We were in Texas, partying at SXSW. COPYCATS hosted a live music showcase on March 17th at the Thirsty Nickel in Austin.

Minneapolis artist Chuck U was on the scene painting live from the event - until, that is, the crowd grew to capacity and his elbow room was snatched away. Music kicked off at 12:30 and by 3:30 the venue was wall-to-wall. By the time Grieves and Budo took the stage, the crowd was worked up and ready to party.

We had limited edition COPYCATS SXSW t-shirts to toss into the crowd and Ed & Justin had the chance to hang out with tons of clients and friends. We hosted a 1000-unit CD giveaway and raised a glass in celebration of this year’s successful show at SXSW.

See you in 2013!

Doomtree’s new album No Kings doesn’t drop until November,

but you can get a sneak peek.

COPYCATS is handling the CD manufacturing for this album,

and Wired.com is premiering Doomtree’s single The Grand Experiment now.

You can download the track for free, and get a sample of what’s to come when this amazing album drops.

Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of the disc!

Elizabeth Hunnicut has used Copycats for two of her projects and has recently relocated from Minnesota to San Francisco. She toured nationally last year with her newest CD On The Way, and is now writing and in production of her newest CD.

“I loved working with Copycats! They were timely, professional, and I felt like I was in good hands.” - Elizabeth Hunnicut

www.elizabethhunnicutt.com ]]> http://blog.copycatsmedia.com/?feed=rss2&p=1052 http://blog.copycatsmedia.com/?p=1049 http://blog.copycatsmedia.com/?p=1049#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:16:06 +0000 admin http://blog.copycatsmedia.com/?p=1049

Found this cool guide on how Musicians and Bands should use Twitter, very informational.

Twitter For Musicians and Bands: A How-To Guide

When people print your own discs at home, they usually use a sticker label that can feed through an ink-jet printer. So when people call in about a CD or DVD project they think that we might be doing the same.

Since we are doing much more then a few discs at a time we use more professional means of printing directly on the discs. We use four different types of printing - Prism, Everest, Silkscreen and Offset printing.

Prism (Black Text Imprint) -
The Prism printer is used for short run projects with a black text based imprint. Images or detailed graphics don’t print on the Prism, so your best bet is using text and if you have a simple all solid black logo that will work as well. This also prints the best on the silver surface of the disc.

Everest (Full Color Thermal) –
This is another one of our short run printers, but the Everest prints full color onto the disc. This works best for printing full color images onto the disc face. The Everest is great for photos and detailed logos and graphics. It doesn’t work great for large areas of solid black however, so when designing for the Everest think of full color images and colors on the lighter end of the spectrum.

Silk Screen (1-3 color)
Silk Screen printing on disc, is used for medium to large runs, 500 and up. Silk Screen works great for solid colors and uses the Pantone Color Matching system (see below for more info) for inks when printing. Silk Screen designs are better when they are simple and straightforward and you want to stay away from items like gradients and detailed graphics or photos.

Offset Printing (Full Color CMYK printing)
Offset printing is our full color option for medium to large runs. Great for photos and complex graphics, Offset printing is similar in detail and clarity as full color paper printing. This printing method is however not great for large areas of solid colors.

Some things to think about when designing your imprint -

Matching paper print to your disc imprint -
If you are using a similar color from your paper print on your disc imprint, due to the different nature of imprint surfaces and paper it is difficult to get a spot on match. We do our best to match them, but expect some variance in the colors.

Designing imprints in Photoshop –
While Photoshop is  a great photo editing tool, it isn’t the best program for text. Illustrator and Indesign are much better at handling text and your text will be much cleaner. If you have to design your imprint in Photoshop, you might want to stay away from any real small text or text with thin lines. It’s not such a big deal when doing Offset or Everest Printing, but when doing Silk Screen printing it can effect the print quality.

Pantone Color Matching System -
When Silk Screen Printing we use inks from the Pantone Matching System. If your not familiar with Pantone Colors and you design your Silk Screen imprint with CMYK colors we can pick a Pantone Color that closely represents your color. However some CMYK colors don’t translate as well, so starting with Pantone colors does work the best.

