I Told Them About The Album Launch

The steam train that is the launch of our forthcoming album continues to chug on its musical tracks. Ugh, what a terrible metaphor, sorry to start a post like that. But yes, we are so very nearly there. All the album artwork and the master went to the duplcation company yesterday and in 10 working days we should have 500 jewel cased CDs and 500 packaged CDs ready to go to various record labels, blogs and magazines and so on. As you can see, we also have a poster for the album launch. Hopefully, if you live in Bristol, you will see one of these around somewhere as I have been putting them up all day. What fun I had. The poster gives a large clue to the album artwork although it is not what the final cover will look like. That will remain under wraps for the time being. Anyone that does live in Bristol should recognise the location and the lovely pink poster behind me.

We had the largest moment of indecision so far yesterday when, at the very last minute, the repro company asked if we wanted the CDs individually cellophane wrapped. Now personally I hate the plastic wrap around CDs that you often get in record stores. First of all, it doesn't allow you to have a nose around the CD and the inlay before you purchase and secondly, it's a complete pain in the arse to get in to. I still haven't found a sensible way of doing it without a scalpel blade. However, our resident designer (Michael, our guitarist) was convinced that having wrapping would present a professional image to our share holders. So I polled 4 share holders (the 4 people who I knew would be available on email at the time) and the two that regularly buy CDs said no and the other two said they couldn't care less. All that time I was thinking from an image point of view. Then it dawned on me that the plastic required to wrap 500 CD cases is actually quite a lot. I do so hate wasting plastic, this is why we have a whole cupboard full of plastic containers waiting to be taken to the recycling. So, in the end, I made the executive decision not to have plastic wrapping. I do apologise if that impairs your listening experience but please be mindful of the fact that it was purely an environmental decision.

One quick word on something I'm building a bit of a passion for lately. It has come to my attention that a lot of people, when they receive the CD, are likely to burn it to MP3s then put the CD away and never (or rarely) get it out again. Well I hope they burn it before they do that anyway. I would therefore like to request that those that do this, burn it in as high quality as the space on their mp3 players will allow. If you use itunes this means going to Edit>Preferences>Import Settings then selecting MP3 Encoder from the drop down list and then, ideally, use Custom and encode it at 320kbs. I challenge people to encode at this rate then use the standard 128kbs rate and compare the two. You will be astounded, I guarantee it. In this age of making music more instantaneous and accessible, it is very important that we do not compromise on quality as a result.

Now please excuse me while I watch the end of Captain Corelli's Mandolin (spoiler alert, ze Germans just killed all the Italians, ouch) and finish my glass of Merlot in preparation for my 13 mile run tomorrow. It's hard being a rock star.

Arrivederci

Stephen

Photo Sessions and Economics 101

First of all, an update on the progress of the album. We have the second batch of mixers from mix-master Rob and we're just about there. One song to be tweaked then we're on to mastering. With this in mind, we bounded in to town on Sunday to do a photo shoot for the album cover. Without giving too much away, we were standing in the middle of broadmead with a tripod and many passers by looking on in curiosity. For those that know broadmead shopping precinct (not the new Cabot's Circus) you may imagine just how uncomfortable this was. Still, we came out unscathed (with all equipment intact and in our possession) and got the shots we needed. The theme for the album cover is similar to the Hypochondriac CD single cover (above). Well, it's not the theme I suppose, we haven't done another cover of me sitting in a mock doctor's surgery. But you'll notice the similarities when you see it. I was putting the wording together for the inlay last night and it is quite hard trying to think of meaningful things to say on the inside of a CD case. I am not sure that many people buy CDs anymore, let alone read inlay cards. Personally I love to and it's one of the reasons why I will always buy a physical product over a digital release any day. At the end of the day, as well as the music, someone (much like I did) has sat down for a few hours and worked out what to write in the cover. Whilst you could clearly include all this sentiment in a digital release, it doesn't feel quite as 'valid' as something that ends up in print.

