Metafilter Compilation Album Official WebsiteTM launched!

May 2, 2006 7:54 AM

Metafilter Compilation Album
Official Website^TM launched: meficomp.com
Music submissions officially closed!
[em eye, baby!]
posted by cortex to MetaFilter Music at 7:54 AM (31 comments total)

Website!

For want of a more permanent home for project updates and information, I've thrown together meficomp.com. There will doubtless be a few more metatalk threads between now and The Release, but we'll aim to keep most of the information at the official site; if you're following the project, make a point of checking in their every few days.

The site is pretty bare-bones right now; I haven't found time to flesh it out much, but I'll aim to do so steadily as the project progresses, and by the time The Release rolls around, it should be a shiny, information-rich web companion to the CD.

As always, suggestions &c are welcome:
joshjosh ATTA gmail DOTTA com
info AT meficomp DOT com

Music submissions closed!

I stumbled blearily out of bed this morning and noticed that I had left the gate open. I cannot guarantee that one or two sneaky tracks didn't stumble through the gate in the night whilst I slumbered, but you may be assured that said gate is now firmly closed. If you didn't get a track off to me by now, it'll have to wait for Volume 2 to roll around.

At a glance, I'd estimate I've had a bit more than 100 submissions in the last two weeks. It is an embarrassing and ridiculous amount of good stuff, and while I've managed to put together a short, eclectic list of great tracks, my list is still too long. I've got some hard cuts to make in the next couple days. I plan to announce selections on Thursday—if you're a music submitter, you'll receive an email either way; if you're not, check in on meficomp.com.

Thank you all for your submissions. I've had so many good songs completely stuck in my head in the last few days that I'm pretty sure I hate some of you now. This will be a great album.
posted by cortex at 7:56 AM on May 2, 2006

Any thoughts on charities yet? I really liked the MeFi scholarship that happened a few years back.
posted by boo_radley at 8:38 AM on May 2, 2006

Just to clear up any confusion, you should probably change the FAQ -- it says that music submissions are still open.
posted by danb at 9:15 AM on May 2, 2006

Heh. Yeah, I realized that after I left for work this morning. I am sadly incapable for changing that—or any of several spelling and grammar goofs—until I return home from the Corporate Stronghold.
posted by cortex at 9:17 AM on May 2, 2006

"incapable for changing that"? Christ. You can see the sort of morning I'm having.
posted by cortex at 9:23 AM on May 2, 2006

Nice.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 9:54 AM on May 2, 2006

Suggestion: Those submissions that are selected should consider keeping that information a secret until The Release.
posted by terrapin at 9:57 AM on May 2, 2006

Yeah? I was honestly planning to put out a List^* on Thursday for all the world to see. What are the arguments for keeping it on the down-low?

^*Tentative and subject to small changes based on emergencies or non-feasance or god knows what else, of course.
posted by cortex at 10:04 AM on May 2, 2006

I don't wanna wait for the release.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 10:06 AM on May 2, 2006

I thought about it some more and I think I am wrong. The arguments for releasing the information are stronger. The biggest being that some people may be inclined to order based on who's music is on the CD, especially if they know the artist(s).

Since I pre-ordered already I am not basing my purchase on anything other than a desire to support the musicians, a charity ... and um, my wife who is mastering the CD. :)
posted by terrapin at 10:23 AM on May 2, 2006

Is it too late to learn an instrument? Or can I just hum the track I wanted to submit?
posted by Eideteker at 10:35 AM on May 2, 2006

Plenty of time to get that ready for Vol. II
posted by InfidelZombie at 11:01 AM on May 2, 2006

Another FAQ change you might consider is clarifying that 'net proceeds' will go to charity. 'All proceeds' implies gross, which isn't the case.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:37 AM on May 2, 2006

"All profits" might be clearer.
posted by chrismear at 11:41 AM on May 2, 2006

Good point. Playing fast an loose with the lingo, there.
posted by cortex at 11:56 AM on May 2, 2006

*crosses fingers*
posted by sourwookie at 12:03 PM on May 2, 2006

$1,369.25 so far, by the way.
posted by jessamyn at 12:25 PM on May 2, 2006

When did the budget changed from $1500 to $2000? (Because $1300 isn't 2/3 of $1500.)
posted by smackfu at 12:27 PM on May 2, 2006

Or maybe it's because some of the money is for shipping? It's kind of confusing.
posted by smackfu at 12:28 PM on May 2, 2006

Any thoughts about posting the MP3s submitted that didn't make the cut? I'd be fine with it for what I sent-- good promo for the band, and hopefully would build interest in the comp.
posted by InfidelZombie at 12:56 PM on May 2, 2006

Yeah, I'll get a budget breakdown up on the site, but the difference is "how cheaply can we dupe 1000 CDs properly" vs. "dupe 1000 CDs and have them delivered and then ship orders".

