The digital distribution and manufacturing services, plus the multi-media manufacturing offers by Creative Space, are alluring; however, the options for book and film production raises some questions about the details of these offers from the POD service provider. Since maintaining inventory levels for published books can be tricky in the event of slow book sales, then, the inventory control by way of manufacturing is a bonus; moreover, despite the added services, a further investigation of their basis for calculating the price tag on these services requires further investigation - at least for the physical CDs. Although digital audio downloads account for 40% of sales, there is a lot of grey area in those figures when it comes to independent or emerging artist album sales (especially since live performances are where the bulk of the money for an artist will be made). The Creative Space reasoning of $25 per CD in order to justify their costs seems a bit off the target by ten years with current market prices of $9.99 to 14.99 per album. Actually, Creative Space is an Amazon company and may be not be needed for music production. Since 2008, following over 7 years of strategic market observations, two of the most effective digital download, CD inventory warehousing and CD manufacturing services for independent artists or labels have merged (i.e. Disc Makers, CD Baby, Amazon, iTunes, etc.). These companies’ track records are more convincing for a small record company or artist with a skeleton budget. The financial risk is more secured with theses established companies than with the alluring offers of a new service with a dazzling array of one-stop shop services. Therefore, in order to get a bang for the buck, consider the quality of music production and distribution services from a long-time professional music business company like Disc Makers and their partners.
REFERENCES:
1) Digital Distribution; http://discmakers.com/services/WebDistribution.asp
2) Creative Space Distribute and Selling Index: http://www.createspace.com
3) Managing The Artist’s Tour; The Business of Artists Management 4th Edition; Xavier M. Frascogna, Jr., H. Lee Hetherington; pp. 204-205
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