Comments on: Metafilter Compilation Album - get yours here, now!

Metafilter Compilation Album - get yours here, now!

jessamyn — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 07:44:09 -0800

Metafilter Compilation album
Pre-orders and Donations open!
[details and more inside]
[posted for cortex by proxy]

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 07:44:38 -0800

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!

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 07:46:48 -0800

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.

By: Witty

Witty — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 07:49:30 -0800

Cool! Seems like a bargain. I look forward to rockin' it out in the truck.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 07:53:24 -0800

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

By: Witty

Witty — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 07:59:25 -0800

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.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:00:03 -0800

Can I order one or two now and add to my order later once I've convinced my friends?

By: If I Had An Anus

If I Had An Anus — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:00:15 -0800

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.

By: Witty

Witty — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:02:39 -0800

Again?

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:03:32 -0800

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. :)

By: If I Had An Anus

If I Had An Anus — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:04:13 -0800

Err, forget the second sentence. Apologies.

By: dios

dios — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:04:38 -0800

Thanks for all the hard work you are putting into this. It really adds value to the community.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:04:47 -0800

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.

By: cedar

cedar — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:06:59 -0800

This sounds great -- is there an alternative payment method for those on the outs with PayPal or the credit card challenged?

By: Jofus

Jofus — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:06:59 -0800

This rocks. Well done everybody. (/Pats wallet pocket nervously.)

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:07:54 -0800

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

joshjosh atta gmail dotta com

By: Jofus

Jofus — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:10:19 -0800

Also - is this going to be posted to Projects?

By: mds35

mds35 — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:16:36 -0800

This is neat. I ordered mine already!

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:22:21 -0800

Rough numbers:

We need approximately 150 pre-orders to be totally free and clear; or less than that and donations to cover the gap.

By: COBRA!

COBRA! — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:33:08 -0800

One more order tossed on the pile. Thanks again for doing this.

By: dios

dios — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:37:16 -0800

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?

By: graventy

graventy — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:39:49 -0800

Ordered. Thanks guys! I'm really looking forward to this.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:43:14 -0800

Ordered.

By: youcancallmeal

youcancallmeal — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:47:54 -0800

Awesome. Ordered.

By: nanojath

nanojath — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:52:16 -0800

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...

By: AwkwardPause

AwkwardPause — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:52:52 -0800

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?

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:54:51 -0800

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.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:58:48 -0800

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

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:02:39 -0800

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.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:05:50 -0800

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.

By: public

public — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:08:08 -0800

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

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:11:12 -0800

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.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:26:58 -0800

(Off to a meeting for a bit—don't burn the house down while I'm out.)

By: grouse

grouse — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:27:52 -0800

US->UK via USPS AirMail takes something like ~~4 small ice ages~~ a week or so.

By: Nahum Tate

Nahum Tate — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:34:48 -0800

For donations, what should we select as the "Category of purchase"? Quasi-cash gives me a warning about a credit card fee.

By: cali

cali — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:56:57 -0800

Ordered. Yay!

By: unixrat

unixrat — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:57:19 -0800

Done and done. I eagerly await shipment.

Will it be green?

By: greycap

greycap — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 10:00:26 -0800

Ordered - this is a terrific project, it adds a huge amount to the community.

By: gleuschk

gleuschk — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:12:27 -0800

I'm in. Nice work, cortex and jessamyn (and all you talented people soon to be doing it to me in my earholes).

By: shnoz-gobblin

shnoz-gobblin — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:33:24 -0800

Yea!! I'm in!

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

By: kalimac

kalimac — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:39:42 -0800

Ordered!

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:41:38 -0800

Ordered!

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:42:24 -0800

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.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:47:11 -0800

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.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:53:27 -0800

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.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:58:12 -0800

Thanks, cortex! Sometimes I need it spelled out for me.

By: Nahum Tate

Nahum Tate — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:19:43 -0800

Thanks for conceiving and executing this album. I've run enough distributed projects to know how incredibly, deceptively complicated things like this can get.

By: Galvatron

Galvatron — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:20:34 -0800

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.

By: visual mechanic

visual mechanic — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:51:47 -0800

Ordered it. Psyched.

Any idea when it will be out?

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 13:04:16 -0800

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.

By: phylum sinter

phylum sinter — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 13:09:11 -0800

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.

By: pithy comment

pithy comment — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 13:20:52 -0800

Ordered.

Here are the Global Priority mail rates at USPS.gov

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 13:21:49 -0800

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.

By: arcticwoman

arcticwoman — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 14:14:15 -0800

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.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 14:20:06 -0800

You didn't miss anything, arcticwoman: we haven't established that yet. I'll announce it when we have done so.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 17:54:03 -0800

Incidentally, the pre-orders and donations total $638.78 at this point. Keep 'em coming in.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 18:14:08 -0800

you can tack my 12 bucks onto that figure.

By: graventy

graventy — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 20:32:46 -0800

78 cents? Cheap bastards.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 20:45:32 -0800

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

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 20:47:55 -0800

And thanks for toting up the numbers on the big board, jessamyn! Keep us posted!

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 00:12:44 -0800

Done, and done.

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 08:59:14 -0800

Ordered.

By: lupus_yonderboy

lupus_yonderboy — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 09:41:07 -0800

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?

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 11:47:35 -0800

Ordered. What a great idea. I'm amazed at how quickly this is coming together.

By: MrMustard

MrMustard — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 14:52:25 -0800

Another order sent. Looking forward to hearing the result.

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 06:17:35 -0800

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.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 06:49:58 -0800

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.

By: cortex

cortex — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 08:37:53 -0800

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!

By: cortex

cortex — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 08:38:10 -0800

This morning's total is $960.

I love you people.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 18:11:42 -0800

$1,090.

By: Witty

Witty — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 06:34:08 -0800

I knew it wouldn't take long.

By: TheDonF

TheDonF — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 09:09:29 -0800

Ordered. Cool.

By: tcobretti

tcobretti — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 13:38:09 -0800

Ordrered.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 18:48:42 -0800

ordered.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 18:49:38 -0800

$1,142. Seems to be slowing down some.

By: terrapin

terrapin — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 19:18:22 -0800

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!

By: cortex

cortex — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 21:35:05 -0800

if i use <center> again matt will murder me

By: ajp

ajp — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 04:31:13 -0800

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.

By: AllesKlar

AllesKlar — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 08:21:25 -0800

Marvy! I look forward to it. Thanks all in advance.

By: Artifice_Eternity

Artifice_Eternity — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 08:57:18 -0800

FWIW, I second Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders. Excellent idea, ajp.

By: snsranch

snsranch — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:17:20 -0800

Doctors Without Borders sounds good. Any more ideas?