Duping 1000 CDs with a 2-page insert (just front and back) runs about $1300, which was the original bare-minimum number. I originally took that and sort of blindly added a round couple hundred to say $1500 for costs.

We've been leaning toward a 4-page insert, though, as that will make much more sense for liners and such. That raises the dupe cost by about $100. Call it $1400 for straight dupe cost.

Shipping of the duped CDs form the dupe folks to our shipping depot (chez cortex) will run about $160 from what we've seen; rolling total $1560.

And then there's shipping of the CDs out to buyers, which scales with the number sold, of course, but if we've got, say, 200 pre-orders (which is about right for our break-even point) that's around $400.

So the budget for duping the CDs and shipping the K of finished CDs to me is around $1560; and every CD pre-ordered helps meet that cost but also adds incremental order-shipping cost, and that's what drives the budget up more toward $2K to get completely clear and into the black.

We've been winging it and developing ideas as we go on the project, which has been an adventure but has also made some of these planning decisions less transparent than I'd wish for in an ideal world. For any confusion borne out of that, mea culpa—my greatest desire is to see this go off very well in the end (even if we bump around a bit finding our way), and being able to do Volume 2 with total confidence in a system well-established.
posted by cortex at 1:21 PM on May 2, 2006

Any thoughts about posting the MP3s submitted that didn't make the cut?

I'd love to do this, actually.

I've been pondering ideas for how and how much of the submitted music to use on meficomp.com. A few distinct thoughts:

1. Letting people hear what is on the album is a good idea.
2. Providing full mp3s for the whole album could reduce incentive to actually buy the album.
3. Providing mp3s for tracks that didn't make the narrow final cut seems like a good idea in general.
4. Many of the album tracks are available online already from respective submitters' webspaces.

At this point, my druthers are to not toss up all the mp3s on the page, but to provide teaser clips and perhaps a weekly-rotating handful of Featured Tracks.

At the same time, I'm disinclined to be at all nazi-ish about the selected tracks being co-located elsewhere on the web—there was no implication of exclusivity in this project, and there shouldn't be any. So any clever foragers can get their hands on more than the site's share of mp3s with a little work. You're smart people.

And then, listing the tracks (and correspondingly the submitters) that didn't make the cut seems pretty neutral, and I'm for that in general. I'll check with all the submitting artists, of course, but I presume they'd be gungho to a one. There's a whole lot of good stuff that won't make the cut, and I want folks to hear that, and by that get a better idea of what's in store for the album itself.
posted by cortex at 1:36 PM on May 2, 2006

Providing mp3s for tracks that didn't make the narrow final cut could reduce incentive to actually Volume 2, if there is one. In other words, your #3 combined with your #2.

You might consider a Flash MP3 player that would let people listen to the tracks without being able to download them easily.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:45 PM on May 2, 2006

I see your point, kirkaracha, though I admit that I expect Volume 2 (and 3 and etc) will have sufficient warning that many folks will be inclined to make new recordings for it—especially if it takes on a theme of some sort, as some folks seemed to be clamoring for (such as a mefi-themed collection).

Not to say there'd be any reason to expect folks, not to submit existing tracks. So, again, I see your point.
posted by cortex at 3:58 PM on May 2, 2006

BRAVO! I can't wait to hear this thing!
posted by snsranch at 4:09 PM on May 2, 2006

Sweet! A whole 'nother website just for this. I'm anxious to hear the submissions, but I could wait until it's released, if I absolutely had to.
posted by Durhey at 4:56 PM on May 2, 2006

cortex, that was an awesome explanation. I really appreciate the transparency. My original comment came out blunter than I intended.
posted by smackfu at 5:37 PM on May 2, 2006

No worries, smackfu. Considering the amount of community goodwill involved in this, and the fact that we're tossing around four digit figures, I think transparency is pretty important, and I think blunt but respectful questions are totally reasonable—these are the sorts of answers that should be available.
posted by cortex at 5:47 PM on May 2, 2006

To advertise, we could point out that while the proceeds are going to charity, none of our songs feature John Stamos.
posted by gsteff at 6:52 PM on May 2, 2006

I assume.
posted by gsteff at 6:55 PM on May 2, 2006

Quick, someone register JohnStamosTheWonderChicken!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:51 PM on May 2, 2006