Record Label

Make your own records #3: preparing graphics & album cover
It's easy to make your own record album graphics if you have the right tools. Or even if you don't!
In the 1970s I did three album covers the old fashioned way: I painted one of them; I used stick-on transparent film cut in tiny pieces with an exacto blade for another one; I cut black and white photos apart and glued them onto poster board with chartpack black tape between them and got the whole thing photographed for a montage. It still helps if you aren't afraid to paint (the cover on the left here, I did with acrylics) but you can leverage your skills using great new tools and some of t...

Make your own records #1: Establishing a record label.
Don't wait for a major label to sign you: make your own records, start to finish.
I first sang in a recording studio in 1976 and started making my own records, start to finish, in 1982. I have owned my own label since "Skylark Productions: traditional and folk music recordings" was given to me by Pat Sky (left) in the late 1980s; since then I've issued perhaps two dozen albums on this imprint, most of which I've seen through from beginning to end. In a series of lenses I'll talk about how I did it as cheaply as possible. In the last ten years it has become financially pos...

Make your own records #4: Preparing for publication & distribution: UPC, ISRC, itunes
Do these things BEFORE you send off your album graphics and master to the duplicators!
Since there are lots of places that will NOT accept your album for sale if it doesn't have a UPC code on it, you'd better register for one in advance. You can have your replicating house do it for you, but it's more expensive than doing it yourself, and you have less control over how the graphic UPC code looks on the finished album cover. Also, if you apply in advance for your UPC code you'll be able to register your album with Soundscan sooner - they recommend three weeks before your album'...