Organizing a benefit album?
December 4, 2010 1:39 PM Subscribe
My wife randomly decided to approach a local charity about doing a benefit album. They liked the idea and are supporting her, but she needs to do everything. Where do we start?
It will be an album of local musicians doing songs for their children (for a children's hospital). Honestly, it was a bit of a whim my wife had and she half-expected to be shot down I think. But now we're in it and don't have a real direction.
The product will have a small physical run, but likely be more digital based to cut costs for the hospital.
Does anyone out there have experience organizing something like this? Or even just organizing a compilation album?
It will be an album of local musicians doing songs for their children (for a children's hospital). Honestly, it was a bit of a whim my wife had and she half-expected to be shot down I think. But now we're in it and don't have a real direction.
The product will have a small physical run, but likely be more digital based to cut costs for the hospital.
Does anyone out there have experience organizing something like this? Or even just organizing a compilation album?
Do you have a place where this can be professionally recorded, mixed and mastered? That is Job One. Even if you are doing a life recording you still need to have it done professionally and it will still need to be mixed and mastered.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 4:13 PM on December 4, 2010
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 4:13 PM on December 4, 2010
Oh, and bear in mind unless you can get the services donated this can be quite expensive to do. If you have a large church in the area that does their own recordings (more and more common these days) find out what they do and it's possible they will allow you to use their stuff to record.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 4:14 PM on December 4, 2010
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 4:14 PM on December 4, 2010
PledgeMusic would be a good way to structure the release, and they can provide advice on much of the issues which will arise.
posted by jannw at 6:09 AM on December 5, 2010
posted by jannw at 6:09 AM on December 5, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks, peeps.
PledgeMusic is interesting. If they take 15% though, that's going to be up to the hospital I think.
Recording, mixing and mastering could all be done locally. I have faith that we could get at least some of those services donated. There are a lot of studios around town and I do have a couple contacts in the local music scene. One of them referred me to a gentleman who has released a series of local compilation CDs that have sold pretty well. I think my next step is to email him.
My tentative moves at this point:
- Email aforementioned gentleman
- Contact musicians to determine interest
- Contact a couple local studios to see what can be done for those musicians who do not already have / can not provide their own recordings
- One of the studios could likely do the mastering, or we have Bob Ludwig's Gateway Mastering in town. :-) If he's good enough for the Boss, he's good enough for me.
posted by speeb at 11:50 AM on December 6, 2010
PledgeMusic is interesting. If they take 15% though, that's going to be up to the hospital I think.
Recording, mixing and mastering could all be done locally. I have faith that we could get at least some of those services donated. There are a lot of studios around town and I do have a couple contacts in the local music scene. One of them referred me to a gentleman who has released a series of local compilation CDs that have sold pretty well. I think my next step is to email him.
My tentative moves at this point:
- Email aforementioned gentleman
- Contact musicians to determine interest
- Contact a couple local studios to see what can be done for those musicians who do not already have / can not provide their own recordings
- One of the studios could likely do the mastering, or we have Bob Ludwig's Gateway Mastering in town. :-) If he's good enough for the Boss, he's good enough for me.
posted by speeb at 11:50 AM on December 6, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:40 PM on December 4, 2010