Comments on 11734

A brief introduction. Details and other updates to follow.

What is the Metafilter Compilation Album?

The Mefi Comp Album is a collection of musical tracks by members of metafilter.com. It's a project-in-progress—tracks are currently being submitted to the editor (moi, cortex) for consideration for the final mix.

The goal is two-fold. One: collect the diverse musical talents present in the metafilter user base into an attractive, professional CD package. Two: direct all proceeds toward one or more charitable causes still to be determined.

Previous discussion right here.

Can I buy it? How else can I support it?

You can pre-order the album. See pricing below. As soon as we finish duplicating the final product, you'll get your disc(s) in the first mailing.

If you'd like to support the project, you're welcome to make a donation. We have a target budget of approximately $1500, and we hope to satisfy that with pre-orders and donations.

Donations will be refunded as soon as our sales satisfy our costs. Once all donations have been refunded, all following profits from sales will go directly to our charitable cause(s).

There is an element of risk in donating: there is the possibility (however pessimistic!) that our sales will never meet our costs, in which case we will not be able to repay all donations in full. (Or it might take a while, and you'll accordingly have to wait a while to get paid back.)

What's it cost?

The CD costs $10 USD. Bulk orders of 10 or more are $7/unit, with a maximum order of 50 copies.

Shipping is $2 domestic for small orders, $5 dollars for bulk. International orders (excepting CA) will require an additional $5 shipping fee to cover costs.

Money is being held by metafilter admin and all-around awesome person jessamyn, in lieu of a more formal (and complicated) escrow process—jessamyn is as far beyond reproach as anyone in the community, and she's highly visible to boot.

Enough chatter! I wish to spend money!

Excellent. jessamyn will post a comment with pre-order/donation buttons for your disbursment!
posted by cortex at 7:44 AM on April 21, 2006

Click here to send $12 to PayPal for one pre-ordered CD shipped to the US/UK/CA

Anything other than pre-ordering (donations, bulk orders etc) can just be PayPalled to my account at gmail, which is my first name.
posted by jessamyn at 7:46 AM on April 21, 2006

Cool! Seems like a bargain. I look forward to rockin' it out in the truck.
posted by Witty at 7:49 AM on April 21, 2006

Witty with first blood! Thank you, sir.

Any questions/comments/objections/etc are welcome. Post 'em here, or drop me a line:

joshjosh atta gmail dotta com
posted by cortex at 7:53 AM on April 21, 2006

It's going to be a CD, right... not an MP3 data disc? How many tracks are you going to try and cram on there, as many you can? Also, what is your approach/criteria for how the mix will be determined? I'm assuming 'variety' will certainly be a factor.
posted by Witty at 7:59 AM on April 21, 2006

Can I order one or two now and add to my order later once I've convinced my friends?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:00 AM on April 21, 2006

Is there an easy way to add the comment box to the paypal page, so we can put our usernames in there? I'd hate to be confused with Witty again.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 8:00 AM on April 21, 2006

Again?
posted by Witty at 8:02 AM on April 21, 2006

It's going to be a professionally mastered and duplicated audio CD with pretty art in a jewel case and everything.

I'm aiming for 74 minutes, which will be hard to do—much good stuff already, and submissions are still very much open.

Variety is a fact; I'm aiming for the best mix I can make of the best stuff mefites are sending in, and so far that's run a delightful genre gamut.

Can you order some now and some later?

Sure. Just order (paypal/email jessamyn if you're looking to do more than just one disc) what you want now, and repeat the process later. :)
posted by cortex at 8:03 AM on April 21, 2006

Err, forget the second sentence. Apologies.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 8:04 AM on April 21, 2006

Thanks for all the hard work you are putting into this. It really adds value to the community.
posted by dios at 8:04 AM on April 21, 2006

We'll look into a comment page on the paypal page; for now, probably best to email jessamyn if you want to add a comment.
posted by cortex at 8:04 AM on April 21, 2006

This sounds great -- is there an alternative payment method for those on the outs with PayPal or the credit card challenged?
posted by cedar at 8:06 AM on April 21, 2006

This rocks. Well done everybody. (/Pats wallet pocket nervously.)
posted by Jofus at 8:06 AM on April 21, 2006

For alternative payment questions, please email me and we'll figure it out:

joshjosh atta gmail dotta com
posted by cortex at 8:07 AM on April 21, 2006

Also - is this going to be posted to Projects?
posted by Jofus at 8:10 AM on April 21, 2006

