jewel cases vs paper sleeves

[Paul Plack]

Originally Posted by jwkuether

...Do people use Avery products to print at home? Can I have a commercial printer use Avery products? My local Kinkos wasn't very helpful.

Do NOT use the self-adhesive labels designed for application directly to the surface of a CD! Even if you have the little jig that centers them properly for balance, they increase the thickness enough that they'll stick and make disconcerting noises in many CD drives.

Most office services stores won't run self-adhesive labels through their industrial copiers, because if one comes apart and gets stuck inside, the machine can require a service call.

If I was using CDs, I'd have the artwork done without a track list, so the artwork would have a longer shelf life. There are printers available now that will print directly on the label side of a CD without compromising the recording.

[Scott Pollak]

Careful linking to the origami site above! My McAfee site advisor red-flagged for for some security breaches.

[jsgilbert]

I would say that given the very abridged answer Susan Berkeley gives, I pretty much agree with about 99.5% of it. However, as an adman I tend to think that shotgunning demos works to a certain degree, and along with that mass duplication of demo CD's and accompanyng materials.

As for "packaging" presenting a proffesional image, I have purchased software that cost well over $1,000 that was delivered in a paper sleeve or downloaded. My experience has been that in many cases the best packaging often belonged to the worst demos. And most of the agents will still speak in public and tell you to send your demo in a jewel case with cover letter and resume and self addressed return envelope. This method will ensure that your demo is never listened to and instead will sit in a box or shopping bag and if it ever gets listened to, it's by some intern.

Getting an agent is an art. Beyond that, getting an agent to sign you and then actually pay any attention to you is an even greater art. If you are in a major market, it is relatively easy to get soem additional representation in minor markets. How much it might help has a lot to do with name recognition in the market place, voice type, etc.

Otherwise, there are so, so many people looking for representation that in 95% of all cases, you will need an advocate to assist you. This means someone who has the talent agents ear - producer, voice teacvher, audio engineer, or another talent that books well, to hand your demo to the agent and say "You really should sign this person"

Other than that, you need to take a class from a talent agent, not brown nose them, but instead do well and hope they offer you an invite.

Yes, a few people who send out demos via the mail may get signed. Could be a slow day and the agent decides to play a few CD's, who knows?

Otherwise, with regards to marketing, I tend to think the demos CD's should be burned one at a time and be made "on topic" if I'm sending something to an ad agency, they don't need to hear my gaming characters or IVR reel. I will often go so far as to visit their site adn look at their reel and make sure that my cuts offer some similarly stylistic things. I then reference my work compared to theirs in a cover letter and put in additional selling points.

One can then direct them to a website for additional samples by putting the URL on the CD and putting it in the cover letter.

In the old days, I boght a wholesale lot of "walkman" style cassette players and got them fairly inexpensively and would send them out to very qualified potential clients. If anybody has spent time looking at the cost of B to B marketing employed by many companies, spending $30 or more is not unusual. I knew a mowan who used to drop off homemade fruit and gift baskets on the desks of the people she wanted to pitch. Located just under the top one or two items was the demo and materials.

I am not so sure that given the current face of the voiceover indusrtry, along with our current recession, that I might look at doing these types of things, but I am still willing to bet that if somebody bought a veggie pizza for $12 - $14 and attached their resume and demo to it and dropped it off to an agent's office on a Tuesday at around 12:30, that they probably would stand a better chance of getting it listened to than sending it out in the mail. Given that an g]agents class can cost $100 - $200 or more, that's a lot of pizza.

There are a few places left that store CD demos in jewel cases. I spoke to one of them and he said that most of the submissions are electronic and he will often burn the CD himself and put it in a case or get a submission in a paper sleeve and transfer it to a case.

The big problem most people I speak to have is that 90% of what they get, whether in a case, in a sleeve or in a halter top and short shorts, just doesn't sound very good.

Starkist wants tunas that taste good. Spend more time on developing the craft and less time on the graphics, seems to be the big message.

[Mike Sommer]

1) There's nothing like fishing out a jammed CD with a paper lable.

2) Don't be cheap get professionally printed CD's

3) Clean clear labeling, intelligent branding will move one further than trying to reinvent the demo.

EDIT:
I would seek out every avenue of self promotion possible.
Though JS is speaking mostly of getting the ear of the agent, when one is trying to gain cliental producers, directors and studios are still viable targets
for sending out demos. If they listen to the actual CD great! If the information on the CD get's them to a websit with ones Demo for download, then the
CD/mailing has achieved it purpose. By sending out the CD I've given them an option.

[Jodi Krangle]

I just recently got 1 gig USB sticks with my personal branding on them. I have only a few (less than 40) but I can easily load on precisely what I want to send, and it takes very little in the way of packaging to have it arrive in one piece - AND - even if the person I send it to doesn't decide to use me, chances are pretty good that they may find the 1 gig USB stick useful. And if they use it, it has my branding all over it. <shrug> I can't really know what they're going to do with it once they receive it. But the more people that see my branding? The better.

This particular medium is only in its early stages at this point, but after participating in a teleseminiar with Dave Foxx of Z100 in New York, he mentioned that folks should send out USB drives instead of CDs. Since I'm something of a technogeek when it comes to computers (not necessarily audio software or engineering, by any means - just the computers that DO all that stuff. ), I just had to give it a try. :)

[Jon Morss]

Jodi -- Very Cool. Sounds familiar. Got pics? I've been meaning to buy some USB flash drives myself.
Ensure they are playable on Mac as well as Windows. You would not want to send a Mac formated one that will not play on a PC or they other way around.

My suggestion is still to call first and see how the person you are sending it to wants the submission.

[Lee Gordon]

If you're going to distribute something with your branding on it, it's always best to make it something useful. Presumably, somebody will give your demo at least one listen before repurposing your USB drive, but even if he doesn't, he'll be staring at your name and number every time he uses it. If nothing else, perhaps the guilt will make him call you the first time.

[Jodi Krangle]

<laugh> That's kind of my hope, Lee, yeah.

Jon, these USBs are formatted however they are from the factory. I don't format them at all when I use them. I just load the html and mp3s on to them. So I'm presuming they aren't formatted for any particular system. I don't think that's a worry with USB drives ... but someone is free to enlighten me, if I'm wrong.

As for pictures, I don't have a digital camera (I'm probably the only one on the planet that doesn't at this point) - but I've attached a picture of the USB drive itself and my logo etc. is printed on the white top part. The proof for it is also attached (obviously, far larger than it appears on the actual USB drive).

[shenecke]

Very cool Jodi! Would you be willing to divulge the source and price?

[Jodi Krangle]

I went with a local company called Creative Promotions. For 40 of them, they were $13 a piece (that's Canadian). Size of 1 Gig. I'm not sure if you'd get a better price elsewhere, but it's worth researching. The color I chose was a Pantone shade. But you could choose any Pantone shade along the spectrum for your own design. It's 1 color - but again, with a different company or differently shaped USB drive, you might be given more options.