Gifting our own music CD's

CyberHippyRedux · Post by **CyberHippyRedux** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 5:48 pm

Hi ePlaya,

I'm returning this year after a 5-year hiatus, I'll be with a band who will be performing every chance we get. We are going into the final mix of our CD, and were thinking of bringing a whole bunch of pre-master, hand-burned (not commercially produced) copies to hand out to any Burners who like what we're doing. We were also thinking of printing up a bunch of stickers with the band logo and website on them to hand out.

When we brought up the subject of our gifts with the person running the camp we'll be a part of, he responded that giving away CD's and stickers with our website on them would be completely against the spirit of BurningMan and could get us either ridiculed or possibly ejected from the event. I disagree, as we'll be gifting our "art" (music).

I understand that it would be wrong to hand out business cards because that carries the implication of "let's do business" - and I suppose it could be argued that including our website on our gifts could be seen as a form of advertising (if the response here feels that way we'll leave the contact info off). But I have several CD's, a book and a variety of trinkets from my past Burns that I received as gifts, some of the CD's and the book were commercially produced, but as they were handed to me as gifts I never thought twice about it.

Would it be wrong for us to have a bunch of giveaway CD's available around the stage while we played? How about the sticker idea?

Thanks for your input!

gaminwench · Post by **gaminwench** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 5:55 pm

Go for it...playa CD's are fun to listen to on the way back to defaultia...trying to remember who/what/when/where they came from...

swampdog · Post by **swampdog** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:15 pm

cds - yes
stickers - not so much. Unless they go on the cds. If you hand them out separately it's not so much that it's "commerce" as that it's likely to be moop. Unless it's a REALLY COOL sticker or bandname so people would intrinsically enjoy the sticker.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:24 am

Just don't be like the producer of the band who played in our bar. He just about forced me to take it, and the music was so often, I just donated it to our local library booksale without opening it. Let people say no.

CyberHippyRedux · Post by **CyberHippyRedux** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:31 am

Thanks everybody, that helps a lot.

Agreed on the stickers = moop thing, if we do them they'll be in the sleeve with the CD.

The band is self-produced (I play bass and am mixing the album) and we will do our best not to be annoying about pushing the CD's.

C.f.M. · Post by **C.f.M.** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:32 am

I always make mixes to hand out (at burns), but for BM I'm going to let people email me, if they want one, and then mail it to them after the fact.

I do loooove listening to new CDs on the way home, I just don't have room to take several hundred CDs out there with me.

Maybe put your contact info on the sticker, and if people like what they hear they can follow up and get a CD.

Bling · Post by **Bling** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 4:55 pm

Hi y'all,

My sweetie and I are virgins, but our tickets came today, and we are STOKED to go! We're doing a mix CD, and I wondered if anyone had a good guess for how many we should bring? We're not in a band or anything, just wanted to share some of our favorite fire-related songs. Is 100 enough? How many of ANYTHING do folks usually bring? (We're planning to be there the whole week).

gaminwench · Post by **gaminwench** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 5:36 pm

Just do what you do, it'll be 'enough'...

Post by **AntiM** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 5:51 pm

I've had CDs show up on the home for wayward art and people do adopt them to take home.

Bling · Post by **Bling** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 5:53 pm

Um, virgin here. The home for wayward art? :-)

Post by **mdmf007** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 6:41 pm

CyberHippyRedux wrote:Thanks everybody, that helps a lot.

Agreed on the stickers = moop thing, if we do them they'll be in the sleeve with the CD.

The band is self-produced (I play bass and am mixing the album) and we will do our best not to be annoying about pushing the CD's.

Dont use jewel cases if you can avoid it. The simple printed paper sleeves store the easiest.

If you use jewel cases burn your label on the disk itself, Just a peeve of mine.

I had a recording buddy of mine get a shit ton of SD cards - cheap ones that were the demo cards they put in devices when you buy them. Only held like 128MB. Just enough to put a bunch of demo tracks on. They were cheaper than disks, and easier to carry around as demos.