So the next step is for manufacture of how ever many CDs we chose to manufacture. This leads me on to my next point about economies of scale, in this case within the CD duplication market. There are a number of option available to small bands/labels when releasing music. By far the cheapest is to go for a digital release. It's very easy and very cheap to get music on to all the major digital distributors these days. But based on my previous comments it should be obvious why we have not opted for this route alone (we will have a digital release). The second option is to be 100% 'DIY'. Get a very limited run of CD-Rs produced (or burn them yourselves) and make quirky home made packaging yourself. If done properly it can be stunning and will give the purchaser a real sense of owning a piece of artwork. Rowena from Santa Dog is the absolute queen of DIY packaging. It obviously helps that she is an artist and has an amazing amount of patience for making things. Just check out the amazing bags she makes http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5429379. Whilst we have a graphic designer for a guitarist, none of us really have an aptitude for making 'arty stuff', and when done badly DIY packaging can do terrible detriment to the integrity of the product contained within.

The third option is to use professional duplication services, a lot of which are adapting to offer relatively good deals for small manufacturing runs (perfect for independent labels). Which brings me on to my current bugbear, economies of scale. Economies of scale, for those that don't know, means the larger the quantity of something you produce, the cheaper it becomes. Economies of scale arise from high fixed start up cost (imagine creating a mold for a model of the Eiffel tower) but low ongoing costs (the cost of pouring plaster of Paris in to the mold). The more models of the Eiffel tower you make from the original mold, the lower your average cost per model becomes and the more profit you can make for each model. This concept applies equally to CD manufacture when there is a start up cost involved and is very important when the profit made from a CD is so reliant on the cost of production relative to the price of sale. In this case, the start up is the manufacture of the glass master disc. Once this has been produced, the master disc is used to create any number of further copies. The option that confronts us when making our manufacturing decision is whether to produce 500 or 1,000 CDs. 500 CDs is probably a good number (the original number used in my share holder example). That's 100 odd for the shareholders, perhaps another 100 used as promo then 300 left to distribute at gigs and hopefully sell. CDs come in boxes which are quite cumbersome and with CD jewel cases, only fit around 100 to a box. So the last thing you want is boxes and boxes of unwanted CDs lying around. It's both discouraging from an egotistical point of view and down right jarring from a space point of view. So it is important to try and gauge your market well and manufacture the correct amount.

The question to raise then would clearly be 'why consider making 1,000 CDs?'. Well here is my gripe. To glass master, there is a one off start up cost of around £125 for orders of less than 1,000 units. The cost per unit to print on the CD is around 25p. So to produce 500 CDs, there is cost to the customer of £125 + 500 x £0.25 = £250. For 1,000 CDs the start up cost falls away and the cost is solely 25p per unit. It doesn't take a calculator to realise that 1,000 CDs cost £250. Yes, you read that correctly, manufacturing 1,000 CDs cost exactly the same as manufacturing 500. Doesn't seem right does it? It gets worse. Most professional print runs are restricted to a minimum order of 1,000 units (presumably, again, to do with high start up costs). So if you order 500 CDs with a colour inlay card and CD tray insert, you actually pay for 1,000 inlays and inserts. What do they do with the other 500? Throw them away, that's what. So far, there is no price differential between 500 and 1,000 CDs. The only part of the process which is different is the clear plastic jewel cases, which are per unit with no initial fixed costs, around 12p a unit. So the only price differential between 500 and 1,000 CDs is 500 x £0.12 = £60. Given this information I find it very hard to believe why anyone would order a run of 500 CDs instead of 1,000. Which doesn't seem terribly fair to me.

Being a stubborn person I asked the manufacturers for a quote for 500 fully finished CDs in cases with 4 page inlay and CD tray backing, plus 500 'raw' CDs and inlays/booklets. The quote was produced and not entirely surprisingly was exactly the same as a run of 500 fully finished CDs. It does seem a little odd that this is never given as an option when you ask for quotes (effectively you can get 500 unpackaged units for free). I am fairly sure few people have ever asked for it as it took a while to explain to the sales team.

Why not just pay £60 for fully packaged CDs you may ask, it's not that much extra? Well, firstly, space. The jewel cases are the bit which take up most room, as anyone who has bought a large number of CDs on spindles will vouch. Secondly, when sending out CDs as promos, it is a good idea if you can get the package in to a standard first class envelope instead of a jiffy bag. The difference in cost between a first class stamp plus a standard A5 envelope compared to a large first class stamp plus a jiffy bag is around 60p. If you're sending out 100-200 promos, that's a decent saving. The raw CDs can be packaged with the inlay in to slip cases and sent in a standard envelope with a standard first (or even second) class stamp. Jewel cases need jiffy bags and fall in to the 'large' package category. So that will leave another 300 to 400 'raw' CDs and inlays which can be used in the future if stocks sell out (just buy some CD cases and get packing). So that's what I did, and very pleased with myself I am too. So pleased I thought I'd write about it!

