WELCOME!
This is our first issue of the ELS Productions newsletter and we are very excited about our new website. The new website is easier to navigate and has a lot more product pictures and descriptions to help you decide which packaging option is for you. The problem sometimes with technology is we get so many choices that it becomes hard to decide what to do.The new web site is just the beginning of helping you make the best choices for your product.
This newsletter is a new venture for us so I hope you will give us some time to work through the process. I promise it will get better as we go.
Why short-run when 1000 CDs are so much cheaper?
I often get asked the question..."why should I do 100 or 200 CDs when I can get 1000 CDs for much less per disc"? It's a good question and the answer really depends on your situation. If you are sure you will sell 1000 CDs in a reasonable time period then by all means go with 1000. We offer replication services and you will find that our prices are competitive with most replicators. But the real question is how many units you will actually sell. If you buy 1000 CDs with a 2 panel insert the cost is $917.00 plus shipping (approx $200.00 for shipping). That is only $1.12 per package! 100 CDs of the basic same package will cost you $2.54 each including shipping.
It is easy to see that $1.12 each is a way better price than $2.54 each. But here's where you have to think things through. Lets say you order 1000 CDs but you only sell 200 of them. What was the real cost of the 200 CDs you sold? Well if you divide the $1,117.00 by 200 you will see that they cost you $5.59 each. That is more than two times as much as the cost of the 100 short run CDs.
It would be nice to have a crystal ball and know exactly how many discs you will sell but unfortunately none of us have one (if you do please call me and we will work something out). I have been in the recording and production business for over 20 years now and I have produced and helped 1000's of bands with their duplication needs. Some bands seem to just breeze through their first order be it 100 or 500 or 1000. Others have a hard time moving their first 100. What is the difference? Well often it is the quality of the actual recording and the talent of the band, but that is only part of the story. A lot of it is how well they market themselves, or how big of a fan base they already have. You could have the best punk rock album in the last 10 years but if you don't have a fan base and you don't market it well, you could sit on your first order for a long time.
Only you know your marketing plans and your current fan base. It's easy to get caught up in the moment and say that your album is so great that it will sell 1000 copies easily but this is not the time to get caught up in the moment. I still remember my drummer bringing me an 8 track (OK yes, I am old) copy of our first album that we recorded and his words to me were... "we've got the music world on the run with this tape." Well, needless to say, the music business got on just fine without us. Sadly, It just wasn't that great.
This is the time to put on your business cap and look at things realistically and make sure you don't end up with a lot of unsold inventory. Unsold inventory raises the ultimate cost of each CD that you sold. Short run allows you to get your feet wet a little at a time and see what kind of response you are going to have. It also gives you the opportunity to do an initial release and see if there are any tweaks to the artwork or the album itself before committing to a larger run. I know many bands that have printed up 1000 CDs only to discover a typo on the traycard or a song that they didn't like the mix on after the first few packages were sold. Now they have to move the first 1000 before they can correct the mistake.That or really bite the bullet and start over and get rid of the first run. OUCH!
If you need a larger run then by all means you should do that. But it should be your decision and it should make sense to your bottom line. I have had many customers do 100 CDs and then 2 weeks later call me up and do 100 more. And then a month later call and order 100 or 250 more. A few have done that enough times that they have ordered over 1000 CDs over time. Well, had they known that up front it probably would have been better to get the 1000 on their first order. But the other reality was that it was easier for them to come up with $254.00 for the first order than over $1,100.00. Then when they were getting close to selling out they had us do another order. It's a lot easier on the cash flow. Plus they don't run the risk of having a bunch of CDs that they can't sell when demand starts to diminish. They were still making plenty of profit on each sell and then they could use the money they made from the first sales to buy the next order. And they kept the profit from the first batch to go towards their next cool piece of equipment or to split up for some extra pocket money.
At ELS we offer both short-run and replication and we are happy to do either one for you. We won't try to talk you into doing more CDs than you think you need. Many of the big replication companies offer short run but only as a means of talking you into the larger order. You see they are replicators first and short run duplicators second. They only added short run packages to get you hooked and then they try real hard to switch you to the larger run. Our specialty is short run and we are more than happy to make sure you don't caught in the trap of more CDs than you really need.
I hope this helps you to figure out the best way for you to proceed. The cool thing is you have a choice. It wasn't that long ago that you had to do at least 1000 CDs and they cost you over $3000.00 to do them. Technology has given us all kinds of advantages. It allows all of us to participate in the music industry and to allow people everywhere the chance to hear new and different artists without the control of a big label telling us what they think we want to hear. All in all it's a great time to be a musician.
Easy Graphic Art Tip
OK, before I wrap up our first issue, I want to give you a real basic art tip for submitting your graphics to us for printing. Believe it or not most of the problems we have with orders that cause delays are not with the master CD but with the art files for the printing. So before you submit the art files to us, open the actual files you are sending, be they PDF files or JPG files or whatever, open up the actual final file you are submitting and zoom in on the smaller text. If the smaller text looks sharp and has smooth curves the you are probably good to go. If the text looks blurry or "stair stepped" on diagonals and curves, or it has funny looking little dots around the letters, then your file is not going to print as good as it could. Catching the problem before you send it will save you time and help us keep you job moving through the system without delays. If you have an art problem and you don't know what caused it or you are unsure of how to fix it, call us and we will be more than happy to help you through it.
In the coming issues I will be writing more articles on how to get the most from you art and how to make it technically correct so we can print it and keep your job looking great with no delays. Until then, don't be afraid to call us and ask for assistance.
