Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Six vinyls, Three CDs and Three booklets: One box set - (Four months before Grunge)

Below are some images of a LP package Codeine: When I See the Sun we manufactured for Numero Group.
 
The package includes space for six 12” vinyls, three CDs and three booklets all neatly surrounded by a luxurious film laminated slip case. This type of packaging might be the perfect solution for a unique collection or limited edition you might be planning. Numero furnishes their own replication and vinyl pressing.

(you can click on the image for an enlargement)
 
(the CDs are housed in a slot we built into the back of each jacket)
 
(a close-up of one of the jackets)

(film laminated slip case)

For other great media ideas to increase your revenue, please review some of the other posts on this blog or simply call us. Great solutions for 7”, 10", 12" and disc media.
 

About the music:

From 1990-1994, New York City's Codeine were making somnambulant waves on a musical landscape reeling from Sub Pop's better known exports. 1991's Frigid Stars LP, 1992's Barely Real, and 1994's The White Birch received much critical praise upon release, but Codeine dissolved before any of that hype would carry Low, Bedhead, and the Red House Painters to international acclaim.

All three albums have been subjected to Numero's notoriously elaborate packaging and detailed liner notes, including essays by Sub Pop's Jonathan Poneman, Love Child's Alan Licht, and the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd. The albums have been faithfully restored from the original masters, and are accompanied by a plethora of singles, demos, live recordings, and Peel sessions. Each album will be packaged as a double album with a CD of the same material. Additionally, an ultra-deluxe box set of all three albums is available in a limited edition of 1000 copies. The box set features no additional tracks, but does come with a tidy box that holds all three albums National Geographic-style.

Available from Numero Group; retail $80.00


From Codeine’s first album, “Frigid Stars”, liner notes:
 
Four months prior to Sub Pop’s historic Nevermind windfall, the spate of glowing reviews for Frigid Stars LP made Poneman and Pavitt feel they had found their next meal ticket. Interview’s rave write-up was the first to use the dreaded “G” word: “In the mid-80’s, 50 or so bands effloresced like lichens, attempting to parlay studied whimsy into Velvet Undergroundish grunge. One of these bands actually got it right.” Now opening for the Smashing Pumpkins, Unrest, and other heavies among the major-indie elite, and booked for a Euro swing in support of Grubbs and McEntire’s Bastro that fall, Codeine seemed poised to break well beyond Sub Pop’s devoted singles club subscribers. But at the time, glacial tempos performed by men with guitars amounted to a punk provocation. “People could sometimes be really taken aback by our music,” said Brokaw. “Some of the people at the shows were very dismayed to discover that we did not sound like Mudhoney or Soundgarden. It said on all the flyers “Codeine—from Sub Pop!,” as if Sub Pop were some sort of Island of Grunge.”
 
In truth, grunge was about to become one very crowded island. And Codeine’s frigid corner of Sub Pop’s indie cocoon gained heat, as the nation’s music-buying ears were bent irrevocably toward something volcanic awakening in Seattle. Judson Picco & Ken Shipley – January 2012



 

 

Friday, June 21, 2013

SkyDog - The Duane Allman Retrospective


On March 5th Concord Music Group/Rounder Records released a limited edition and numbered (10,000 units) of the Duane Allman 7 CD retrospective collection, SkyDog. It sold out in one week.
 
 

(Please read today’s FREE Golden Nugget marketing idea at the end of this post !!!..)

We love collaborating with CMG; from the McCartney RAM project, McCartney Wings Over America to this Duane Allman collection, CMG is giving fans and collectors great value.

There were 3 classic rock box sets released during March. I want to review some retail prices with you for sales comparison:
  • Eagles (Elektra/Asylum):  6 CDs on Amazon for $28.00
  • Stills (Rhino):                      4 CDs on Amazon for $44.00
  • Allman (CMG/Rounder):  7 CDs on Amazon for $117.00 (retail $140.00)
Based simply on a cost-per-disk, the elaborate limited edition commanded a significantly higher retail price point. 

(btw the Amazon resellers are currently asking $250 up to $1,400 for this new Allman set).

On to the specifics about this package. As you review the CMG unboxing video below, you’ll see the various elements that were added to enhance the package.
 

The package starts by opening the shrink wrap with an “onsert” explaining the contents.
  • Outer box is litho printed and turned edge construction including a scuff free film lamination
  • Lined with gold crushed velvet that simulates the inside of a guitar case.
  • A 72 page + cover perfect bound book (PUR glue binding btw!).
  • Sky Dog sticker printed on vinyl using UV inks (suitable for car bumpers).
  • Fender medium pick. I guess CMG felt a metal slide would be a bit over the top.
  • There are two “pull” ribbons that help release the 7 CDs.
  • The individual CD sleeves were designed to look like guitar string packaging and they do. 7 different colors (via 4CP) on a translucent vellum.
 
The booklet, sticker and onsert were printed domestically; the outer box and sleeves were produced at our overseas factory.  All the components were delivered to Terra Haute (Sony) for final inserting and fulfillment.

