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Angelo

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 14:14

Indeed.

ISKC Rock Radio
I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected]

Kati

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 14:18

Dean wrote:

On the subject of paying to be on the cover disc, we have covered this before when an artist (Colin Tench?) raised this a few years back.

The CD does not make itself and it costs money to produce. I don't know what the circulation figures are for "CR presents Prog" but let's assume that it;s a lot less than Rock Sound for example (~30,000 readers) - a number around 10,000 world-wide would seem adequate. [If anyone wants to track-down the ABC figures, be my guest].

So 10,000 copies of the magazine and that's a minimum of 10,000 glass-pressed CDs that have to be made, which for the sake of argument we'll say costs £3000 to make including mastering costs.

Suppose that ten artists clubbed together to make a compilation album of their own, so ten artists paying £300 each covers the cost of manufacturing 10,000 CDs and everyone would be happy little bunnies frolicking in the spring sunshine.

Except they now have to distribute those 10,000 CDs, so let's assume that 1,000 of them would be sent out as Promo's to magazines, ezines, "prog" reviewers, promoters, record labels, etc. (because each artist sending them out to those people individually would be silly, no reviewer wants ten copies of the same album). That leaves 9,000 to split between the ten artists (i.e. 900 each) and obviously they'd keep one for each band member, and one for their significant other-halfs and one for their respective mums and dads which wouldn't make much of a dent in the 900 copies they'd have to distribute themselves to fans and prospective fans and people who might be prospective fans... 900 CD's ... that's a hell of a lot and it's no small undertaking for each of the ten artists involved to shift that much product, even when it is given away free.

Or they could get someone else to distribute the CDs for them. Obviously that too costs money because no one is daft enough to promise to give away 9,000 CDs for nothing, there's the cost of postage and buying shipping packaging to be covered for a start, and the time and effort in collating 9,000 names and addresses of people who may (or may not) be interested in the CD, going to the post office with crate-loads of packages, etc...

To put that into perspective - with postage at £0.62 for the stamp and (let's pretend) £0.38 for the mailer, that's £900 to post your 900 CDs out to people,.. your total spend each is now £1,200, not £300

Tricky. If not down-right impractical I would think.

So instead you can spend your £300 to have your track on a magazine cover disc. Now you don't have to fret about getting 10,000 CDs made, you don't have to co-ordinate 9 other artists (all of whom want their track to be first in the track-listing), and you don't have to worry about distributing those CDs to 10,000 would be could be fans. And if you choose your magazine to suit the kind of magazine buying public who would also be the same CD buying punters you are looking for then whoop-di-do, the job's a good'un and everyone is once again happy little bunnies frolicking in the ... well, you get the picture.

Now you could, and can, and do, argue that the cover-mount CD boosts sales for the Magazine and they cover the cost of making it in the exorbitant cover-price, and that is perfectly true. Then not every artist on the cover disc is unknown and we grab this mag from the shelves because of Wick Rakeman on the cover and the lastest SWilson of ALuccassen track on the disc. No one buys the magazine for the one track by some band they've never heard of that they can hear for free on Bandcloud or YouToob.

What Classic Wok provides is a service, much like the service you get when you use a garage to change the oil in your car- sure you can do it yourself for much less cost, but it's easier and more convenient, and you don't have the problem of taking the used oil down to the recycling depot to dispose of. The service is not having your track on the cover disc, it's putting that cover-disc with your track on it into the grubby hands of 10,000 prog fans in one fell swoop... and at £0.03 / reader that smells like ruddy a bargain to me.

However, if you think that £300 is too much then don't use the service. Spend your £300 on another guitar effects pedal or another cymbal, or 480 first-class postage stamps...

Dean,

Hold on let me Skype Colin, he never reads anything going on, this might interest him tho'. brb

Kati

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 14:26

Btw Dean,

a few years back Colin was featured on a cd which inc. Sean Filkins (ex Big Big Train) among others too on that cd. He also had a review on their next issue after that.

big hug

Edited by Kati - April 20 2015 at 14:26

Kati

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 14:41

Rednight wrote:

Kati wrote:

Lately I am a bit confused...

Lately?

lol, you pest

Kati

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 14:46

lazland wrote:

Rednight wrote:

Kati wrote:

Lately I am a bit confused...

Lately?

Don't be nasty. There is no need for it

Exactly, you see!!!

Lazland is my knight in shining armour, Lazland is so nice sweet, hot and fab, you see?

very smart too plus he has a great sense of humour too

ha! I love Lazland too much

He is just too awesome really!

