And if you do, how much do you charge? Is it a significant part of your income? Do you "roll your own" cd's or have them manufactured? How many songs? Are they covers or originals? What genre? Did you do all the playing/singing? Do you display them at your gigs? I guess that's enough questions. Hey, just spill the beans. Thanks.

I do. They are recorded live on the job, and labeled as such, so they are covers.
I did one one time (it was a tape back then) with covers on one side and orginals on the other.
I charge $10.00 each, record and burn them myself, and make the labels myself. I do display them. Currently I am preparing the next one. Should be finished in a week or so.
They are not a significant income item, but they help. Sometimes I sell several a night, sometimes I go weeks without selling one. Depends on the venue.
DonM

Just curious----How do you handle copyright issues by selling cover tunes?

>> Do you sell CDs?

No, I offer them, for demo purposes of my work. - José.

[This message has been edited by Route 66 (edited 10-21-2004).]

Yes. I sell 1-5 night and it adds up to decent added income. Customers expect it too. I make the CD's myself, print the label onto the CD (no stick-ons), a local print company makes the jewel case inserts and I assemble and shrinkwrap them at home. Each CD costs about $2 to make in supplies.

The songs are all cover tunes which are licensed through the Harry Fox Agency (http://www.songfile.com). My current license is for 500 copies of 12 songs. The rates are 8.50 Cents for songs 5 minutes or less - per song per copy. In other words, each album costs me $1.02 in royalties. You should also print the name of the publishing company and song author for each song somewhere in the CD jacket. You must have the license in hand before production begins (most reputable duplicating houses require it).

I sell my CD's for $15 each including sales tax. That's approxinately $11.75 profit per CD. I could probably increase profits by mass duplicating but I wasn't sure how many I'd sell and didn't want to overinvest and be stuck with too many so I've been making them at home for now.

CD's have a long life and you never know where they are going to wind up. I would not put out a cover CD without doing the licensing, alhough too many do. You can usually tell: those who don't pay royalties most often don't bother to put the song author and publishing info on the CD insert either. And BTW: demos require the same licensing that sellable CD's do, so you might as well use your for-sale-CD as your demo.

I have made 2 CDs. the First is an instrumental album I did in Nashville. the Second is a mix of country/Christian 60% of which I cowrote. It was recorded in Mobridge SD at the studio in which I work. I pay .08 a copy for each cover tune. I sell for $15. Manufactured at Nashville tape and disk. They are at cdbaby.com, and I sell them at my shows.

There's an Epson printer I've seen touted by other musicians as great for CDs. It prints right on the (special) Cd blank. I forget the model but it is only about $100. There was discussion about ink smearing if it got wet and then a solution to that problem but I don't remember what the solution was. Maybe it was a new and improved blank.