This is neat. I ordered mine already!
posted by mds35 at 8:16 AM on April 21, 2006

Rough numbers:

We need approximately 150 pre-orders to be totally free and clear; or less than that and donations to cover the gap.
posted by cortex at 8:22 AM on April 21, 2006

One more order tossed on the pile. Thanks again for doing this.
posted by COBRA! at 8:33 AM on April 21, 2006

Also, I would like to put out a request for some thick, swampy, roots/rock, delta Blues. The kind that is so gritty and sweaty that you can damn near feel the squitos on your skin and the growl coming out of an old tweed amplifier. Maybe a little bottle neck slide. Any users up to that challenge?
posted by dios at 8:37 AM on April 21, 2006

Ordered. Thanks guys! I'm really looking forward to this.
posted by graventy at 8:39 AM on April 21, 2006

Ordered.
posted by odinsdream at 8:43 AM on April 21, 2006

Awesome. Ordered.
posted by youcancallmeal at 8:47 AM on April 21, 2006

Ordered mine. I'm glad people have decided to forge ahead while working out those pesky little details of how to split up the money and rights and such forth. Perhaps this could get a little love on the front page sidebar? I think it's unique enough to merit a mention, and perhaps get a few more eyeballs on this thread and preorders in the bag...
posted by nanojath at 8:52 AM on April 21, 2006

shipped to the US/UK/CA

Is UK in North America now? Or, how can you ship to the UK for $2 and not the rest of Europe?
posted by AwkwardPause at 8:52 AM on April 21, 2006

A sidebar link would be great. I would go so far as to estimate that it is inevitable. (Though trial-by-fire for a little while to make sure we don't have any kinks in the system seems wise.)

We're still working out lots of details behind the scenes, but this much is clear: money is going to raw costs (duplication, mastering, mailing), and then to repaying donations, and then 100% to charity.
posted by cortex at 8:54 AM on April 21, 2006

Is UK in North America now? Or, how can you ship to the UK for $2 and not the rest of Europe?

I admit this is sheer ballparkery. Brief anecdotal consensus suggested that firing a padded envelope with a CD inside from US to UK would be pretty damn cheap; Europe in general, and the rest of the world, not so much.

If you're an international party and you have questions/qualms/insights on US-to-YourCountry shipping issues, please contact me and educate me; I'm happy to adjust shipping fees if the basic numbers here are unrealistic.

joshjosh atta gmail dotta com
posted by cortex at 8:58 AM on April 21, 2006

What AwkwardPause said. I can't believe US->UK would be much cheaper than US->EU (other), or that US->US and US->UK would be roughly equivalent in cost.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:02 AM on April 21, 2006

BTW, I send out CDs regularly, and IIRC a CD + a sheet of paper or two (A4) + bubble envelope that fits the CD snugly weighs about 118 grams, or about 4.16 oz. This is from memory, I could check and re-weigh when I get home. Maybe this helps in tabulating shipping costs to various destinations.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:05 AM on April 21, 2006

US->UK via USPS AirMail takes something like 4 small ice ages. I am convinced that they ship things the wrong way around the world, with the packages stapled onto illegal immigrants which they are conveniently deporting in the general direction of somewhere on earth other than here.

How the illegals manage to survive all 4 of the ice ages with such reliability is any-ones guess though.

/rant
posted by public at 9:08 AM on April 21, 2006

A quick (and woefully belated) visit to the USPS international shipping page confirms it—the standard rate for UK is silly.

I'll ask jessamyn to amend that in the post as soon as she's available to do so. In the meantime, any UK orders that have been submitted will be honored as is—I'll swallow whatever the difference is, if there have been any.

UK folks: the int'l $5 shipping surcharge ought to apply to you as well. Please consider this in any orders going forward.
posted by cortex at 9:11 AM on April 21, 2006

(Off to a meeting for a bit—don't burn the house down while I'm out.)
posted by cortex at 9:26 AM on April 21, 2006

US->UK via USPS AirMail takes something like ~~4 small ice ages~~ a week or so.
posted by grouse at 9:27 AM on April 21, 2006

For donations, what should we select as the "Category of purchase"? Quasi-cash gives me a warning about a credit card fee.
posted by Nahum Tate at 9:34 AM on April 21, 2006

Ordered. Yay!
posted by cali at 9:56 AM on April 21, 2006

Done and done. I eagerly await shipment.