Nowadays everyone has a device that can play SD cards. I see some USB memory sticks online for 1.20 a piece if you buy a hundred. Still more than CD's but not by much. SD cards and USB sticks burn a hell of a lot quicker than CDs as well. I can transfer 128MB in about 20 seconds - a lot longer to burn a CD.

He used to worry about people simply taking the USB, or SD cards and using them for other stuff, which they will be doing regardless. But you can password protect the files and voila' thats no longer possible, then he realized he was creating garbage if people didnt like the music and simply tossed the SD card or Stick because they couldnt reuse it. So his solution? He simply titled the folder with something akin to a plea like "Hey before you burn over this music I gifted please listen to a track and check us out.. peace."

Theres no guarantees of listening with with CD's, SD cards, or USB sticks, but apparently there has been a good response to this method of demo distribution.

Just an idea.

Amazon has 128MB sd cards for 50 cents each used. 1.50 new

Bling · Post by **Bling** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 6:45 pm

Thanks! I was planning on paper sleeves and printing onto the CDs, but have never done this before. There's a website that looked pretty reasonable for small quantities. Hadn't thought of SD cards or flash drives... No room for art, though. OTOH, no need to pay someone to design it, either.

Elorrum · Post by **Elorrum** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:06 pm

theCryptofishist wrote:Just don't be like the producer of the band who played in our bar. He just about forced me to take it, and the music was so often...

awful rotten? sounds so diplomatic, I love it.

Post by **mdmf007** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:16 pm

Bling wrote:Thanks! I was planning on paper sleeves and printing onto the CDs, but have never done this before. There's a website that looked pretty reasonable for small quantities. Hadn't thought of SD cards or flash drives... No room for art, though. OTOH, no need to pay someone to design it, either.

Hell, you can have all sorts of art on the USB or SD media. Videos, kitchy little DVD format stuff, menus, etc...Dont judge a package by its size!

I am thinking of all sorts of ideas. Do you have a link to some of your stuff? Now I am curious.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:19 pm

Bling wrote: No room for art, though. OTOH, no need to pay someone to design it, either.

You could wirewrap it to some bead or mini-man or shrinky dink piece...

j_cavera · Post by **j_cavera** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 7:31 am

Friend of mine did similar with the thumb drives. Picked up a hundred or so of the 128M size on e-bay for next to nothing. Put a few tracks and some random pictures on each one. The nice thing about them is that they can be given away as necklaces. Useful gifts to those who aren't wearing things with pockets.

- Jim

Bling · Post by **Bling** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 7:53 am

Turns out I have a friend who has the equipment to design labels & print directly to CD's! Would still love ANY idea of quantity. Was "100 or so" good?

teardropper · Post by **teardropper** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:46 pm

i don't even care what kind of music you play, I want to hear you. That is one thing I would like to see more of. Live music. Understand the difficulty, like power, and it must be a bitch to clean up your instruments. Unless you have playa only instruments. But live music on the playa is just way cool.

The problem is finding the live music. Instant communication is somewhat difficult. So it's hard to know when and where. And there doesn't seem to be any way to plan for it. It's not like a festival where it says to go to stage 3 at 1 AM and hear someone. These things just seem to happen, and you're lucky to run into it.

kai.del.mar · Post by **kai.del.mar** » Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:34 pm

I think 100% add ur website. Burning Man is about connecting with each other. If people like your music they are going to want a way to stay connected to it. That simple :)

Isotopia · Post by **Isotopia** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 12:26 pm

Gifting: the new gateway to commerce.

Post by **mdmf007** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:52 pm

Isotopia wrote:Gifting: the new gateway to commerce.

Certainly been a great marketing tool for years.

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 12:51 pm

I have no way to play music off an sd card.

Someone at a rainbow gathering once gave me a card printed on a rectangular mini-cd.

Webhouses can be subtle and still listed.
Some people may ask for a personal or business card.
I have to write down names to remember so many people out there.
I have no memory for names anyway.

Isotopia, weren't you giving away free electrons once?

Gifting our own music CD's

Gifting our own music CD's

How many CDs?