Unboxing video KEY: CMG posted both the Duane Allman and the Wings Over America unboxing videos on YouTube with so much detail, the videos did the selling. Essentially the label took the selling responsibility AWAY from the retailers. The consumer doesn’t have to ask any questions, all the details are already front and center, ready for a simple “buy it” transaction. That’s pretty powerful.
 

PS: Concord Music Group has their own promotional YouTube channel and is using it to effectively market music packages. 11,000 Allman views in a week.....are you using YouTube effectively to market your new release? 

I have a short list of 12 YouTube marketing ideas. (yep free!) Email me for a copy.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

The Legacy of this Would-be Music Mogul Lies in Ruins



“It looked as if a tornado had passed through the house, picked up the remnants of Arrow Brown’s strange sordid life, and dumped them in the alley. September 1990: a warm breeze moves through Chicago’s South Side. Brown has been dead only a few weeks, but out behind his two-story greystone at 4114 S. King Drive, his dream is already decomposing. The legacy of this would-be music mogul lies in ruins: his papers torn and scattered, his 45s in a thousand gagged pieces, and all around, spools of master tape reduced to tangles of black ribbon melting in the late summer sun. This was the fate of Brown and his empire: a tiny, illusory kingdom built on a tragic combination of ego, deceit and control."

And it ends:

“Today, the old Bandit house at 4114 S. Martin Luther King Drive is empty and unclaimed. Its ceiling is crumbling, the insides a mass of broken brick and rotting wood. Thieves long ago gutted the place of wiring, pipes, anything of value. But in the front room, where so many used to gather in celebration, sits a single relic. The Baldwin organ, paid off in humble monthly installments, stands alone now amid the ruins of one man’s dream, an empire bathed in dust and silence.”

I have to tip my hat to The Numero Group. Whomever they hire to write their liner notes and copy is a master story teller. It reads like an Elmore Leonard crime novel, but for music. Great stuff! 


This re-release of Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label story contents: 

  • Printed and film laminated slipcase
  • 48 page + cover perfect bound book 
  • Two printed jackets 
  • Three LP’s 
The die cut jacket design has 16 holes that align with the 16 images on the inside sleeve (note to self: this was really hard to accomplish, we won’t do this again!). Granted it’s a great effect, but it’s extremely difficult to execute properly.  Another great release from The Numero Group. N003 retail price is $40.00.



You have to love the pictures inside the book. The ‘70’s style fashion, common to this era, is funky and eye popping!



From The Numero Group’s website:
Half a decade after the release of The Bandit Label, the story we stuffed into our 2000-word, 16-page booklet was feeling woefully incomplete. Survivors and hangers-on from Arrow Brown’s derelict kingdom had stepped forward, and new tracks had been discovered. Our CD package was losing any traction it had gained, and its admirers kept elbowing us re: Bandit’s inevitable return to wax and its native formats. Never close to content with throwing a product together, cut to fill only its hole in the marketplace, the Numero Group—older, wiser, stronger—has instead subjected 003 Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label to a full-on rebuild, adding stories to the edifice along the way. Our formerly paltry liner notes are now a 20,000-word work of astonishing nonfiction. We’ve de-grimed four dozen new domestic and promotional images, placing them all in an LP-sized '70s-style pulp paperback, cloaked in Eliza Childress’s sumptuous two-panel cover art. The original CD’s 20 tracks get blown out into a whopping 36, spread out across three LPs, one them replicating 1975’s original insanely decorated Magic of the Majestic Arrows long-player.

I think this is going to be a great seller for Numero. And a perfect historical artifact for Chicago's South Side music scene. If you want to develop a music package or book, and need help, please contact us at Integrated Communications Los Angeles.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Wheedle’s Groove: Seattle’s Finest In Funk & Soul 1965-79



We completed this Wheedle’s Groove: Seattle’s Finest In Funk & Soul 1965-79 project for Light in the Attic in 2011. 



Lavishly packaged box set featuring:
  • Only 2,000 hand-numbered copies worldwide
  • 10 7” vinyl singles featuring original label art and housed in a gorgeous custom made magnetic flip-top box with film lamination to protect the surface. The inside is also cover to hide the thick graphic board.
  • A 7” x 7” 96 page book with new liner notes interviewing the musicians and key players, unseen photos, endless ephemera, replica Seattle SuperSonics trading card, countless photos, and loads of other archival gems
  • CD of “lost” Robbie Hill’s Family Affair session, circa 1975
  • Free Download Card for all songs

·     A true love letter to Seattle and its Soul & Funk music scenes, Wheedle’s Groove: Seattle’s Finest In Funk & Soul 1965-79 is a treasure not to be missed.




The white sample images are the same style construction but are designed to hold CDs rather than vinyls.






If you need some ideas for a collection or limited edition, please let us know, we have some great solutions for you in 12”, 7” and disc media.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Old School CD and 7" vinyl carrying cases


I stumbled across these very interesting CD cases on ETSY, the handmade gift website. I thought they were very clever and a great use of long forgotten records and jackets;  probably sourced from garage sales and obscure record stores.  Superbly repurposed!






