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Charging for a mixtape?

I'm sure the thread title brough about quite a few thoughts already....



In any case, I just had a bunch of CDs professionally printed and sorted and it ended up costing me a good bit, especially for the poor student that I am.


My friend who runs the printing company is a DJ as well and he suggested I sell some of the copies to cover costs and make a buck of two. I've been going back and forth with the idea bouncing it off people all day getting different perspectives. Some claim promos should be handed out, others say if they want the properly made cd they can buy it, otherwise download it for free. I thouught about charging 5 dollars, but that seems like a lot, then again $5 is half a pack of smokes.

They cost me $1.25 per cd, so costs arent too high... If I was going to do it, I planned to have them for sale at the door, which means I'd have to cut the coatcheck girls a little bit which is totally reasonable if I were to go through with it... So then let's say I cut them .50 cents on each unit sold, I'm taking about $3.25 minus costs of the tunes on actual cd.


Hmm... Seems businessy to me... not so sure...


Then I thought about charging $2 (we have a 2 dollar coin in Canada for those who dont know) which makes it very easy and much more like a tip, small price to pay for the service and a nicely labeled, fresh cd .


Now obviously I'd give some away but having them at the door for 2$ would allow people who didnt know me, left at a random time, or whatever reason to get ahold of the music easily. It also means you have to want it, just a little bit. The whole problem with when CDs are given away unless you have a massive quanitity so many just end up in the trash, I didn't make these for that. Shit, I'd pay 2 bucks for a cd at a random party if I liked the music- it's the reasonable thing to do, in fact I think I'd be happy if I had the option to snap up a cd like that.


These are just some rambling thoughts I need to put together by friday...


Then again do I even want to charge? Never really thought about it before today.

feel free to add anything to the discussion

It seems like a good idea. Cant you post a picture of the CD and case and what not so we get a general idea of the quality. Selling them at the door would be a pretty good idea, but only if you put like a business card or some sort inside as well so people can contact you after words.

Re: Charging for a mixtape?

quote:

Originally posted by Allied Nations I'm sure the thread title brough about quite a few thoughts already.... In any case, I just had a bunch of CDs professionally printed and sorted and it ended up costing me a good bit, especially for the poor student that I am. My friend who runs the printing company is a DJ as well and he suggested I sell some of the copies to cover costs and make a buck of two. I've been going back and forth with the idea bouncing it off people all day getting different perspectives. Some claim promos should be handed out, others say if they want the properly made cd they can buy it, otherwise download it for free. I thouught about charging 5 dollars, but that seems like a lot, then again $5 is half a pack of smokes. They cost me $1.25 per cd, so costs arent too high... If I was going to do it, I planned to have them for sale at the door, which means I'd have to cut the coatcheck girls a little bit which is totally reasonable if I were to go through with it... So then let's say I cut them .50 cents on each unit sold, I'm taking about $3.25 minus costs of the tunes on actual cd. Hmm... Seems businessy to me... not so sure... Then I thought about charging $2 (we have a 2 dollar coin in Canada for those who dont know) which makes it very easy and much more like a tip, small price to pay for the service and a nicely labeled, fresh cd . Now obviously I'd give some away but having them at the door for 2$ would allow people who didnt know me, left at a random time, or whatever reason to get ahold of the music easily. It also means you have to want it, just a little bit. The whole problem with when CDs are given away unless you have a massive quanitity so many just end up in the trash, I didn't make these for that. Shit, I'd pay 2 bucks for a cd at a random party if I liked the music- it's the reasonable thing to do, in fact I think I'd be happy if I had the option to snap up a cd like that. These are just some rambling thoughts I need to put together by friday... Then again do I even want to charge? Never really thought about it before today. feel free to add anything to the discussion

Why not sell your best (or at least a reasonably good one) for $2 and charge $5 for the rest. That way they can demo it... and if they really like it then they support your efforts.

Re: Re: Charging for a mixtape?

quote:

Originally posted by Darkarbiter Why not sell your best (or at least a reasonably good one) for $2 and charge $5 for the rest. That way they can demo it... and if they really like it then they support your efforts.

Because then if he plans on giving them out at the door they would have to go home or listen to it on the car ride, and if they like it, well honestly it might be too late to go back and get the others or what not.

I dont think I need to point out the obvious, but unless you get permission from every artist on the "demo" that you make, it is not legal.

Then again, charge or no charge I think they are illegal.

I could be wrong.. *shrug*

I have always given my cd's away (because they are dirt cheap) and are not so bad even if i just used a sharpie to write on them.

Also, a printer that prints directly to CD (ie: Epson R220) , is dirt cheap ($90) and only $30 (approx) to refill ALL 6 carts.. If you only need one replaced it is $8 .. each full replacement of all gets you 150 + CD/DVD's (heavy on color too) printed.

my humble thoughts...

Jay

quote:

Originally posted by veezee I dont think I need to point out the obvious, but unless you get permission from every artist on the "demo" that you make, it is not legal.

yeah, its not legal to sell mix CDs. its no different to copying CDs and selling them.

stop being such a tightarse.

quote:

Originally posted by veezee I dont think I need to point out the obvious, but unless you get permission from every artist on the "demo" that you make, it is not legal. Then again, charge or no charge I think they are illegal. I could be wrong.. *shrug*

Yep always illegal. Unless you have written permission of the company/person owning the rights on the track. Which in general is not the artist but the record label.

what the others have said really, whether you give them away or sell them its illegal, although giving them away tends to be overlooked because its the way the scene operates, however i'm sure that if any of the artists featured found out you were making money from it, they would be less than impressed...

i can see the dilemma you're having, but IMO selling the CDs is not the right solution. i'd just give them away if i were you. but you'd have to come up with some other way of sorting out the people that really want them and the ones that'll throw it in the bin when they've gone out the door. make them do something for the CDs. dunno what that could be, but asking money for them is wrong IMO.

