Low-cost CreateSpace hits right notes
INDIE FILM GUIDE: Artists use service to distribute music titles
By Cindy Spielvogel -- Video Business, 8/25/2008
AUG. 25 | INDIE FILM GUIDE: Which video content genres are best suited for digital downloading? Since audio music has taken the digital download route to a large degree, an argument could be made that music video content is a good candidate for the medium as well.
CreateSpace can help give exposure to unknown artists.
Budding artists have recognized the value of Amazon.com’s CreateSpace in getting their music product to consumers at a low cost. The service is being used for CDs and DVDs for both music performance and instructional titles.
Music instructor Mark Sly, a guitar teacher based in upstate New York, has sold his instructional DVD on Amazon through CreateSpace. Formerly in the banking business, Sly was in the World Trade Center when the building was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.
Mark Sly’s Secrets (Guitar Teachers Don’t Want You to Know!) has since given Sly a feeling of satisfaction personally as well as professionally.
“I’ve sold a couple hundred in less than a year,” he says. CreateSpace’s on-demand manufacturing is affordable because it doesn’t require the minimum orders that larger replicators do, and Amazon is a good place to find buyers.
“These days, everybody is on the Internet,” Sly says. Through Amazon, his title also is available on Target.com, which exposes his DVD to even more consumers.
CreateSpace has been used for music product by everyone from unknown artists to Captain & Tennille.
“It’s not a large investment, so it can be used to experiment,” says Darren Giles, CreateSpace chief technologist and co-founder.
Setting up a title from an authored DVD master is free; for titles that need to be authored, CreateSpace provides authoring services beginning at $49.95. The prices apply to both DVD on-demand and digital download through Amazon Unbox.
Some producers even use the service to create DVDs to put in retail stores, says Dana Lopiccolo-Giles, co-founder and managing director of CreateSpace.
Music-oriented content represents only a portion of the genres offered through the service.
“It’s not a majority, but it’s important,” Lopiccolo-Giles says. “It’s a great way for an artist to start and grow, and then maybe go the more traditional route and get signed.”
