Music Industry in the Philippines - Part 3: Packaging & Replication

Packaging and CD replication are done almost at the same time. By the time the CD copies roll out, the packaging materials are ready. But anyone who produces his own music and sells it straight to his or her crowd in the internet may no longer need to read this post.

Packaging is everything that has something to do with the branding of the music album. That includes selection of the album title, carrier single, theme, images and material.

Design, Titles and Credits. The packaging contains colors and images, the title of the album, the title of the carrier single (if any), the titles of the songs, the label logo, the credits, etc. The list of songs include the names of the music composers.

Other credits are also indicated in the packaging for all people who have worked behind the scenes: the executive producer, the producer, arranger, graphic artist, etc. At best, these credits occupy what would otherwise be a blank space in the packaging, so, might as well put something there to prop up egos.

The Music Label. A label is a trademark of the recording company or whoever the recording company ties up with to handle distribution. It's a graphic sign that appears on the rib of the cover as well as in the front and back covers.

Frankly, I do not see any practical purpose for these labels. Do people look for the label when looking for an album? No, they look for the name of the artist or the title of the song itself! Blame it on my naivete, I'd appreciate any sound explanation for these labels on those covers.

Bar codes. Now this one makes sense. It looks cool when your album contains a bar code. It makes you look more legitimate, something that labels are supposed to do.

But it has a more practical purpose than looking cool. Music stores appreciate bar codes. That's true at least with Odyssey Music and Astrovision, the two fierce rivals in music and video sales in the Philippines. They are both in major malls.

In the US, some labels are enticing independent producers to buy bar codes from them and, in the process, become part of their catalogue.

Check this out:
http://www.indierec.com/s-barcodes.html

Bar code vendors who pose as labels --- coz that's what they are --- make claims that, in effect, your album has a better chance of making it in the market if it contains a bar code. Will that be true in the Philippines? I don't personally think so, not yet. Still, the $20 price tag for the barcode looks very reasonable a cost for every album being produced.

Click this to see why music stores like barcodes:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/upc.htm

Replication, as the name implies, is the reproduction of copies of the music, using the OMSR as the raw material.

CD producers, replicators and distributors are subject to the rules of the Optical Media Board (OMB), the government agency tasked to regulate the production of anything reproduced via optical devices. That covers both audio and video CDs.

Per OMB's Guidelines for Registration and Licensing (Memorandum Circular No. 2005-001), anyone involved in the production, replication and distribution of optical media must be registered with them, and that any new activity must have the permit of the OMB.

Legitimate commercial replicators these days ask from record companies the OMB permit (to be secured by the record company) before they replicate the CDs. This, I'm sure.

- - -

Whew!

Frankly, I have found writing all of the above a bit of a struggle.

In the internet world that I see, all those flashy designs on the album cover become irrelevant. All those permits from the Optical Media Board become irrelevant.

In the internet world that I see, you just go and produce the song, then either sell them online or give them away for free! Pirates are easily identified and crashed.

You may say, Marvin, you're talking Star Trek here. Well, talking Star Trek is one thing. Realizing that Facebook didn't exist just a few years ago is another.

If you don't go out and learn to sell your songs online and insist on sticking to existing rules, you may find out too late that the world that you know is already crashing down on you.

Next Post: Promotion