Creating a Band - Part IX, Recording an Album

With your band's early reputation established, your gigging experience noteworthy, and your set list embedded into muscle memory, it's time for your band to start thinking about recording your first album. In part nine of the "Creating a Band" series, we're going to discuss the process of laying down a full album, from finding the right studio to paying someone to mix and master, and how you can market and sell the album yourself to turn a profit from your hard work.

First and foremost, it's important to recognize the differences between a full album and a demo. The most obvious difference is size; while the demo consisted of three songs, your first album will be made up of anywhere between twelve and twenty songs. But this isn't where the differences end, of course. A notable difference will be in audio quality. The demo needed to be of a good enough quality that a listener wouldn't be distracted by hiss, hum, microphone phase, and other such issues. But your first full album needs to be professional-grade, because a fan doesn't want to purchase something that only sounds "okay." Another difference is in the production value of the packaging and product themselves. While the demo is designed to be cost-effective and intended to bring the band business, an album is something that a fan will cherish forever. Chances are, burning it onto a CD-R might upset someone who bought your album and looked forward to opening it. In order for an album to be of good value and to stand the test of time, you're going to want to make sure it's a quality product that your customers (fans) will appreciate.

Before you start calling recording studios and designing your dream cover, some practical planning should be carried out. By this point, you should have done enough shows to have a good understanding of which songs of yours are the most popular amongst your fans, and if you've established an Internet presence, then finding out which songs your fans like the most shouldn't be too difficult. If you're releasing an album without a label behind you, you have the freedom to choose what songs go on the album, and in what order they'll be presented, but you don't want to flood the album with your favorite songs, or the favorite songs of your band-mates. Your fans are the ones who will be buying this album. It's as much theirs as it is yours, and at no point during this process should you forget that.

Next, it's time to work out how many songs the album should have. Your first album should aim toward having one full hour of content. A little more or a little less is fine, but don't allow the album to have less than 45 minutes of material. It should not have fewer than twelve songs, either. And don't plan on releasing an epic double-disc masterpiece, because keeping costs down will prove to be invaluable as we move forward. After you've laid out what you feel is an ideal album, add five to ten other songs to the list (we'll explain why shortly). If everyone in the band approves of the arrangement, contact a random fan (particularly one that no one in the band is close with, if possible) and a few friends who are familiar with your songs and ask them to review the arrangement as well. After taking their opinions into consideration, you should have a strong arrangement of songs, and enough back-up songs that you can make some last-minute changes to the play-list after everything has been recorded.

With some preliminary planning out of the way, it's time to find a good recording studio for laying down the full album. As you did when you recorded your demo, contact as many recording studios as you can and try to find the best rate possible. Make sure you tell them how many songs you plan to record, the overall running time of the album, and the level of audio quality you expect from the recordings. If the studio where you recorded your demo did a good job of that, try them after you've shopped around for other prices. They'll most likely appreciate your return business, and they might reward it with a reasonable discount. When calling these studios, ask about their daily rates as opposed to their hourly rates, too! Also, ask about professional-grade mastering, and if they can't handle it in-house, ask if they're willing to prepare the album to be mastered elsewhere, because it might be cheaper (and of greater quality) to record at one establishment and mix and master at another.

When you've found the right studio, schedule enough time to record all of the songs, including those extra songs that we tacked on the list, and make sure you account for bad takes, false starts, and all of that good stuff. As for mixing and mastering, make sure you get a quoted time and cost, because you don't want to end up paying a fortune for several hours of your sound engineers playing Grand Theft Auto.

There isn't much advice to give you for the studio work itself, other than to say that it will always be fun, grueling, boring, anger-inducing, and/ or exhausting. Make sure everyone in the band takes as many breaks as are needed. Don't allow anyone to play a given song angry, hungry, tired, or achy. Everyone in the band should be well fed and well hydrated before, during, and after the recording sessions, and keeping everyone's spirits high and moods chipper will prove to pay off tremendously in the album's overall sound quality.

When you're finished recording all of the songs, gather the band, a focus group of fans, and a few friends, and invite them to listen to all of the songs on the album, rating each one with some form of grade (A+ through F-, or 1 to 10, or 0% to 100%, etc.). Songs are almost never the same recorded as they are live. Some songs lose energy when translated into physical media, while others songs expose their hidden potential after being recorded. Figure out what the best songs on the album are, and re-organize the full album accordingly. Those extra tracks you recorded can be used (sold, given away, or otherwise distributed) as rare B-sides in the future!

When all is said and done, you should have at least one (but hopefully several) copies of your master album, finished and ready for your fans. If you can, get as many as ten master copies of the album, produced directly by the studio that mastered your work. Make sure you keep these in a safe, dry, cool (but not cold) place, and protect them at all costs, especially the original masters! Well after the dream scenario plays out and you've sold millions of copies, those masters will still remain the most valuable asset in regards to that album. Keep them safe and in mint condition forever!

