Anyone released an Album of Original Songs before?

[KILLBEAR]

It's really amazing....the project studio I used to do my album consists of one Boss Br600, Sennheiser pro headpones, Audacity, and my seven string Ibanez and four string Rogue Bass.

Talk about low budget, but with the Br600 at the hub I've got my guitar and bass effects patches, drum machine, mixing board, and mastering console (with Audacity).

When I first started recording music I had to go to a guy's house, pay him nearly $200 and ended up with a cassette tape master that honestly sucked eggs because I was not very good at composing songs and this guy had a terrible set-up and was taking advantage of a dumb kid.

But, hey, I learned a lesson--you could do it better yourself
And he made $200 the easy way

-Killbear

[Farrell Jackson]

KILLBEAR, I just released my 4th cd called Wood, Wires and Wonder. The first, Orchid Faded Sky, was around 2001 and the other two somewhere in between then and now. I have them all placed at cdbaby. I did the recordings on a Fostex VF160 16 track standalone digital recorder that I've had for about 12 years and it still records well. I also use Audacity to clean them up some. The first two cds I mastered myself with Audacity and the HarBal program. The last two I had mastered by a semi-pro mastering house. If you can afford it, having someone else master them is the way to go for a closer to pro sound.

My first cd placed at cdbaby was for physical cd sales and digital downloads. Since cds are on the endangered species list, the last three are just digital downloads and streaming. I still have 50 cds replicated with my own design at a local replication house. I get those for posterity reasons, to give out to friends, family and the occasional sale.  

I sold more of my first cd because I was gigging at the time and it's been around since 2001. Folks would usually purchase 1 to 5 cds per gig plus I got paid for the gig. So that, in my opinion and since I've retired from gigs, is the better way to promote cd sales but cdbaby does give one a sales outlet option. I still get a few checks a year from cdbaby. In fact I just got a $25 check from cdbaby yesterday......It takes a lot of streams at fractions of a cent and downloads to get any money from those but at least people are listening and paying a little......better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. So this weekend it's a burger and a beer treat for the wife and I, lol!

Farrell

http://www.cdbaby.com/artist/FarrellJackson

[Mike_S]

Great feeling though it must be to actually have someone pay for your songs. I wish I knew the feeling. I've been making music for years now on my own and also through collaboration. I would love to try and sell some tunes some day but as I make new tunes i keep looking back at the older ones and thinking they are not that good really. And this cycle continues, as I make newer tracks I am disregarding older ones in my head, so i only ever have a few tracks i am happy with.

Also don't want to be sad and dissillusioned, deep down I possibly think not many would truly want to buy my stuff, but am hoping some day that it will suddenly strike me that "hey my tracks are pretty good" and maybe try putting something on cdbaby or something. At the moment i don't think so, but i think i am improving quicker now than i was when i was younger.

[T.C. Elliott]

You gotta record an album to release an album. So no, unfortunately. I've intended all year to do recordings and I've finally gotten to the point where I don't feel the need to write 70 or 100 songs a year so this would seem to be the time but.... I always have an excuse.

[Geir]

Recorded : YES.
Released: NO

[The Gobi Desert Canoe Club]

I can write stuff but do not have the talent or the patience to record it any sense. In addition to that, I'm happy in my little world, I'm too old and too ugly to want any more than the positive comments from this and other sites I belong to. There are people on these sites that are a lot younger and still have the hunger to progress further but it is a combination of luck and knowing the right people and being in the right place at the right time. The other thing is, you have to gig, I did my apprenticeship driving up and down the country getting a fan base that would buy homemade cd's for a fiver but would have bought a professionally produced album if they had been available. For those of you who want to progress just keep going, believe in what you are doing and maybe just maybe you'll get what you think you deserve. Willie

[kenny mac]

I've done a charity single for the Beatson pebble appeal for cancer research called Guardian angel through cd baby and it has been available on iTunes and amazon and other outlets for some time and I'm currently going to issue one called spaceship that will be for the same appeal.
I just felt there was a lot of songs sitting doing nothing so why not put them to use for a charity I feel so passionate about.
I made a few hundred selling hard copy's in work etc and the downloads will just filter into the charity so anythings better than nothing.
I'm not going to make thousands but every penny counts.
The Beatsons philosophy at the time was "if you throw a pebble into the water it creates a ripple that grows and grow into a wave.
This is me throwing mine in.
Music is a gift ,I feel this is my way of giving something back,and cd baby was an easy progress.
If you want to put a cd out there just for yourself  it's a pretty easy process.

[chapperz66]

Recorded:  yes
released:   yes
Sold:        no  (well - not many)

 

Surprised: not really..

[Geir]

I did record a demo with my old band LiFF (Jarle was on the drums) ... we never took it any further tho ...

*Here's the original songs from that demo :
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=957976

[Farrell Jackson]

I did record a demo with my old band LiFF (Jarle was on the drums) ... we never took it any further tho ...

*Here's the original songs from that demo :
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=957976

You guys rock with the best LiFF (Geir and Jarle)!!!!!!!!