Thus concludes today's lesson in the economics of music production 101. I must now write to our shareholders as they may think that we have run away with all their money by now.

Until next time.

Steve FOTG

Progress, progress and more progress

Last weekend we worked with neverendingly enthusiastic and downright brilliant Mr Robbie Williams. No, not that Robbie Williams, that would be stupid and expensive and he probably doesn't know anything about pro tools or even own a studio. It was the Robbie Williams at the desk in the attached photo. Rob runs a studio from his house in Bedminster and we decided to go there 3 years ago to record our first single (Obsessive Compulsive) because Rob had always managed to get us sounding amazing at the Louisiana. Having an engineer that knows what you sound like and knows what you want to achieve is invaluable when recording. You can work so much more efficiently, and we really needed efficient working at the weekend. Our task was to finish the album, seven songs in 2 days. Hard work by anyone's standard but we managed it with two 12 hour days with regular breaks chatting with the chickens in the back yard. I can't wait to hear the finished results when I return from holiday.

We have settled on the date and venue for the launch show, which means that the album will have to be completed by this date (otherwise there will be little point launching it). We shall be at our spiritual Bristol home of the Louisiana on 26th September with the premier Bristol party band The Get Outs and one man band dark pop sensation Matt Prosac aka Cabaret Rat. Check out their tunes here:

http://www.myspace.com/cabaretrat

http://www.myspace.com/thegetouts

Obviously all share holders will get free entry to the show. We're also going to sell the album for a fiver on the night which will include a free download code for people to give to their friends. Talking of shareholders, we're doing well but we're not quite there. We have officially sold 70 of the 100 shares. We have 23 shares allocated but have not received money for. I don't think this is much of an issue, it's just a bit embarrassing chasing people for cash. So really we've only got 7 left, which is pretty pleasing. We have definitely covered the cost of all the recording and mixing and hopefully some of the duplication. But if anyone wants one of those remaining 7 shares please get in contact.

I've also had a few more ideas in terms of what we offer shareholder, partly because of the very frustrating economies of scale in music duplication, meaning we will initially have 1,000 copies of the album instead of the expected 500 and partly for actual logical reasons. I recently read an interesting article by Andrew Dubber, who is quite big in the whole 'electronic music marketing' industry, about how best to distribute promo copies of music. It led me to the concept of giving shareholders more than they need music wise so that they can pass it on to other people. This won't particularly help generate revenue but will help spread the FOTG message. So all shareholders who own more than one share will get two copies of the album, on the proviso that they give one to a friend or family member who they think might like it and haven't heard of FOTG. All single share holding share holders will receive a free download code for the following site:

http://firstofthegiants.bandcamp.com/

The code will allow one unique download of the whole album. Again, it would be put to best use if given to a friend (obviously the CD can just be ripped to iTunes so would be pointless for the shareholder to have). It's all about targeted marketing. Promo can be so hit and miss some times. Throw enough shit at the wall (I am not saying our album is shit, it's just an analogy) and some of it will stick. Andrew Dubber's point was that you shouldn't underestimate the power of giving someone who isn't used to receiving free CDs, a free CD (compared to someone who gets 100s of free CDs a week). So that's the plan anyway, we'll see if it works.

Obviously we will do the usual bombardment of online and physical music magazines. I find this process very mundane to be honest. I have built up a reasonable contacts book by now so I don't have to do that ground work. But the process of printing labels, writing press releases and packing envelopes really isn't the most entertaining thing I can think of. Then of course there is the chasing up that needs to be done. But then reviews can tend to make or break a record. Having none obviously doesn't help matters! So it's all a necessary evil if you like.

So thus concludes today's lesson in online music marketing and recording works of art in a short space of time. Homework's due in on Monday.

Steve P

xxx

All Around The World

We've made it to Canada and we've made it in to Venue. That's proper international that is!

We've struck a chord (probably a made-up one knowing us)

Firstly, apologies for the lame title of this post, there are probably only 6 people that get the joke. Three of them are in the band with me and the other three have been in the band with me.

Thanks to a friend of a friend we've had a bit of coverage and some nice comments from people who don't even know us. Check Steve Clayton's Geek in Disguise blog. Thanks very much to Steve and the nice comments in response to his blog. This has generated some interest and we're now up to around 60 or so confirmed purchases (a few people still to pay in there so please get on to paypal or mail me for bank details, which is the preferred payment method).

