quoted 8 lines somehow my last post got screwed up...i was wondering how much the>somehow my last post got screwed up...i was wondering how much the
>equipment costs to press a record...i imagine there's one to do the first
>then another to mold copies...do labels all have their own equipment or
>do they send their masters somewhere to be pressed? how much does it all
>cost?
>
>if i wanted to start my own label what would i do? (of course it would be
>to produce intelligent dance music so this is the perfect list to ask :)
you don't want to buy your own record pressing plant. you're talking
about a large industrial operation costing hundreds of thousands of
dollars.
here's how the process works:
you record your award-winning future Mixmag chart topping track. put
it on a DAT since that's very portable and cheap.
send the DAT to a mastering house. you could also go to a mastering
studio if you like to help out with some final tweaks. once the
product has been mastered, you create the plates (for vinyl) or the
1630 tape (for CD). you then send this piece to the pressing plant
which turns your lovely track into a slab of vinyl or aluminum
oh, and don't forget about the artwork - that needs to get printed
somewhere else. have the printing place ship the art to the pressing
plant. some plants will do the art for you but it usually costs more.
you need to synchronize this, because the pressing plant won't start
producing your item until all the pieces are at the plant.
for vinyl you need to worry about the label and sleeve art. blank
sleeves are OK for singles, but color printing can give your product
that extra lift that makes it leap out of the rack at the store.
or you could go for the underground appeal and just use a white label
and a rubber stamp.
for CD you need a disk silkscreen, a jewel booklet and a tray card.
unless you wanted to pull an Aphex Twin and put out an entirely blank
disc in an unlabeled box...
before i got into this business i used to think making music was the
hard part. now i realize that making music is the easy part - it's
everything afterwards that's hard.
(well, it's not hard, but it takes time and energy that i'd rather put
into making more music.)
Jon Drukman jdrukman%dlsun87@oracle.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence.