Finally took the plunge and produced a CD

[colton]

I really admire Edgewriter for posting the info about his book(s) here in jazzfanz, so I mimicked his title.

I'm the faculty advisor for BYU's A Cappella club and this past semester we took the plunge and recorded a CD. I was the producer. That involved auditioning groups to be on the CD, selecting songs, helping coordinate the recording, working with the sound engineer to get the sound & mix we wanted, working with a graphic designer for the album art, arranging for licensing, etc. You can ask my wife: I poured my heart and soul into this album.

End result: it turned out great! And the CD just went on sale yesterday. Here is a video I made to announce the CD, you can listen to the audio clips and see some photos/videos of the groups:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbaIpSKptQI

If anyone is interested in ordering, it's $12/CD. It's not on iTunes or anything like that yet, so just contact me directly if you want to order. All proceeds go towards recouping the cost of recording; neither the singers nor myself are pocketing anything. If we don't sell enough CDs, this may be a one-time thing instead of the start of an annual tradition as we hope. So it's a great album, and also for a good cause.

:grouphug:

 

[Hantlers]

I was desperately hoping that your singing would be on this.

 

[Tony]

 

[Bawse Dawg]

Zoob

 

[Hantlers]

All jokes aside, good job Colton.

 

[Tony]

All jokes aside, good job Colton.

This. Congrats.

 

[ONE LOVE]

Congrats. (not sure why but I got goosebumps listening to those songs!!)


Was it expensive to get the rights to those popular songs??

 

[8]

Sounds well-done.

Never mixed this type of music before and I'd like to keep it that way.

 

[ONE LOVE]

Out of curiosity - did anyone else got goosebumps, or just me?

 

[8]

l@yfa

 

[VINYLONE]

Out of curiosity - did anyone else got goosebumps, or just me?

Troll attempt is decent.

 

[ONE LOVE]

Troll attempt is decent.

How so? Was being serious. There's something about those "angelic" voices that really got me... may be it's just me then.

 

[colton]

Congrats. (not sure why but I got goosebumps listening to those songs!!)


Was it expensive to get the rights to those popular songs??

Actually, the rate is set by law. For all songs under 5 minutes you just have to pay 9.1 cents per song, for each CD that you burn. So for a twelve track cover CD like this, royalty payments are just over a dollar per CD. Not too bad.

 

[ONE LOVE]

Actually, the rate is set by law. For all songs under 5 minutes you just have to pay 9.1 cents per song, for each CD that you burn. So for a twelve track cover CD like this, royalty payments are just over a dollar per CD. Not too bad.

Wow.. that's really amazing value..



Did u you have to get permission from the record labels???

 

[colton]

How so? Was being serious. There's something about those "angelic" voices that really got me... may be it's just me then.

There are definitely some moments on the CD that give me goose bumps.

 

[ONE LOVE]

There are definitely some moments on the CD that give me goose bumps.

Or it could just be the Spirit touching me.... there students are Christian/Mormons I take it?

 

[colton]

Wow.. that's really amazing value..

Did u you have to get permission from the record labels???

You don't HAVE to get permission, because legally they cannot refuse you the right to record the song. Legally you just have to mail them the payments. But I decided to try to get permission because it seemed like the right thing to do. For the most part I used Harry Fox Agency for that, which many/most of the record labels have contracted as a sort of licensing warehouse. However, a substantial number of tracks had to be handled individually and that was a serious pain. Because of that I've probably spent at least 20 hours on just the licensing aspects of this album. Next time I plan to go with Limelight, which is a company that just serves the record labels notice and gives them the payments without bothering to ask for permission of any sort.

 

[colton]

Or it could just be the Spirit touching me.... there students are Christian/Mormons I take it?

I assume most of them are, because most (but not all) are BYU students, and the vast majority of BYU students (but not all) are Mormon. But it's not like I took a survey before letting them be on the album.

 

[colton]

I forgot to mention--I'll give a +150 rep to anyone who orders the CD. ;-)

 

[colton]

I was desperately hoping that your singing would be on this.

Sorry, not this album. I sing in the Utah Baroque Ensemble, though, and we may be coming out with an album in a few months also. If so I'll probably post a link to the album. Here's our website: https://utahbaroque.org/. Looks like we don't have any audio clips there, but if you really want to listen to us, I've posted a bunch here: https://www.physics.byu.edu/faculty/colton/personal/choral_music.html