I found a good list of questions to ask yourself when making an album that I’ve listed below. Here are some preliminary answers.
- Why do you want to make this album? How will this help your career?
I’ve got lots of great songs waiting to be recorded and it’s been 4 years since I put out my last album. This album will put me on the map in Austin and give me a fresh online campaign to share my music.
- How are you going to market it? Who’s going to play it? Who’s going to buy it? Do you care?
I’ll market it primarily online, through my site and social networking. KUT, KOOP, KVRX, and KGSR are my primary targets for local airplay. I’m more concerned with it getting out there than making money.
- A biggie– What degree of perfection/quality are you going for with this album, ie. what are you willing to settle for in order to save time and money during the recording process. If you can figure this out in advance of going into the studio, you’ll save a bundle.
This is always where I get stuck. From looking at budgetary constraints it’s obvious I’m going to have compromise on a lot of my visions. It must sound good enough for radio. I think the cheapest way to achive hi-fi sound on my budget is to do almost all of it myself, recording drums in a studio.
- Develop a budget that’s in line with your answer to 3, remembering “Murphy’s law of recording.” The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time, the final 10% takes the other 90% of the time.”
My budget for this little beast is 1K that I’ve got saved to record, mix, and master, and I’m guessing about another 1K that I can save and raise for promotion in the second half of the year.