My next album is officially off to the plant to be pressed on vinyl

[thedreampolice]

Not sure where to post this but just excited, this is my first vinyl release and my 5th album. I can’t believe it’s actually moving forward FINALLY. This puts album release around Jan since it takes so long, anyway just wanted to celebrate a bit.

 

[OGBama]

Nice @thedreampolice and who did you use for releasing on vinyl?

 

[DJ Wax-Turtle]

Wow man, that's great!

 

[thedreampolice]

I used Chris Frasco https://www.masterfrasco.com in Nashville for mastering and he did two masters one for digital and one for vinyl and disc makers for manufacturing. Then I will use cdbaby to get it in stores and sell it on the drunk pedestrians site and band camp for download purchases.

Edit: another thing I have learned doing a record of this scale is that it just takes so much damn work. There literally was a small team working this thing and I could have doubled the team size and kept everyone busy. TONS AND TONS of little details. Thats just making the thing, let alone all the promo and marketing that will happen leading up to and after release.

 

[thedreampolice]

Oh and here is what the record will look like. This is the front and back template.

 

[Fade]

Congrats! So you're using disc makers? I didn't even know they were still around. I was about to ask you what company you were using. There's many that have closed and also many opening. There was one here that I hit up years ago and they never answered me for some reason. Maybe they were closing but I keep hearing about how busy all those plants are.

I never got vinyl done myself but when I did mixtapes years ago it was so much work like you said.

Nice artwork too!

 

[Drago Zetić]

That's a slick, elegant design. I almost forgot that serious LP sleeves have the title printed out on the spine lol

 

[OGBama]

God damn @thedreampolice that's some fine graphic design, who did it? I love visual art but I don't do any as I lack the skill.

 

[thedreampolice]

@OGBama I paid an illustrator/designer named Jonathan Richter https://www.jonathanrichter.com/ to do the front cover. I believe covers matter a lot ESPECIALLY when it comes to vinyl so I wanted it unique, something someone would pick up and look at. I have been a fan of Jonathan Richters work since the 90's when I saw this music video he did in claymation



He also did an amazing cover the for band Jars of clay that I loved.

So when he agreed to do it, I was pumped.

For the back cover and logo I worked with Nathan Lorenzana https://jlopezlorenzana.wordpress.com I have worked with him for years, he is an amazing artist that has done most of the artwork for the Drunk Pedestrians like these

So right there, thats two people on the team just for the cover art. Let alone the various artists and musicians I worked with making the record itself, then mixing and mastering and then music videos etc. Just a lot of awesome people that I got to work with. I bet I will have 20k in to this album when its all said and done. It will make all that money back probably within a year. So that all goes to the next record and marketing etc.

 

[Iron Keys]

Big.

Yes. It pays to work with Graphic Designers and Visual Artists who actually know what they're doing.

I know this 'cause I am one. See too many bogus things out there.

 

[Armani]

Not sure where to post this but just excited, this is my first vinyl release and my 5th album. I can’t believe it’s actually moving forward FINALLY. This puts album release around Jan since it takes so long, anyway just wanted to celebrate a bit.

Wickedddddd.

Nice man! the artworks look really cool and the album mood is kinda dope as far as I remember too, especially one of the songs that I forgot the name of. let us know whenever it's released!

 

[Fade]

Did you also get some distribution for it or is it only online?

 

[thedreampolice]

Did you also get some distribution for it or is it only online?

Yes the vinyl will be in some select stores cdbaby has physical distribution and since I’m a PRO (ascap) artist I can get the music available on Touch tunes in bars and Muzak for restaurants. So royals off streaming in bars can be some nice steady income. Although it takes A LOT of plays to make that money. I have a song that is constantly played in Europe, specifically Croatia for some reason at I think I get like $20 for 20k plays or something like that. But I get that every quarter like clockwork, so if you can add more and more songs that get picked up it can add up.

Although I can make 2k for each band member for once night of a decent live show so the economics of this stuff is just wild. Also for this record I’m going to pay for some print and online ads so when people see the record in stores they hopefully will pick it up. Especially since the cover is eye catching. But this is the shit a record label or a team works on. This is why I think labels do have value because they keep all these gears moving.

I also get an extra benefit since I don’t sample much and play most of the songs live I don’t have to split royalties with who I sample from. I love sampling and do it sometimes but that adds another legal and financial complication to everything.

I got an email yesterday that is actually being pressed now and they estimate it will be done end of nov beginning of dec so that’s pretty cool.

 

[Iron Keys]

You doing the PR yourself or??

Hiring PR is costly but does have the added benefit of when their email pops up in an outlets/contacts inbox they know the email address and so are more likely to open/trust/respect.

If you've got good contacts you've established yourself then that is useful, especially if they have contacts they can push you to as well.

Just putting that out there to anyone else reading who may gain knowledge from it.

 

[thedreampolice]

I am doing a bunch of pr myself but yes I will also work with a team on that. I’m still working that part out strategically as putting an album out in the age of Covid is a whole new playbook. Also I have 90 days to ramp up promo since vinyl pressing takes so long and I want vinyl, cd, spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and bandcamp to all launch the same day. I’m happy to post about it as I learn more, I’m sure I will make plenty of mistakes along the way. But yea I didn’t put all this in to a record to not spend some money on pr. You almost should budget more on pr then in making the record. I tracked my budget in a spreadsheet.

 

[thedreampolice]

and here is what the CD will look like. Its looking like a Jan release date. Fun times!

 

[Armani]

and here is what the CD will look like. Its looking like a Jan release date. Fun times!

Shit dude that's so awesome!! Can't wait for the release. honestly.

 

[Fade]

You did a track with Stressy? Nice!

 

[thedreampolice]

Sure did, not sure if you remember it but this is the music video for it. https://www.dropbox.com/s/gsd8o4a2t5hq7rp/girlfriend v2.mp4?dl=0 I have not put it out on YouTube yet as it will be marketing. I think I may have gotten one of the last songs out of him before he quit music. We still talk on FB all the time but he is out of the game. Too bad him and I were working on a cool EP called "Noisy Daydream" that was themed "falling down the rabbit hole" and I have like 4-5 almost finished songs with him for that. But that will never see the light of day sadly.

 

[Fade]

Oh ya I remember the video. It's too bad he stopped though. If he can at least do a project here and there that would be cool.