The seller, ARTYFAKT, should be congratulated for coming up with a great idea. These one offs are offered at between $60.00 to $85.00 each. You can view her custom art at:
http://www.etsy.com/people/artyfakt

They hold 12 CDs and have a nifty handle, metal hinges and a closing clasp.

If you have an artist whose cover art would make a great carrying case, why not consider adding a retail channel to the other merchandise you may offer. We can manufacture the same type of case in quantities starting at 250 units. The cases can hold CDs or 7” vinyl. The wholesale numbers really start working at 500 units and allow you to offer a case for an attractive retail price. Our cases would be more sturdy, hidden fasteners and a cleaner final finish.

Here is a case we manufactured for Numero Group. It uses two colors of book wrap material over gray graphic coverboard.  

Let us know how we can help get your artist more noticed!




Monday, June 10, 2013

Clifford Brown 3 CD booklet

Universal Music Group asked us to produce this Clifford Brown project about a year ago.
It’s a convenient and clean method to present 2, 3 or 4 CDs and retail friendly too.
 
(click on the image to enlarge)
Several independent labels asked me to provide pricing for a package just like this one.

(click on the image to enlarge)
 
The pictures really don’t do the package justice, notice the high quality fit and finish. 
 
(click on the image to enlarge)
 
Contents:

* 1 O-sleeve: (4cp + Gloss varnish) on 77# gloss Cover
* 48 pages: (4CP + gloss varnish) on 105# matte
* Three CD slots:  3 @ 4cp + gloss varnish on 92# gloss cover
* End sheets: (4CP + gloss varnish, two sides) on 85# gloss cover
* Cover: (4cp + matte film lamination) on 89# gloss text
* From 3 CD pockets,  section sew text, case over cover, bind book and insert book into sleeve.
* Packed 10 per carton
* Includes proofs
* High quality book binding
A project like this is about 12 weeks from receipt of final artwork to completion. Contact us for the pricing.
 

 
 
 
 
 

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Boddie Recording Company - A blast from the past!

Another interesting release we produced for Numero Group:

From 1958 to 1993, Thomas and Louise Boddie’s industrious Boddie Recording  Company issued nearly 300 albums and 45s, recorded 10,000 hours of tape, and remained in operation longer than any other studio, pressing plant, or label group in the history of Cleveland. Long forgotten even by the standards of the chronically overlooked northeastern Ohio music scene, Boddie was a fusion of its owner’s engineering genius and his limited economic means; its DIY recording studio housed in a humble barn, churned night and day to capture the sounds emanating from Cleveland’s east side neighborhoods.




The 58 tracks on these three CDs (or 65 track 5LP) represent the best of the Boddies’ in-house Soul Kitchen, Luau, and Bounty labels, which released an unspoiled treasure trove of kitchen-sink eccentric soul, fuzzbox funk, shoestring doo-wop, and haunted, eerily hook-laden spirituals.





Enclosed inside the cloth covered book is a mountain of office-styled ephemera: two massive booklets brimming with detail on the Boddies and their artists; extensive notes and scores of unpublished photos; a complete detailed discography folio; reproduced fliers; and a Boddie greeting card—all rendered with the handcrafted charm that was the Boddie hallmark. Call it a self-contained record industry crammed into one wonderfully wrapped film laminated slip case.



The book dividers and pockets are made of a paper very similar to French Paper's Speckletone oatmeal.

This set retails for $50.00 from Numero. The customer receives a lot of value with this fancy package.

How can we help you create more killer packages?

30 Years of Music Photography from Jimmy Steinfeldt's Rock'N Roll Lens

We haven't shared this before, but Jimmy Steinfeldt's hard cover (we call it casebound) has some great shots in it!     From a young George Thorogood, a 1990 Cab Calloway to a 1997 Hollywood Athletic Club shot of David Bowie. 49 artists in all.


CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE
 


(front cover)
 
(R Stewart)
 
 (Aerosmith)

You can create a limited edition book with a high quality cloth cover, tip-on color image on the front cover and 3 slots for discs for about $15.00 each in the quantity of 2,000. 

Make sure you keep those images and videos from your recording studio time. Re-purposing elements can add revenue to your sales efforts.  

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Medusa 12" vinyl jacket on BLACK Crushed Velvet

The unusual.....to catch a listener’s attention?

You're sure to be interested to see the attached!  Numero Group selected us to
produce this February released re-issue jacket from Chicago area 70’s metal band Medusa.




It’s foil stamped in two colors on the front, back AND spine on black CRUSHED VELVET.
The velvet is mounted to a stiff 35pt clay coated board.


The inside is a one color litho spread. It holds one 12” vinyl.


The front pocket could have been used for a booklet if there was enough band information or images. The quality of the foil and the velvet is outstanding; the images just don’t do the project justice!

While regular jackets are 24pt., this jacket is 35pt, much more substantial.

Definitely a collector’s item!

http://www.numerogroup.com/catalog_detail.php?uid=01492

Looking for unusual solutions? How can we help you sell more music?

(Concord Music Group, Numero and Light in the Attic partner with us to create unique sets that sell well).

We provide unique and high end packaging solutions for 7”, 10”, 12” and disc media.