Song/file hosting

[Spud]

Dude. CD Baby.

Dude. You have to send them the CDs and he doesn't want to make them. CafePress will do on-demand CD fulfillment, however.

SPUD

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Pricey, but http://www.discmakers.com/services/ might be an option.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I've never been impressed with Cafepress as far as T-shirts. What are their CDs like? Is it a stick on label and a burned CD like we would make at home, or printed on the CD and a quality burned CD? I remember seeing Reist's thread with his bed & Breakfast CD and thought it was a good idea, but wondered about the quality.
...on another note. Wow, the search here at SF works great!

[HeuristicsInc]

I've done the burn on demand thing, which is okay; I used to do it via Bryan Baker "blindmime" who posted songs here on occasion. Not sure if he's even doing that any more. You might be well served doing a short run of 100 disks and stocking via CDBaby, who will also add your songs to iTunes and such. I've gotten some good plays from the online services that CDBaby feeds. I think the last time I had a shortrun done it was through http://diskfaktory.com/.
-bill

[Spud]

Re: Bryan Baker
His "Short Run Music" seems to be off line, and his DollarCD site is not accepting new orders. So much for that, for now.

Re: CafePress, from their website.

Is it really retail quality?

Yes it is, really! We haven't cut any corners. Your booklet will be professionally scored and trimmed. Your tray card will be perforated, and your CD's image will be directly printed onto the CD. The machine we use to print CDs applies your image directly to the surface of the CD producing a glossy, vibrant, waterproof, UV and scratch resistant finish.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Sounds good. Being a CD on demand, it certainly couldn't hurt to order one to find out.

[HeuristicsInc]

Re: Bryan Baker
His "Short Run Music" seems to be off line, and his DollarCD site is not accepting new orders. So much for that, for now.

Yeah, I kind of expected that was coming, since he never actually sent me the last set of CDs I (tried to) have him make for me. That's when I switched to other services incl. diskfaktory. And there was another one which isn't coming to me.
Cafepress service always just seems so EXPENSIVE.
-bill

[LMNOP]

@Charles

Maybe kunaki.com? It's not a destination/marketing site like CD Baby but if you send people there, they'll take the order, collect the money, make the disc and send it out. No minimums. A lot of rap, Christian and public domain classical stuff, it seems.

No personal experience, I'm afraid, because, you know, I'd actually have to finish an adequate amount of stuff but I've had it bookmarked for a couple of years and they're still around and active. Just raised their price to $1.75/disc from $1.60 (plus shipping).

[Spud]

Nice. Kunaki looks like the ticket. Only one downside after reviewing their site: Kunaki deletes CD /DVD products if there are zero sales in a 180 day period. You can keep your product archived by purchasing at least one unit every 180 days. That would kill it for us.

[Billy's Little Trip]

LMNOP, that is the best deal for small quantities I've seen yet. If I decide to ever get around to picking 14 songs and re-record them with a bit more skill, I might just do this.

[Reist]

Cafepress is pricey per disc, but if you only want one disc, it turns out alright. To answer BLT - it's not just a stick-on label. It looks pretty pro (at least to me). However, the plastic casing is a bit cheapy feeling. I'm sure Cafepress isn't alone when it comes to cheap plastic though.

[nyjm]

So, I have discovered an easy end-around to SoundClick's registry requirement:

They have handy widgets for your entire music list, which you can easily post to a blog or your MySpace account or whatnot, like this:

http://nyjm.blogspot.com/

It's not as flexible as I would like, but it's brain-dead easy (you can post the widget directly from your SoundClick page - or anybody else's widget for that matter), they offer a variety of widgets and they work rather nicely.

What I would really like is the option to edit the widget to play only certain songs (say, just my new album and not the earlier stuff) and the ability to post a .zip file of a whole album for download. I think I can do that later with sendspace or something along those lines.

[king_arthur]

Thanks to all who responded to my question. I think cafepress is what I want... I think that anybody who is ordering this CD won't mind paying a little extra to just be able to order a CD they can put in their player and play. I probably need to redo the cover art and maybe remake the mp3 files, but I'll be working on it.

Charles (KA)

[rone rivendale]

I found cafepress to be pretty kewl too. I never knew they did CDs before I found this thread. So I put up a best of CD on there. 4 songs from Headphones and 4 songs from Love, Hate, and Everything Between. My 8 best songs for $7.99! Mwhahaha!!!

http://www.cafepress.com/mikebushmusic

[Spud]

You aren't really going to leave it saying "Commerical albums" are you?

[rone rivendale]

Haha, thanks Spud. Fixed.

[Reist]

Hahaha ... the limited edition Rone platinum collection!

[nyjm]

Thought I'd resurrect this thread and point over to Imeem:

http://www.imeem.com

It's primarily a "social networking" website (according the literature), but focuses on music, video and other entertainment media. Sign-up is free, and while I'm having slight trouble wrapping my head around the interface, I think it's because I just behind the MySpace generational curve.

Good news: It's very easy to stream and post media that you create on the site.

Better news: Your storage limit is 5000 songs, regardless of size (though it has to upload in under an hour).

So-so news: some features of the site require you to create a profile (but hey, it's free).

Awesome news: Ani Difranco is currently stream the entirety of her new album Red Letter Year there. [/shameless plug]

[Reist]

I checked out imeem for a little bit. It's not bad, but it's kind of like every other music promotional site I've found.

I'm starting to get sick of music promotion sites. I honestly don't think they do anybody any good, aside from the storage space. Call me on it if I'm wrong, but I can't think of many notable, original bands that rose to fame online.

ps - Not directing this at nyjm, by the way. Just had to write out some thoughts.

[nyjm]

No, I get that vibe, too. The 'net may be the next big thing when it comes to music (at least distribution), but pounding the pavement and building a reputation with live performances still seem to be the way to make it - creating interest people who will then go on the 'net and listen.

Now, for those of us for whom music is a hobby, things like I-meem or Soundclick are pretty handy. They provide the storage space and most of the nitty-gritty tools that I need to let my friends and family check out the music but that I really don't have the time, expertise or desire to craft myself.

[jeff robertson]

I've come to the conclusion that even as an admitted hobbyist, I could no longer tolerate not having a web host. So I got one.

Also decided that even as an admitted hobbyist, I need to play live. This could lead to trouble.

JB if you're still paying attention to this thread, how often do you get out and play? And if so, where?

[roymond]

Mediafire offers free unlimited file hosting. Good for transferring large files to folks. The paid version lets you use direct hot links.