Will it be green?
posted by unixrat at 9:57 AM on April 21, 2006

Ordered - this is a terrific project, it adds a huge amount to the community.
posted by greycap at 10:00 AM on April 21, 2006

I'm in. Nice work, cortex and jessamyn (and all you talented people soon to be doing it to me in my earholes).
posted by gleuschk at 11:12 AM on April 21, 2006

Yea!! I'm in!

Will the cover be a picture of quonsar's pants fish, or what?
posted by shnoz-gobblin at 11:33 AM on April 21, 2006

Ordered!
posted by kalimac at 11:39 AM on April 21, 2006

Ordered!
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:41 AM on April 21, 2006

Will the cover be a picture of quonsar's pants fish, or what?

That depends on whether someone submits it, and whether interrobang calls their bluff. Cover Art Submissions are now open.
posted by cortex at 11:42 AM on April 21, 2006

So, um, how much do I need to pay now for my order to the Netherlands? And how do I order, just send money to jess via PayPal?

I thought I'd post it here, as I'm sure there are other Mefites outside of US/CA/UK with the same questions.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:47 AM on April 21, 2006

How do I order, just send money to jess via PayPal?

For now, yes, you paypal the money to jessamyn, or email her if you've got a query.

So, um, how much do I need to pay now for my order to the Netherlands?

If you're ordering one disc, gnifti, it'll be $17; $10 for the disc, $2 default packaging/shipping, +$5 to cover the added cost of international mail.

Any orders deliverable outside of US/CA needs to tack on $5 to cover the extra shipping. Other than that, prices are as listed above. The shipping charges are, of course, per-order and not per-disc, should you want to order more than one.
posted by cortex at 11:53 AM on April 21, 2006

Thanks, cortex! Sometimes I need it spelled out for me.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:58 AM on April 21, 2006

Thanks for conceiving and executing this album. I've run enough distributed projects to know how incredibly, deceptively complicated things like this can get.
posted by Nahum Tate at 12:19 PM on April 21, 2006

I'm in. I'm usually shy about pre-ordering, but with all this great talent to choose from, I really can't lose.

Thanks for taking the initiative, cortex.
posted by Galvatron at 12:20 PM on April 21, 2006

Ordered it. Psyched.

Any idea when it will be out?
posted by visual mechanic at 12:51 PM on April 21, 2006

Any idea when it will be out?

No firm timeline, but here's the current sketch:

Music submissions close up May 1. Selections announced in the following days; uncompressed masters of those collected promptly thereafter.

As soon as those are in, we go to mastering; we've given that a conservative estimate of two weeks, though it may well go faster. turtlegirl is doing the work, and that's her estimate.

Concurrent to all that, interrobang will be working on cover art selections and designing the internal/back/CD art. Ideally, that will be finalized by the time mastering is finished.

Assuming that all goes according to plan, we could go to duplication in the third or fourth week of may. Turnaround there could vary; another two weeks is a safe bet. Then those get shipped to our Distribution Center (read: my apartment), and I commence to mailing.

So I'd ballpark people seeing these in their mailboxes as early as mid-June. Which, now that I say it, sounds like both forever and ridiculously soon.
posted by cortex at 1:04 PM on April 21, 2006

Glad to see this coming to fruition so quickly! i've started on my track, too.

A word about shipping -- i can confirm that orders from the u.s. to germany, the uk, and the netherlands can be done via bubble-envelope for $1.70 via usps global priority mail [3-5 business days, i believe was what the sign said]. Is the $5 estimate via some other shipping service?

Ping, ordered.
posted by phylum sinter at 1:09 PM on April 21, 2006

Ordered.

Here are the Global Priority mail rates at USPS.gov
posted by pithy comment at 1:20 PM on April 21, 2006

Is the $5 estimate via some other shipping service?

Estimates based on USPS rates and a degree of handwaving, essentially. If I find that we can ship efficiently to international destinations for significantly less than the current surcharge, I'll contact folks who've put in such orders and figure something out, and update the pricing.
posted by cortex at 1:21 PM on April 21, 2006

Ordered mine. Thanks for all the hard work, folks. This was a great idea and the execution (so far) looks excellent.