Essentially it's a bit of promotional material (rather than something designed to directly make you money) and the benefits of people supporting your music, in my opinion, is worth losing money on the printing costs.

Also, if the artists find out you've been charging for copies of a mix with their tracks on it, they're likely to be a lot more pissed off than if you hand them out for free. The legality thing doesn't really come into it as it's just as illegal either way, but artists & labels are more likely to do something about it if you're charging.

Having said that, if you were to charge $1-2 it would be quite obvious that you're not making any money on it and people just having to dig something out of their pocket would make them think about whether they actually want a copy (rather than grabbing it cos it's free then chucking it away, like you say).

I agree that I'd happily pay �5 ($10) for a CD at an event if I liked the music, but the issue isn't really with whether the punters will go for it or not (if it's that cheap, I'm sure it'd be popular), it's more of a music industry morality/courtesy thing imo.

I know in America you at least need some kind of license from the copyright holder to sell a CD with its track on it (I believe Canada has similar laws). Also you're officially a record label, even if you have a name or not. Congrats!

Honestly I would just sell it as a bootleg. Hip-Hop djs have been doing that since Flash's time.

you gotta spend money to make money.

Don't be a tightarse.

if it was me and i needed to make up the money

i would sell them the equivalent of 5 USD a piece, no more, and then hope nobody catches you

probably wouldn't make forum topics about it either given the sketchiness of this practice.

i have never sold mixtapes of my own, though certainly I have thought about it at my parties.

I would do some kind of a stupid contest...

people who want it will most likely have fun of that...


I remember that once we had a collection of 10 promo CDs from all DJs from our club...and we had a contest in fishing them

each of them had a little hook put on the case...and the person had to fish them from the stage whoever got the ten first in time won and had the whole collection...and got it signed also afterwards... pretty funny...

just you need to know if your crowd is weird enough to do something like that...

quote:

Originally posted by veezee Also, a printer that prints directly to CD (ie: Epson R220) , is dirt cheap ($90) and only $30 (approx) to refill ALL 6 carts.. If you only need one replaced it is $8 .. each full replacement of all gets you 150 + CD/DVD's (heavy on color too) printed. my humble thoughts... Jay

I'll give that a big +1. That's what I do and it really saves money from day one. You don't have to worry about a minimum order quantity or anything like that. Although, it's too late for the matter at hand.

One way to get around "charging" for the CD is to give it out at an event you're performing at and, if you're tight with the promoters/manager, see if they would add like $1 to the cover charge that night to help you recoup your costs. They could market the event as "Free CD for the first x-hundred guests" and people would think they're getting a good deal. Just a thought.

After thinking about it, I've decided not to sell them...


Fairly easy decision and you all brought up many of the points I'd been considering about the legal/moral side of things.


Essentially I wanted to start this thread to both talk out my situation and the overall issues related with this sort of practice.

I know how you feel about the costs of these promo materials, but I've learned that one has to 'bite the bullet' sometimes to get the bookings. Next paycheck will be going towards some business cards and maybe some nice jewel-cases for my demos. I figure that spending the extra cash on these things now, say $40 or so, will pay off later when I get booked at multiple $50 nights.

As for who to give the demos to, I would look for the venue owner(s), the local promoter that does events of your style, and other local DJs who know said promoters (heck, those other DJs might give you a demo in return). Basically the idea is to build a bit of interest in you as a DJ, get the locals talking about you so that the promoter approaches you with a gig offer instead of the other way around.

CHEAP TIP: You can use a piece of computer paper as a good CD-sleeve/cover. Use Publisher or some other formatting program to set up a box that goes from 1/2" down to about 4" down, leaving 1 1/2" margins on either side. Put your contact info, logos, etc in that box, print it out, fold and tape along the lines, and VOILA, a makeshift CD sleeve that doesn't look half-bad and is cheap to make. I can post an example if you want.

quote:

Originally posted by Dojomaster26 CHEAP TIP: You can use a piece of computer paper as a good CD-sleeve/cover. Use Publisher or some other formatting program to set up a box that goes from 1/2" down to about 4" down, leaving 1 1/2" margins on either side. Put your contact info, logos, etc in that box, print it out, fold and tape along the lines, and VOILA, a makeshift CD sleeve that doesn't look half-bad and is cheap to make. I can post an example if you want.

The problem with that is, for us Brits we have A4 paper rather than letter size and I'm pretty certain A4 is slightly too small to make a sleeve out of (where as letter size is just big enough)

Yeah...I was referring to 8 1/2" x 11" paper that we have in the US. Sorry

BTW is there a good place in particular to get business cards done? I'd like to get a pack of about 250-500 with the Random Transitions 'swirl' and all necessary contact info, B&W.

quote:

Originally posted by Dojomaster26 Yeah...I was referring to 8 1/2" x 11" paper that we have in the US. Sorry BTW is there a good place in particular to get business cards done? I'd like to get a pack of about 250-500 with the Random Transitions 'swirl' and all necessary contact info, B&W.

vistaprint .com / .ca (for canada) will give 250 FREE cards (you pay shipping) .. on th eback back of the card it has vistaprint logo. You can pay to have it removed and its still really cheap.

Jay

Does a pack of smokes cost $10 over there?? WTF!

quote:

Originally posted by Joost Does a pack of smokes cost $10 over there?? WTF!

It's about that over here but everything's expensive in the UK...

I hope the wages match the prices over there, like New York does.

veezee: Thanks for the tip

charing for a promo? thats a laugh.

You should charge 2 canadian dollars and write with sharpies on them. not only will they enjoy your mix but you will make a buck or two on low cost.

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