If you have any questions about your imprint or setting up your artwork, feel free to call the Copycats art department with questions or concerns we would be glad to help you out. Just call 612-371-8008 or 888-698-8008 and ask for the Art Department. Or you can ask your salesperson and they will you in touch with us.

If you have even more discs to package with your replicated CD project, you can also use a quad box.  The quad box is as thick as two standard sized jewel cases, and it can store anywhere from one to six discs.  It’s also useful if you have a booklet that is larger than 28 pages, because that’s the largest booklet you can package with a standard sized jewel case and still get it to close.

Sales rep Adam Wachter shows the different multi-disc jewel cases available:

These numbers refer to the color print on each side of your paper insert.  When an insert is printed four over one (4/1), the four means full color and the one means black and white.  A 4/1 insert is full color on one side with black and white printing on the other side.

Sales rep Zac Boyd explains this in more detail:

In the article, they say it’s a good way to practice and play different styles of music as your band is starting out.  Once your band gets more experience and recognition, then you can start pushing your own original music.

I’d like to look at this from the reverse angle.  If you are a band that has some solid playing experience and have written a solid catalog of original songs, try playing a cover and give it your own unique spin.  I have a friend who plays in a screamo band (I really hate that term, but I can’t think of a better way to describe it).  They’ve been playing and touring the country for about five years now.  This summer, they were in a studio and recorded a cover of a hit pop song that was getting a lot of radio play at the time.  They posted it on their MySpace page and it blew up.  They had over 15,000 plays of this song after only three days!  There were loads of new friend requests each day from people saying they loved the cover, and quite a few more who said how much they loved the band.  That’s a whole new slew of fans just from playing a cover song.

Here is how I would do it:

• Pick a song that’s compatible with your own fanbase, but crosses genres and potentially draws new fans. 
• Put in a solid effort when writing and recording this cover.  Nobody will want to listen if it sounds terrible! 
• Acquire mechanical use licenses so you can legally distribute and sell this recording.  Let’s say my friend from the example 10,000 downloads of this track over that weekend; if their cut after paying the publishers and distributors (iTunes, Amazon) is around $0.50, they would have made $5,000 that weekend!  I realize that not every cover would generate that type of response, and a 2/3 conversion rate from plays to downloads is pretty generous (especially since the 15,000 plays probably were not all unique plays), but any additional income stream can help an independent musician, no matter how small.
• Push your original music on website visitors who come to hear your cover.  If you are using a MySpace page, set up one of your own tunes to auto-play when a visitor hits your site.  This will increase the chances of new fans hearing, liking, and/or buying your other tracks or CDs. 
• Make sure you splash your tour schedule and other merchandise all over your site so new fans have more opportunities to support you.

So what’s you opinion?  Does your band play cover songs?  Or do you think it’s wrong to capitalize on the coattails of another song’s success?

Are you an independent musician who is recording and releasing a new album?  Get your album professionally replicated, printed, and packaged by COPYCATS Media. Your CD copies will be pressed from a glass master, meaning they are of the highest quality. This is a full, post-production package. If you record an album, we’ll handle everything else, including audio mastering and graphic design. The entire package includes the following:

• 1000 replicated CDs from a glass master
• Full color, off-set imprint on the disc face
• 4 panel, full-color printed insert with tray card
• Jewel case packaging with choice of a black or clear tray
• Top spine sticker and barcode
• Full assembly and poly-wrap
• Free ground shipping within the United States
• Free graphic design

Regular retail price for this full package would be nearly $2,000!  Here’s your chance to get an outstanding low price on a full CD package.

The winning bidder may redeem this service when they are ready.  It does not have to be used immediately.  For example, if the winner does not plan to record a new CD until next year, they can get the design and manufacturing done at that time.

The winning bidder will receive all of the services/items listed above.  Other options are available (expedited shipping, larger quantity, audio mastering, etc.), but will come at an additional fee.

Sales rep Adam Wachter shows some examples:

For more informational videos, please visit our YouTube page.