Kati

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 14:50

To be fair I am still trying to convince Rednight to like me, hehehe afterI said something (can't remember what now) but I know I was wrong on my behalf lolol I do still feel bad about that even if I cannot remember what it was about

odinalcatraz View Drop Down

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 15:00

Kati wrote:

Lately I am a bit confused

Lately?

http://www.corvusstone.com

odinalcatraz View Drop Down

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 15:06

Classic Rock mag have themselves said that they have to have someone famous on the cover and articles about bands from way back, or they would never sell enough copies. So we have to conclude, as I concluded in a conclusion I included somewhere or another(Lately I am a bit confused), that Um...
Oh yes! I conclude that the fans and mag buyers are the prob! People won't buy stuff they haven't heard about before. Many on here DO buy stuff they don't already know, as do I but we just aren't enough.
Prog mag is a business. The whole world is a business. Damn the whole world!

http://www.corvusstone.com

Kati

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 15:12

odinalcatraz wrote:

Kati wrote:

Lately I am a bit confused

Lately?

Ssst you, be nice because you are very well aware I can draw and might if provoked with a tiny

imagination draw you in your birth suit

Angelo

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 15:18

Strike! Just don't know who of you both was pitching...

Seriously though - yes, it's all business for the mags, and hobby on the side for the rest of us. But patterns are there to be broken, right?

ISKC Rock Radio
I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected]

odinalcatraz View Drop Down

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 15:25

Angelo wrote:

Strike! Just don't know who of you both was pitching...

Seriously though - yes, it's all business for the mags, and hobby on the side for the rest of us. But patterns are there to be broken, right?

Well I have no problem with a business avoiding going out of business. The problem comes when common decency goes out the window and I am afraid to report that it went out the window in PROG mag a while ago. I've been affected by that and so have others.
That's one thing that has never happened here, as far as I know.

http://www.corvusstone.com

Kati

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 15:33

odinalcatraz wrote:

Angelo wrote:

Strike! Just don't know who of you both was pitching...

Seriously though - yes, it's all business for the mags, and hobby on the side for the rest of us. But patterns are there to be broken, right?

Colin, "Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More"......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wDDoKpVd8s

odinalcatraz View Drop Down

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 16:20

Kati wrote:

odinalcatraz wrote:

Angelo wrote:

Strike! Just don't know who of you both was pitching...

Seriously though - yes, it's all business for the mags, and hobby on the side for the rest of us. But patterns are there to be broken, right?

Colin, "Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More"......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wDDoKpVd8s

I will do exactly that actually. I also plan to be indecent where possible

http://www.corvusstone.com

Rednight

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 16:48

Angelo wrote:

Indeed.

Kati

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Posted: April 20 2015 at 18:11

Rednight wrote:

Angelo wrote:

Indeed.

Svetonio

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Posted: April 21 2015 at 00:37

Windhawk wrote:

Nicely stated Dean. Or to put in this way: Can anyone point towards a marketing service that will guarantee you that your name will be seen by 10.000 readers and your music heard by the greater majority of them for 300 quid? I know a lot of artists would like to know about alternative options that are less expensive :-)

I'm not a musician, but as a just a fan, I agree 100%. It is not a "big money" for that even for the bands from poor Balkans and East Europe.

Well, at the time when The Who charge their hardcore fans 50$ for an one-year membership to the official The Who forum, then the price of 300 pounds to a young band that practically ensures their place in the history with these CD releases is cheap price; it's actually a time capsule and which (in this I would bet in a harder cash than 300 pounds) in the future certainly will be regarded as collectors items as well.

Although, I agree with Kati and the others who already are stated that in the magazine should be more articles about the new bands from underground prog scene (imo, if we say *underground*, it would not include these "new" bands who are already in business for decade or more as the bands who are signed for the reputable records companies as well) with some great pics of them - why not (sometime) on the cover page too; at least, that underground prog scene now is more interesting than that already mentioned prog "mainstream" made by "new" bands.

Edited by Svetonio - April 21 2015 at 01:42

Rednight

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Posted: April 21 2015 at 07:02

Kati wrote:

Rednight wrote:

Angelo wrote:

Indeed.

chopper

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Posted: April 21 2015 at 07:30

Svetonio wrote:

Someone said earlier that Prog has to have famous bands on the cover otherwise they don't sell. I would also say that Prog always has a few features near the beginning on new bands, there's also Steve Davis' column where he usually features weird bands I've never heard of, plus there's the gig and CD reviews as well.

Svetonio

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Posted: April 21 2015 at 08:06

chopper wrote:

Svetonio wrote:

Someone said earlier that Prog has to have famous bands on the cover otherwise they don't sell. (...)

Yea someone said that and I'm just curious how many times they put a cover pic of virtually unknow but a band / solo artist with a great debut album (or great first two albums)?

Btw, I did not say that they should to put an unknow band at the cover every month; just sometimes.

Edited by Svetonio - April 21 2015 at 08:07

chopper

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Posted: April 21 2015 at 08:26

Svetonio wrote:

I'm just curious how many times they put a cover pic of virtually unknow but a band / solo artist with a great debut album (or great first two albums)?

Probably never, for the reason already stated.