This is slightly OT, but for those of you who still buy music and buy albums, where do you buy your stuff? I'm "an album guy" -- I never buy singles.
With the new iTunes setup, I find I'm more drawn to the store somehow, but I think the artist will get more money if I buy the CD and forgo the instant gratification. How does Boomkat do in comparison or other online retailers? Obviously, if it's an independent artist on bandcamp or something, it's a no-brainer.
I'm posting here because I'm specifically asking about electronic music, though of course rock bands and jazz acts face the same issue.
Thoughts?
I honestly think the numbers on that chart are made up and I would not pay attention to them
for example where do they get the idea that it costs $4.34 to self press a CD? Depending on the packaging you are looking at between $1-$2 a piece unless you are doing very small runs, in which case why are doing very small runs if you are selling 268 CDs a month?
I just ordered 1,000 CDs in nice full color sleeves for less than $1 a piece for a band I recorded.
I also have a good friend that plays and sings folk rock on his guitar. I record lots of his shows for him with a very simple rig. He buys blank white plain label CDs cheap online then burns them at home with a bulk duplicator. Then he writes on them the title of the Album usually something like "live 1/4/2013" then signs his name and writes a number. He sells them in limited editions of 50-200 depending. Then he puts them into a plain cheapy paper sleeve. He then goes to the copy store and prints out a double sided flyer on colored paper with hand drawn graphics on one side and notes on the other. Then he folds them up a certain way and inserts the CD.
The above winds up looking very cool and well done and he sells them for $10 each at his shows or 3 for $20 his total cost per CD is less than 50 cents
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I miss the 80's
99% Spotify via a premium subscription. CD's are too bulky and last century ("when I was a kid, we used to buy music on little plastic discs"). Not going to buy downloads. Twice I've lost DRM-protected music that I "purchased", once from iTunes and then when Microsoft discontinued their music store (don't remember what it was called). With a per-month subscription only, I don't really loose anything if/when the service goes belly up.
Traxsource, Beatport, and Juno coz they offer wav/aiff downloads. I prefer full uncompressed files even though it costs more. If not, then i seek out the CD.
I only buy from the artist themselves, and only vinyl. I feel it's the only way to directly support the artist. Well that and merchandise, that helps too
I really feel it's the touring musician, that's best to buy from so they can have some money to eat/maybe stay at a decent hotel. electronic musicians do not need to rely on public performance, they can really have real jobs. But a touring musician, unless with some pop shit, there's not much money at all. And once there is money, might as well pirate the tracks
Discogs, Boomkat, local stores in Helsinki, distro friends. That's pretty much it. No digital (but it's nice that most new vinyl releases include download codes).
I honestly think the numbers on that chart are made up and I would not pay attention to them
for example where do they get the idea that it costs $4.34 to self press a CD? Depending on the packaging you are looking at between $1-$2 a piece unless you are doing very small runs, in which case why are doing very small runs if you are selling 268 CDs a month?
I just ordered 1,000 CDs in nice full color sleeves for less than $1 a piece for a band I recorded.
I also have a good friend that plays and sings folk rock on his guitar. I record lots of his shows for him with a very simple rig. He buys blank white plain label CDs cheap online then burns them at home with a bulk duplicator. Then he writes on them the title of the Album usually something like "live 1/4/2013" then signs his name and writes a number. He sells them in limited editions of 50-200 depending. Then he puts them into a plain cheapy paper sleeve. He then goes to the copy store and prints out a double sided flyer on colored paper with hand drawn graphics on one side and notes on the other. Then he folds them up a certain way and inserts the CD.
The above winds up looking very cool and well done and he sells them for $10 each at his shows or 3 for $20 his total cost per CD is less than 50 cents
I guess their self released example includes a cut for the stores that sell the cd, it's not an example of complete self distribution, you make more per cd if you sell the disc yourself.
Digital music I buy as wavs or Flacs, mostly from Boomkat, Juno download and Bandcamp. I use Beatport very rarely as they sometimes have something interesting as an exclusive. Vinyl I buy from Boomkat, Juno or Rubadub which is still, in my opinion, the best record store in Britain and only rivaled by Hardwax. I keep meaning to get a Discogs account, but i spend enough on music as it is and I would probably have to live in a box if I was going to start buying from there too.
@MegaTech: some nice stuff there on your Bandcamp page. Did you get your 30% off voucher from Semantica too? I got a couple of things but should probably get some more to get full use out of it.
Digital music I buy as wavs or Flacs, mostly from Boomkat, Juno download and Bandcamp. I use Beatport very rarely as they sometimes have something interesting as an exclusive. Vinyl I buy from Boomkat, Juno or Rubadub which is still, in my opinion, the best record store in Britain and only rivaled by Hardwax. I keep meaning to get a Discogs account, but i spend enough on music as it is and I would probably have to live in a box if I was going to start buying from there too.
@MegaTech: some nice stuff there on your Bandcamp page. Did you get your 30% off voucher from Semantica too? I got a couple of things but should probably get some more to get full use out of it.
Yeah my latest splurge was assisted by the discount!
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