After recording your album you will need to consider publicity, live performances, merchandise, and creating an online presence. Depending on how hands-on your label or company is they may handle all of this for you, or you may be expected to take it on yourself.
Immediately after recording it is important to work on a design for the album’s release which will cover the booklets, tray-cards or inlays, and disc art used in the production of the CDs (and cassettes and/or vinyl depending on your interest). Although you could hire the help of a graphic artist, many bands see this as a way of further expressing their creativity and identity, and enjoy working through the design process themselves. If your label is helping with distribution, they should be able to organise your release so that it is ready for sale in stores – that is, they should be able to organise an individual barcode for your album, ISRC codes, and have the music registered within the UK so that it is eligible to hit the charts if successful.
Publicity is another incredibly important aspect of the music industry, and your label may be able to help. Discuss which radio stations and print journalists you want the album sent to, and whether they will help with creating an internet presence for your band. You may need to take on the website creation yourself, which is why some of the simpler do-it-yourself sites are so popular (such as MySpace). If you are going to be touring or doing live performances, you also need to have posters and banners for display on stage and at the gig, as well as merchandise ready to sell to any audience members who like your sound. Again, this may be something you have to organise and pay for yourself, but the publicity generated is usually worth the additional effort.
Immediately after recording it is important to work on a design for the album’s release which will cover the booklets, tray-cards or inlays, and disc art used in the production of the CDs (and cassettes and/or vinyl depending on your interest). Although you could hire the help of a graphic artist, many bands see this as a way of further expressing their creativity and identity, and enjoy working through the design process themselves. If your label is helping with distribution, they should be able to organise your release so that it is ready for sale in stores – that is, they should be able to organise an individual barcode for your album, ISRC codes, and have the music registered within the UK so that it is eligible to hit the charts if successful.
Publicity is another incredibly important aspect of the music industry, and your label may be able to help. Discuss which radio stations and print journalists you want the album sent to, and whether they will help with creating an internet presence for your band. You may need to take on the website creation yourself, which is why some of the simpler do-it-yourself sites are so popular (such as MySpace). If you are going to be touring or doing live performances, you also need to have posters and banners for display on stage and at the gig, as well as merchandise ready to sell to any audience members who like your sound. Again, this may be something you have to organise and pay for yourself, but the publicity generated is usually worth the additional effort.