Steve Brand’s “Circular Scriptures” album is nearing release – with a planned date of 1/11/10. We’ll be celebrating the release on 1/16/10 on StillStream.com at 9 pm CST on the Zen Caffeine show hosted by David Herpich.
Lots to do between now and 1/11! A few items if you’re interested:
* Album Artwork is complete (and amazingly beautiful, I might add). This needs to be uploaded to CD Baby for the download version and to Hypnos for the CDR version. After it’s uploaded to CD Baby – they will distribute the album to multiple websites like iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, eMusic, etc…
* Audio files – finalized, tagged, and uploaded to CD Baby and Hypnos.
* Preview versions of the tracks need to be cut – and uploaded to our music player.
* I need to tweak the header images on this site, and settle on a left column format.
* Create the promo package (a printable file that describes the album, the artist, and the label) – as part of that, Steve needs to write about his album and I need to sort out what I want to say about Relaxed Machinery to potential radio hosts, reviewers, bloggers, podcasters, etc…
* Upload the great wallpaper Steve created for this album release
…and then the promotion begins.
I’ve heard Circular Scriptures at least 30 times now. I dearly love it. I hope you do too.
More details on the release and label activity as we countdown to release day!
John
Thank’s! I love this music, very nice
Well, rM releases are a work in-progress for sure. Still getting the process down. For some reason, I was under the impression that I could upload my .mp3s to CDBaby, but apparently that’s not the case—I have to send them a master, THEN THEY burn the .mp3 files. (Quality assurance on their end, I’m sure.) I sent the master 2nd Day Priority yesterday, so there’s still a chance that the master disk could arrive there and CDBaby could create the download files in time for the 1.11.10 drop date.
Even if the downloads aren’t ready on CDBaby by 1.11.10, there should be samples, a press release, and a cover art download on the rM site on 1.11.10. For those who are interested in purchasing disks, you’ll be able to order “Circular Scriptures” via Hypnos without any delay (as of 1.11.10).
The listening party on StillStream the following weekend should be on time!
Looking ahead, rM release dates might be loose…or may be determined AFTER the files have appeared on CDBaby. The factor outside our control is CDBaby: we have no control over the speed of their turn-around on releases. Small matters in the grand scheme of things, really.
JKN, make sure to correct me if I’m wrong on any of this!
I do think of release dates as more of targets to strive for. Something that’s reasonable and attainable, and if it doesn’t hit the date, it doesn’t hit the date. For me, the quality of the music, the quality of the release package – that’s important.
We do have outside factors with releasing (all labels do) – CD Baby could very well have everything and available for sale on their site by 1.11.10 – and that would be fantastic. I do think they’ll have it up before the release party on StillStream.com on 1.16.10.
Hypnos will most likely be ready, but honestly, if it’s a couple days before or a couple days after – that’s ok to me. I’d love for everything to be like flipping a switch and it’s all on and ready to go – but reality is it doesn’t happen that way. This is something all the artists know, but probably not all the listeners know about. This is also one of the reasons I want Relaxed Machinery and this blog to be so “open” – I truly hope everyone finds it ineteresting how things work behind the scenes. I know some will and some won’t…
One other thing I should point out… is we really hope that if you buy the downloads – you do it directly through CD Baby. Steve makes a bit more money that way per sale. The album will be for sale thorugh iTunes, Amazon, and a ton of other distributors – and by all means if you’re more comfortable buying through them, please do. It’ll be another month before Circular Scriptures is available through those other sources. But if you really want Steve to get the most money – buy through CD Baby. I know that Steve doesn’t write and record for the money and neither do I… but it’s a very nice thing to get a little something back for all of the work and love that goes into an album.