The best fundraiser that I’ve ever done was to make school Christmas CDs. We recorded each class singing one song, compiled it onto a CD and sold it to parents for $15. It was a great gift for grandparents --- many parents bought 3 CDs so they could keep one and give 2 as gifts. I still have parents who tell me that they listen to this CD (and the tapes before them) each Christmas --- and the first one that I recorded was more than 20 years ago. Just this week at a community fundraiser, a parent of a student I taught in the early 1990's told me they'd just come across the CD and how many memories it brought back.
Choose songs for which you don’t need to pay a royalty. Many of the Christmas Concert selections that are published by Themes & Variations are original songs by Denise Gagne or Craig Cassils. Themes & Variations gives schools permission to use these songs, AND the accompaniment tracks if they wish, for fundraisers, without asking for any money. You do need to send a list of tracks that you would like to use, so we can check that we are giving permission only for songs we actually own all the rights to. We also ask that the school sends us a copy of the finished CD or better still a video of the performance! We are also generous about allowing schools to make DVDs of performances without paying royalties.
Paperwork: Choose a manufacturer, and download and fill out the paperwork needed. Google CD duplication and many options come up. