Tsrdrum

No, movie titles are not covered under copyright or trademark law, unless the trademark is already trademarked (you couldn't call your movie Disney presents catch-22 but the title by itself isn't protected)

What's your max price point for an LP? I'm trying to figure out pricing for premium album artwork and want to get an idea what to charge wholesale

Glad to see an independent label doing well, the business model of the music industry is going through substantial transitions, and small, independent labels have been pushing forward a model that eschews huge million-dollar deals, and focuses instead on efficiency. Small labels are doing the work that a record label should do, namely organizing the music industry's diverse genres and ethos by uniting a particular kind of music under a single label.

I have my own music company where I'm trying to provide musicians and labels with everything they need to run their own musical career. That said, I've run into a few hurdles that I'd appreciate some insight into.

First, how do you go about promotion? I've got a good handle on songwriting, practicing, recording, releasing digitally, making merch, and going on tour. However, I still don't quite understand what the process of promotion is like, aside from one time when I hired a company to do radio promotion, with little success. How do you go about it? Like, what's your promotional schedule like before and after a release? Also haven't figured out how to do tour booking but that's a whole nother ballgame and probably not your specialty.

Secondly, what are your usual production runs for LPs? Based on the research I've done, per-unit pricing is excessive with production runs of under 500, like 10 bucks per LP, compared to more like $2-$3 per LP for production runs of 1000+. Is this what you've found as well?

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that my company makes screen-printable CD and album packaging out of laser-cut wood, which has proven very popular in the few runs I've done. Specifically, the band I've been working with for the past couple years has sold out of more than 100 copies of their CD, which used a prototype of our current packaging design, despite only having around 450 Facebook fans. They sold the CD exclusively at their shows, so I haven't had to do any of the distribution. How does this compare to your methods, in terms of where you sell your releases and how much inventory you get stuck with?

I appreciate you taking the time to answer questions, I love connecting with other music makers. It's been a shit industry for years but now the power is being put back in the hands of the people who actually make and consume music. Keep it up!

Are you familiar with the Shellac album “at action park”? That’s the only thing I know about action park, but based on reading the comments it seems like a pretty wild place that fits right in with shellac’s music

As a musician, and an audio engineer, I've always been blown away by how expensive it is to make a movie. An album used to be similarly expensive to make, until the home recording revolution democratized recording abilities, so that now if you spend more than 1000 dollars on an album you're probably either on an excessively wasteful major label or just have been taken for a ride.

What similar cost savings are there in the movie making industry? What with not having to pay for film, camera rental, development, and other analog film necessities, how much of a cost reduction can you reasonably get?