I missed which charity people agreed on, though.
posted by arcticwoman at 2:14 PM on April 21, 2006

You didn't miss anything, arcticwoman: we haven't established that yet. I'll announce it when we have done so.
posted by cortex at 2:20 PM on April 21, 2006

Incidentally, the pre-orders and donations total $638.78 at this point. Keep 'em coming in.
posted by jessamyn at 5:54 PM on April 21, 2006

you can tack my 12 bucks onto that figure.
posted by carsonb at 6:14 PM on April 21, 2006

78 cents? Cheap bastards.
posted by graventy at 8:32 PM on April 21, 2006

Hurrah! I got over my PayPal fear*!!!
With the US/CDN exchange rate at a robust 0.856540, I couldn't afford not to!!!

*Phishing[?] attempt after last time I used it, appropriately enough, for my MeFi membership donation
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:45 PM on April 21, 2006

And thanks for toting up the numbers on the big board, jessamyn! Keep us posted!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:47 PM on April 21, 2006

Done, and done.
posted by Afroblanco at 12:12 AM on April 22, 2006

Ordered.
posted by Ynoxas at 8:59 AM on April 22, 2006

Ordered. Is there a way to create a metapage somewhere with just...

0. a short description of the project.
1. a short description of the current status.
2. pay links to the pay and donate addresses?

So people don't have to wade through the thread?
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:41 AM on April 22, 2006

Ordered. What a great idea. I'm amazed at how quickly this is coming together.
posted by emelenjr at 11:47 AM on April 22, 2006

Another order sent. Looking forward to hearing the result.
posted by MrMustard at 2:52 PM on April 22, 2006

I´m just wondering exactly what is meant when we´re talking about having the thing mastered. Simply volume normalization, or what? And will the final versions be run by the musicians before the thing gets duplicated? I mean, I´m not expecting that anything major is going to be done to it, but (assuming my track(s) are included) I´d still probably want to hear it before it goes out just to be sure.
posted by ludwig_van at 6:17 AM on April 23, 2006

This morning's total is $960. We'll work on getting a page up with all the details in one place, iether here or elsewhere.
posted by jessamyn at 6:49 AM on April 23, 2006

Mastering: I'll ask turtlegirl to provide a "what's the deal with mastering" writeup for the as-yet-vaporous Page, but I can summarize what she's told me:

The overall goal will be, yes, level/eq normalization—with probably 20+ tracks from as many contributors ending up on the final disc, we're going to have signficantly varied source audio, and her most obvious job will be taming that. We want a CD you can put in your player, set the volume, and let run—none of the My First Mix CD volume-riding hijinx.

However, she's much better equipped to discuss any of the details.

I have every intention of making the results available to the contributing artists for review before we dupe, though, as ludwig_van suggests, I'm not expecting any major changes to come at that stage.

I have been contacting submitters on a case-by-case basis (and will continue to do so) to discuss any mix/cut questions and proposals I have had. For any significant mix work that catches my ears (vocals too hot, etc), my first inclination is to see if the submitter has the ability to make tweaks; and if not, we'll make do and turtlegirl will use her best judgement during mastering.

Any other questions on the subject, fire away!
posted by cortex at 8:37 AM on April 23, 2006

This morning's total is $960.

I love you people.
posted by cortex at 8:38 AM on April 23, 2006

$1,090.
posted by jessamyn at 6:11 PM on April 23, 2006

I knew it wouldn't take long.
posted by Witty at 6:34 AM on April 24, 2006

Ordered. Cool.
posted by TheDonF at 9:09 AM on April 24, 2006

Ordrered.
posted by tcobretti at 1:38 PM on April 24, 2006

ordered.
posted by quonsar at 6:48 PM on April 24, 2006

$1,142. Seems to be slowing down some.
posted by jessamyn at 6:49 PM on April 24, 2006

Time to post a new MetaTalk thread, cortex. Don't forget to use the center tag and some sort of blink or marquee text, dude!
posted by terrapin at 7:18 PM on April 24, 2006

if i use <center> again matt will murder me
posted by cortex at 9:35 PM on April 24, 2006

I don't know of anywhere else that the choice of charity is being discussed (as hinted-at above) so I'd like to suggest that it's some sort of international agency. That would seem appropriate as the contributors and purchasers of the CD will be from all over the world, I'm guessing.

How about Medecins Sans Frontiers?

Apologies if this isn't the thread to be discussing this.
posted by ajp at 4:31 AM on April 25, 2006

Marvy! I look forward to it. Thanks all in advance.
posted by AllesKlar at 8:21 AM on April 25, 2006

FWIW, I second Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders. Excellent idea, ajp.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 8:57 AM on April 25, 2006

Doctors Without Borders sounds good. Any more ideas?
posted by snsranch at 3:17 PM on April 25, 2006

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