful without any help for anyone to be interested in giving you money to move up to the next level.

 

[Ron Now]

Corey nailed it.

 

[Pelham Bleu]

I think crowdsourcing is okay if used in the right context. Being transparent about expenses, giving a list of what the funds will be used for, giving good incentives that actually give the donors value or makes them more "customers." It's almost like a pre-order. With my old crew, we raised over $3K to close out some debts and we had enough left over to rent a big hall and have a bigass, no cover show for our people. It was in the top three gigs I ever played.

 

[The_Janitor]

Yeah, i don't get the kickstarter thing for bands. Especially now, when anyone can record a decent sounding demo. Also, from the band's position, you're putting yourself in an awkward position of owing something to the people that paid in. If whatever product you end up delivering didn't measure up to whatever neckbeard that contributed's expectations then you've really pissed off a potential supporter of your band.

 

[Blank_0101]

Cyber panhandling, it'd make sense if crust punk bands were doing it

 

[Corey Y]

Yeah, i don't get the kickstarter thing for bands. Especially now, when anyone can record a decent sounding demo. Also, from the band's position, you're putting yourself in an awkward position of owing something to the people that paid in. If whatever product you end up delivering didn't measure up to whatever neckbeard that contributed's expectations then you've really pissed off a potential supporter of your band.

This seems like the majority of Kickstarter campaigns in general now, honestly. They solicit funds to prototype a new product as a defacto preorder, then it never comes out and turns into a bunch of excuses and finger pointing. Usually because the person had no viable business plan and a really ambitious goal. In the worst cases it becomes obvious that they just spent the funds to pay their bills, as if the money was to pay them to work on the project and not to fund the project itself. There are a lot of examples of this, to the point where it makes Kickstarter campaigns that deliver just seem amazing now.

 

[Blank_0101]

There's a radio shack in the local mall lol, buying tone caps in teeny bopper central, and JC penny Arizona tees that fit well.

Went for .022uf as it was cheapest caps and never tried it before. But a guy on a thread here says it gets a real cool mid focused sound which is a cool concept I think, I don't drop the tone knob usually so having one that does something like that is a neat concept, especially going on my roadstar, I don't think if ever drop the tone on it being chromes tuned to b. Anyone else use a .022?

 

[mbelue]

I just want to add....
Expensive ice cream covers up the flavor of cheap rum just fine. Especially if it's chocolate peanut butter ice cream.

Edit: my stupid phone's autocorrect makes me found like I speak English as a second language.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

If bands have enough fans to crowd source their albums more power to them. I rarely contribute unless its like "contribute $20 and get the limited edition vinyl." OK, I was going to do that anyways, so here's my money. Personally I'd never do it myself. If the band can't afford to do it themselves, then try to work out a deal with a label.

 

[Blank_0101]

I just want to add....
Expensive ice cream covers up the flavor of cheap rum just fine. Especially if it's chocolate peanut butter ice cream.

Edit: my stupid phone's autocorrect makes me found like I speak English as a second language.

What's your doings mansir? Cream freezes and shot boozes?

 

[mbelue]

What's your doings mansir? Cream freezes and shot boozes?

Milkshakes. Everything is better with alcohol.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

Here's my singer hanging out with Mastodon. That's a Supervoid Filaments digipak in Brann's hand!

Link Removed

 

[Korladis]

For MDT's (my band's) EP, we're recording, mixing and mastering in-house. Both my guitarist and I have experience with this. The final result won't be top-shelf, but it'll be very solid. Cost? $0.00.

We're going to do digital download only through, I think, Bandcamp. Then we'll create physical (CD, again, in-house) on a per-order basis. I'd like to do vinyl, but the economics just don't work unless we did some sort of split and, even then, it's next-to-impossible to have it make economic sense.

I'm happy sacrificing a little bit of quality for a whole lot of cost. Of course, this model works if you have enough in-house experience and inclination to do the work.

We did go outside for mastering, to get fresh ears on it. Recording and mixing were all done in house, though. And we're going to continue to record in house until someone else wants to have us record onto tape at no cost to ourselves or debts to pay off later. And that's just not going to happen, so this is how it will remain.

I can't remember how much 150 CDs ran us. We also had them do a graphic on the CD as well. I want to say it was less than $200?

Pirates Press is probably your best bet for vinyl, both in quality and pricing. But you're going to have to do a 250 minimum quantity order. That's a lot.

Not sure who we used for the vinyl. Our order is 500 copies of the vinyl, but it's one disc.

Less than $200 for CDs? If I get this job, I think I'll look into that. What company?

I don't have allot of respect for crowd sourcing funds used for bands to record. If it's like a repressing of old material that's different. It is basically trying to judge consumer interest. Especially a new band (relatively) or a first release. Too much opportunity to piss off folks that might have spent more on you later.

I think it can be somewhat done right, or done horribly wrong. If you've been playing out the songs a lot that you're going to record and so people who like you have heard them already, I think that works to some degree. The idea of knowing beforehand how many people want your album is kinda interesting.

Lot of danger of not living up to expectations, though.

I think crowdsourcing is okay if used in the right context. Being transparent about expenses, giving a list of what the funds will be used for, giving good incentives that actually give the donors value or makes them more "customers." It's almost like a pre-order. With my old crew, we raised over $3K to close out some debts and we had enough left over to rent a big hall and have a bigass, no cover show for our people. It was in the top three gigs I ever played.

Yeah, exactly.

If you're using it to fund the recording of an album, you need to provide an itemized list of exactly what you're going to be spending people's money on.

It does, yes, carry the discomfort of owing people something, which is an awkward position to be in for a band. Especially a metal band. Because we're used to, musically, not owing anybody poopie. But if you crowdsource, as people have mentioned, there's the possibility that some ******* is going to go "waaah, I sent money their way on their kickstarter, but now I have the album and it sucks, waaaaah." Since the digital download of our album was free, and people still complained on forums about it, it does sound like something to be wary of.