1st-in-golf guide

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Beginnings...

Our group - SongSpring - does not do much touring. We play locally and do most of our work in our studio. However, we wanted to see the three years of work that went into our first effort - a theme collection of original instrumental music - see fruition as a finished, shrink-wrapped, distributed CD.

I first heard about CreateSpace long after we had temporarily shelved our CD for lack of funds. CreateSpace gave our CD a second opportunity to see the light of day. As a comparative benchmark, the average cost for manufacturing an "Indie" CD (if the CD consists of all your own original material and no mechanical rights are involved) is about $2,200 for a standard CD Case, 4 page booklet insert, and just 1,000 copies. After that, you have a pile of CDs and no real way to market them (unless, of course, you are a touring band, or you are able to sell them out of the trunk of your car!). By comparison, CreateSpace allowed us to publish for free.

Background...

On a trip to San Diego early in Summer 2008, I talked with my brother-in-law, a writer, who happened to mention CreateSpace. He has already published two books using their tools, and their placement of his novels onis giving him both exposure and driving sales. When I investigated further, I found that not only does CreateSpace provide self-publishing tools for writers, but also shrink-wrapped, bar-coded CDs and DVDs for musicians and video producers, with a digital download option made available on Better still, they absorb all the up-front costs of getting your CD out to market! Best of all, CreateSpace was recently purchased by the giant giving unknown authors the same potential clout as bigger players by making their creations visible to millions and by being searchable directly on

We decided to try using CreateSpace to manufacture and distribute our first CD, "Old California - In Search of a Lost World", and found their guided process easy to follow. Using Adobe , we were able to upload all the artwork for the CD, including the booklet, cover art, CD face artwork, and tray (inner and outer). The finished product was submitted as Jpeg files in specific dimensions provided in their guidelines. For me, this process took about 10 days, working on it part-time, but I was learning some of the tools for the first time, including Photoshop. You will need to have access to Photoshop, though CreateSpace provides all of the templates needed, and you can download a free trial version of Photoshop from Adobe, good for 30 days.

Proof Positive...

Next, we were stepped through all phases of the CD creation process, from obtaining a barcode (free), to entering all of the track information. For a manufactured CD your audio files should be uploaded in CD-quality AIFF or WAV files -- we used the tracks from the final Master CD we received from DiscMakers when we first finished the production/recording phase of our CD a year or two earlier. These files needed to be compressed and uploaded to the Create Space site using WinZip or, in our case, the Mac OS X equivalent "Archive" option you get when right-clicking on a group of files.

After everything was entered (including our checking account information so that Amazon and CreateSpace could transfer funds into our account for each month's sales) we received a Proof Copy in about five days. In our case, we found numerous corrections to details we had missed on the first round, so we ended up requesting second and then third and final proofs after revising the manufacturing information and tweaks to the cover design. Side note: we were never charged for these proofs, though subsequent proofs were shipped snail-mail and took about seven days each to arrive.

Once we approved the final Proof, we were able to enable the CreateSpace site to begin selling our CDs on CreateSpace and Amazon simply by logging in to our account and "Approving" the proof online. Instantly, our CD became purchasable on on CreateSpace, and then about two weeks later, it appeared on At Amazon we were provided with our own mini-website where users could peruse the CD, read the descriptions, listen to samples, and choose whether to download immediately for about $8.95 or purchase as a normal CD for $16.95, including shipping. Here's another caveat: CreateSpace and Amazon keep a percentage of the profit for each sale. However, you also have the option of ordering large quantities for yourself directly from the CreateSpace site for a very reasonable cost of about $5 each.

There are Marketing Options as well -- we chose to launch an Ad-Words campaign on Amazon with specific keywords to drive traffic to our site, but we are also using peer networking - related music sites - to gain visibility. In any case, being searchable on Amazon is better than just sitting out there in the void! CDs are all shipped as shrink-wrapped, barcoded professional product.

Some Technical Notes...

CreateSpace uses "Publishing on Demand", an area in which they and Amazon have been pioneers. It does not matter if someone orders 1 or 1,000 copies - the shrink-wrapped CDs are only created as needed, and then shipped the same day. Because of this, these CDs are not the same as mass-produced CDs, but rather are "burned". This MAY render them unplayable on some ancient CD players from the 1980's, but in all other respects the product is virtually indistinguishable from mass-produced CDs, right down to the barcode, on-disk printing, and shrink wrap.

Cautions...

It is wise to register your final proof copy track names with GraceNotes prior to releasing your CD. CreateSpace maintains a consistent "Proof" copy of your first CD, so if you use iTunes (or other products listed at to register all your original track names with the GraceNotes Online Database, all purchasers of your CDs will be able to see the track information on their laptop or iPod. This is a free service and is industry standard - virtually every commercial CD is registered at GraceNotes.

Also, be sure to choose ASCAP or BMI if you are publishing your own CD. Immediately after you release your CD, you can use their websites to track performances of your music on radio and Internet stations - and receive quarterly royalty checks. I am an ASCAP member, and I like getting my royalty checks. As a member, I have the ability to log in and upload mp3 versions of all the CD tracks. This way they have a digital "fingerprint" of each song. I assume BMI has a similar service.

Finally, COPYRIGHT your CD using an SR (Song Recording) form downloadable at the Library of Congress. You can just use one form to register all the songs on a single CD, and last time I checked, the fee was about $35. This legally protects your CD even further, though technically simply releasing your CD on Amazon is an implicit copyright. Still, don't take chances. Go to httpgov to get these forms, or follow the links on ASCAP or BMI.

Sales...

The Jury is still out on the bottom line - SALES - but for getting the CD produced, the process was easy to follow and the response times from Amazon/CreateSpace's staff were excellent, always within 24 hour window.

The link to our Amazon site can be found on our own website at Our CD - "Old California - In Search of a Lost World" - is an instrumental collection of original music.

To visit CreateSpace site, go to

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