So what's next for your album? Packaging! Designing the album's packaging can be a fun project for the band. You'll need to develop a CD label design, a jewel case booklet, a rear-panel insert for said jewel case, and a few promotional items for the album, like posters, fliers, t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc. If no one in (or close with) the band is a serious, professional-level artist, then designing all of this stuff might not be your cup of tea. Come up with a solid design concept which is universally accepted by the band (and don't be afraid to get the opinions of friends or fans, too!), and look for a graphic designer to actually develop all of the album art, based on the concepts you've come up with. Try an Internet search for graphic designers in your area, and post an ad on Craig's List as well. You'll have to pay a graphic designer, of course, though there's a very slim possibility that you might find an art student who wants to expand their portfolio. Also, there are graphic design companies, many of whom you can hire directly through the Internet, who can offer competitive prices. Make sure that whoever you go with is willing to offer up conceptual works to make sure you're on the same page, and don't allow anyone without a proven track-record of marketing expertise tell you that your ideas for the album's art are bad. If someone (or multiple people) tell you so, consult with someone who knows what they're talking about before you allow someone to change your plans on your behalf.

You're going to want several professional-grade, full-color copies of the album art. If the graphic designer can't provide this service to you, professional print shops like Fed-Ex Kinko's can most likely handle it. These are going to come in handy as we progress forward, not only because having back-ups is important, but because you might be sending off master copies for bulk printing in the not-so-distant future. Like your album's masters, these art masters need to be protected at all costs, so make sure you keep them somewhere safe.

Let's get this work copyrighted, shall we? Take a copy of the master album and a copy of the master art, package them together, and get your original intellectual property copyrighted with the United States Copyright Office (or the Copyright office in your home country). Copyrights protect you from others stealing, copying, covering, or selling your creative works. But the process of getting a copyright is far too lengthy and detailed for this guide, so please open a new browser window or tab and take some time to learn about copyrights, copyright law, and how to file your original work. Be warned that there are a number of companies out there that advertise themselves as copyright professionals, but they aren't as trustworthy as they might seem! Research a company thoroughly before contacting them, let alone paying them money. A good place to start your search for information would be the government's Copyright FAQ page. Also, take a look at the services provided by Legal Zoom.

With your album and it's related art copyrighted and protected, we come to distribution, and if you thought the processes of recording, mastering, acquiring graphic art, and getting copyrighted were expensive, this stage will probably make your head hurt. There are two options for self-releasing your album, and it would be wise to incorporate a blend of both: Digital Distribution, where the individual songs and/ or the full album are sold through the Internet, and Physical Distribution, where the full album is printed to a CD, complete with album art, and sold directly to fans.

Digital Distribution: As you're probably well-aware, there are a number of companies out there that sell songs and albums digitally, the most noteworthy of which being iTunes. Without a record label behind you, getting your work on iTunes can be challenging, but luckily, there are a number of companies on the Internet who cater to bands in your situation, and for a nominal fee, they'll release your album digitally for you. For more, check out TuneCore, Reverb Nation, and SongCast. You could also place all of your songs in a ZIP folder and sell them through Paypal, though this requires some serious website development knowledge, and the process is far less secure than other methods.

Physical Distribution: Printing professional-grade CD's complete with album art will end up costing a small fortune, and chances are, it'll eat up more money than everything else in the album's production combined. But having physical CD's to sell at shows, give away as promotional items, include in press kits, and simply have for the sake of having will all prove their value in due time, provided the album is good of course! There are several companies out there that will professionally manufacture CD's and packaging, often offering bulk rates for their services. But be prepared to fork over hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the number of copies you order. Make sure you take some time to come up with a reasonable number of copies to produce. You don't want to find yourself without a copy in hand at a critical moment, but you don't want to be forced into building a small hut out of all of the CD's you purchased because you went broke, either! Check out CD printing companies like Oasis Disc Manufacturing and Ultra Entertainment for pricing, features, and other such information.

When it comes to marketing your album, the Internet is your best pal. Communicate with your fans through our website and social networking pages that the album is available. If you have any money remaining in your war chest, you could contact websites where you fans usually visit and ask how much banner advertising costs. It doesn't hurt to write up a press release (another subject which you'll want to search for online, as it's too extensive for this guide) and send it out to newspapers, magazines, music blogs, and other resources, though make sure you contact these companies before you send your press release to them to make sure they reach the proper recipient(s). and make sure you advertise the album at every show and other public outing that your band makes!

All told, there are too many variables involved to estimate if recording an album is a good idea for your band or not. The size of your fan base, the quality of your songs, the amount of money you can spend (and potentially lose), and your knack for sales will all play crucial roles in determining the success of an album's launch. But to put things in perspective, let's say you're selling each copy of the album for $10, and each disc costs $6 to sell. That means you're turning a $4 profit off of each record sale. Can you push 100 albums? That's $400. Can you sell 1,000? that's $4,000. Can you manage 5,000 album sales? That's a staggering $20,000. Just remember to be honest with yourself, and more importantly, honest with your bank account. Figure out the most realistic number of albums you can sell, how much each album will cost to produce, and how much profit you'll make from reaching your most modest sales goals, and if it looks like you'll turn a profit (or in the very least break even), then perhaps self-releasing an album is right for you and your band. But make sure you're absolutely certain that this is the right path for your band before you commit your money and work to a project of this magnitude!

Coming Up Next: In part ten of the "Creating a Band" series, we'll discuss managers, booking agents, and other forms of professional representation. We'll explore what they can offer you that you can't offer yourself, what you need to watch out for, and how not to get ripped off by a sleazy manager!