Werner Herzog Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Hey Guys, I'm starting my own label soon. I'm a huge fan of pop punk and cassettes, so I decided I wanted to start pressing pop punk albums on tape (seeing as most labels won't do that). I know this is fairly niche and isn't profitable, but can anybody give me some pointers or advice to make sure that this project is successful? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xjustinxschwierx Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 buy a tape duplicator and dub them yourself, print the inserts yourself by using the perforated sheets available from NAC....keep the costs as low as possible and you'll have a better chance to break even. as I type this I'm also working on the VBS album tape artwork Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werner Herzog Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Thanks Justin! I appreciate it! I was actually hoping you'd see this thread and add your input Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emo Revival Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Yeah, what Justin said. I just started one myself, and doing as much as you can on your own saves a bunch of money, and it allows you to keep the product cost down. I've done all the graphic design stuff, and what ever little bit I can so that when I go to sell the product I don't have to charge $22 for a single lp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werner Herzog Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Ideally, I'd like to keep the cost at $2 per cassette (that is sort of wishful thinking though) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kriss Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Not wishful thinking at all. Even going through NAC, you'll be spending around $160 shipped for a run of 100 cassettes - and that's with imprinting, full color j-cards front and back, norelco cases, etc. What Justin said is totally right on and I like doing that for smaller runs of 30 to 50, but for 100 or more, Notes and Bolts has been deferring to NAC. The main thing is their wait time which is SUPPOSED to be 6 weeks but can actually be twice as long. The key is to stay on them and they'll turn things around in the proper time - also, if you don't mind waiting, just line up multiple releases far enough in advance where a new one is dropping every single month and yr putting in more two to three months ahead of schedule (one comes out in august and then one that you put in in july comes out the very next month in september, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chunkrock Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Hey talk to Patron on the board here. He runs Hosehead records which is a pop-punk tape label. He's awesome and does the duplications himself. He is also the cheapest I've seen for tape duplication. www.hoseheadrecords.bigcartel.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xjustinxschwierx Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 additionally steal color copies from anywhere you can. You can easily keep the costs WAAAAAAAAAAAY down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werner Herzog Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Pressing them through a company like NAC or Duplication.ca, does that cut costs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Seems like tapes are cheap as hell (I don't produce music) but do people actually buy them? My gut is telling me that you see pressing numbers of /100 for "bigger" pop-punk bands (copyrights, for example). You have connections to work with bands on this level? You take some local band and press cassettes and you might just be making landfill plastic. Sorry to be cynical. Hope it works out. Just being devils advocate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werner Herzog Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Right now I have permission from Rev Norb to press Boris the Sprinkler's "Mega Anal". I have contacted various labels such as It's Alive and Red Scare hoping to press some of the releases on their labels. I do have some contacts and hopefully they are interested! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtz Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 If you are going to be making tapes, make it it's own release. Don't rely on this recent trend of "cassette collectors". I wouldn't buy a tape if it's available on another format. If it is exclusive to the cassette or maybe a collection of 7"s or something, then it would be worth while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werner Herzog Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 If you are going to be making tapes, make it it's own release. Don't rely on this recent trend of "cassette collectors". I wouldn't buy a tape if it's available on another format. If it is exclusive to the cassette or maybe a collection of 7"s or something, then it would be worth while. I've never been a fan of compilation albums myself, but I know other people are. Thanks for the input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xjustinxschwierx Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 I agree though I'd derive original content as well. It's fun to just license things, but there's no soul to it, the best part of doing a label is finding new things for people to hear and bringing that into the world. also...keep the pressing to around a 100 copies...or less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Never head Boris the Sprinkler but I see the name in tradeslists enough. I'd buy one from you but I have no way to play it. Like Kurtz said, I'd spend $12 on an LP before I spent $5 on a cassette but that's just me. Would be cool if you could record pop-punk bands that come through town play live and create a tape series. If it was my only format choice, I'd probably buy some stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kriss Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 the other thing is to put a download code in there for those that don't have cassette decks but want to listen to the contents of the tape. Depending on the materials used and if you buy things at a good quantity, if you dub the tapes yrself, you could easily get down to $1 a tape. We're experimenting with packaging such as putting the tapes into sleeves made from xerox transparency sheets and such and that's a bit more pricey, but if yr just buying norelco cases in bulk and stealing copies like Justin suggested, you'll be good to go on the cheap. In terms of maximum laziness, $154 from NAC for 100 tapes from start to finish is pretty unbeatable. For really cheap, but high quality color printing, go online and try the site DocuCopies (http://www.docucopies.com/default.asp?gclid=CLTy8JnZzrICFYpFMgodu3gATg) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Different subject but that last post reminded me of it -- Has anyone tried to just handle their own download codes? I've got a high speed internet connection, a 1 TB hard drive, could randomly generate 1000 codes (maybe not so random the FBI couldn't break the pattern, but random enough). It's not something that takes 3 clicks and it's set up but all the pieces are there. Seems like something I wouldn't pay for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xjustinxschwierx Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 if you use bandcamp they cost virtually nothing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejesseb Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 As someone who is also entertaining the idea of doing this, can you guys recommend a good duplicator? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werner Herzog Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Glad this thread is getting some action! Keep it up! Also, adding a download card is a great idea, but costly. I mean, to make the cassette + j card look professional + a download card, that is going to obviously play a factor in how much I'd have to charge per tape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kriss Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 not at all. Like Justin said, BandCamp is an option. Also, uploading to Mediafire is a bit more DIY but tons of tape labels do it and simply print the code onto paper (16 to 30 to a sheet), cut them up and then insert them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xjustinxschwierx Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 not at all. Like Justin said, BandCamp is an option. Also, uploading to Mediafire is a bit more DIY but tons of tape labels do it and simply print the code onto paper (16 to 30 to a sheet), cut them up and then insert them. You can export the bandcamp downloads as an excel sheet and make your own and fit that many on a page if the 10 per page are too big for inserting into the cassette cases, but I haven't had that problem yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
collectivemike Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I just use Sendspace for my digital downloads, and send out the link to everyone that buys each release... it's worked really well for me. If you're going to be doing a 100 run of cassettes pulling all the info together shouldn't be a problem at all, and it's free. Also a plus to doing it this way is that it forces you to put together a mailing list, which is obviously a good thing. /my 2 cents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
controlthebleeding Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 I just did a run of 175 and while im almost out in two weeks, i think a smaller run would have been easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejesseb Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 Another question on this. What type of things need to be done from the Legal side of things in starting a label? Such as filings and what not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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