I wanted to pick up on a point that someone made in response to Steve's blog post and was also made to me by a friend in the 'music industry'. Basically, there are a good handful of sites that offer very similar finance means. Slice the Pie is the one that was mentioned and the first one I was aware of a while back, but there are definitely others. As I understand it you sell yourself as a band and investors buy shares in you. I believe you have to get past a certain stage before you're actually considered for serious investment. The investment is also much more extensive than we are offering because it allows you return from (and presumably some say in, as a shareholder) the band's future.

I was initially very positive about this means of selling a band. I like the fact that there isn't a single person deciding who is most eligible for investment. I am sure it does have its flaws however. Presumably investment generates popularity in itself, so it almost becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Are people really going to trawl the site for bands with limited or no investment so far, or will they follow the 'smart money' so to speak? Anyway, a friend of mine's girlfriend secured significant finance for her album via this site with no label or media support, so it must be a good thing for some people.

The reasons I chose not to use a ready made site for this exercise are three-fold. Firstly, I am not entirely convinced how much effort it takes for a band to enter the site and put themselves on the market. Whilst this isn't (and shouldn't be) a criteria for it being a successful marketing tool, I like to think that if people see you putting in a bit of effort and ingenuity, then they are more likely to take you seriously and support you. I have thought this for the last 5 years I've been playing in FOTG, in terms of the gigs we play at, the ones we promote and the CDs we produce. If you put in some effort then people seem more prepared to invest some time listening to you.

The second reason is that we don't want immediate world domination so want to do things on a smaller, more personal 'DIY' scale. Yes, of course we want the album to sell well and, by proxy, our shareholders to do well from the investment. But we also want the people that invest in us and the people that buy our album to have a little sense that they were involved in something a bit special. Judging from the feedback we've received so far this seems to be the case. I mentioned to a friend the other day who asked how it was going that I was most surprised with the people that had bought more than one share. Hopefully this is because of the way we have pitched the idea and the fact that it has captured some imagination more so than if we had just used a conventional music investment site.

The third reason is that I once met an individual associated with one of these sites. I will give this person the benefit of the doubt, in that we were both relatively well oiled and I am sure, otherwise, he has a great personality. But we had quite a frustrating discussion about the music business and how it really wasn't anything to do with the quality of the music, it was down to one thing and that was marketability. Also, DIY record labels were dismissed as pointless. Whilst I am prepared to admit that there is a massive part of the music industry that is a cynical musical conveyor belt, I will not concede that "good music will out" and "if you want to do it right, do it yourself" are not good mantras to live by. Plus DIY record labels were the largest growth area of the industry this year. So yes, this little discussion rather soured what I thought, on the face of it, to be a good idea.

A quick note on the share certificates and MP3s. We are currently working on the certificates and would like to get these finished first so they can be sent with a link to the files in a nice email package. We should have them done in about a week or so but if you're really desperate to get your hands on the MP3s then please drop me a line and I will send them through.

Have a good week y'all and keep on doing it yourself (not like that though!).

Steve FOTG

Share our band......

The share offer is underway.

An invite to 100 of our family and friends has been sent. So far 45 of the 100 shares on offer have been purchased. Hopefully we haven't missed anyone out who might want a share. Please feel free to let us know if we have.

In order to present a modicum of seriousness to the offer, we have written a share prospectus document highlighting the terms and conditions of the offer (much the same as in our last blog entry but a bit more belt and braces). I'd love to say it took an hour but it actually took two whole evenings. So it better bloody be worth it.

The share offer will be open to everyone from 1 July. There will be a small feature in the music section of Venue magazine before then. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the prospectus document in advance of this date then please contact us on:

itoldthemabouttheshares@firstofthegiants.co.uk

Rock and roll

FOTG
xxxx

The Ultimate Sell Out

We are currently in the process of recording our album. We have three tracks completed now: Mr Robinson, an ode to men loving other men, available to listen to on our Myspace; The Elephant In The Room, a 2 minute math rock epic; and Mirror Mirror which is our tribute to The Knack (we did it before Wheatabix!). We also have an album title, 'I Told Them About The World', which I thought was suitably egocentric of us. We are due back at Ruby Studios in July to record the final seven tracks and then we will move on to mastering, artwork, promo and reproduction. I am hoping that we are in a position to have a launch night in September before the birth of the first FOTG offspring (FIRSTOFTHEBABIES if you will).

I often spend many a restless night lying in bed thinking about how best to market the album. I find it is the best time to do some thinking, probably mainly because it's the only time of the day I am not working, watching the TV, or posting on Choke/Facebook/Twitter (yes, I really am that sad). We've spoken to some independent record labels but, as sterling a job as these labels do, they want young 20 somethings prepared to jump in a van and promote the record for months on end on the toilet circuit. Given our love for nice hotels and plasma TVs and our advancing years (except for Adam who is still a youngster) this isn't really practical for us. What we want is something that generates some promotion and also gives a little back to the people that have supported us for the last five years (who are invariably the first people to buy any CDs we produce).

A few years ago I stumbled across a band (who I've completely forgotten the name of, but that's not really relevant) who were setting up a record label. To finance the record label they offered an opportunity to buy a share in the business. I liked the idea because it eliminate the middle men, who take around 98% of the revenue from most album sales and also gives fans some feelings of ownership of the fortunes of the band they're supporting. The shortfall of the idea was that it required significant investment, 100s if not 1,000s of pounds, which doesn't open the idea to the every day CD buyer. So I've borrowed (stolen) the best bits of their idea but amended it a bit for our purposes. We will, therefore, be selling shares in our forthcoming album!! You can literally own a part of FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS.

How it works?

There will be 100 shares available to purchase, each share will initially be on sale for £5. Each share must be purchased with an advance copy of the album at a preferential price of £5 (so £10 in total). We will own 100 shares each per band member so there will be 500 shares in existence. One person can purchase a maximum of 5 shares for £30 (this will only include one copy of the album though).

There will be 500 CDs manufactured initially (more if demand requires it) and the remaining 400 albums will be sold at £10, online and at future shows and for 79p a track on iTunes. Each share can be redeemed at any point (following the actual physical release of the album) either by selling it back to us or by trading it with other people. The share price will be affected by the number of sales following the initial 100 made to shareholders. So if we sell 200 albums in total (100 on top of the initial share and album sale), we will make 100 x £10 = £1,000. This revenue will increase the share price by £1,000 / 500 = £2 per share, so each share will be worth £7. The following spreadsheet illustrates how the share price will be affected by future sales:

Shareholder_example.xls

So if we sell 350 CDs in total, the share price will be £10 and all shareholders will make £5 on the initial share price, covering the cost of the CD! If we sell 1,000 copies of the album, the share price will be £23, giving a profit of £18 per share. If the album sells as many as Michael Jackson's Thriller (109 million copies) each share will be worth £2.18m. I'd go as far as saying that the album is better than Thriller, so who knows?

What does the shareholder get out of it?

Well the obvious answer is that each shareholder gets a preferential album price of £5 and will, hopefully, make that back also (so a free album!). However, in addition to this benefit, shareholders will be entitled to a number of other 'perks'

• Shareholder certificate
• 3 high quality MP3 of the currently recorded songs and limited edition artwork
• Their name on the finalised album artwork
• Free entry to the album launch show
• Regular sales updates via email (and text message if desired)
• First call on future share offers
• Overwhelming glow of helping out an independent record label and band
  

Entry to the album release party alone is worth £5, so all in all, a complete and utter bargain!

What do we get out of it?

Well, for a start, the revenue generated from pre-sale of 100 copies of the album and the shares will provide the funding we need to finish the recording and production of the album. We then hope that owning a share in the album will encourage people to recommend it to their friends (this obviously isn't a requirement of purchasing a share, you can just sit back and do nothing if that is your want). Hopefully, the process in itself will generate a bit of publicity too. If the exercise is successful we will follow the same process for the Christmas single and future releases. As already mentioned, the shareholders for the album will be the first to be offered the opportunity to purchase future shares.

So there you go. FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS are officially for sale!

Shares will be released for purchase on 1 June 2009 via Paypal. You can follow the progress of the album from recording to manufacturing (and general musings on the failings of Arsenal Football Club) on our twitter feed at:

Twitter

If you would like further information and to register your interest or if you have any ideas or suggestions then please email us at:

itoldthemabouttheshares@firstofthegiants.co.uk

Thanks for listening.

Steve and the rest of FIRSTOFTHEGIANTS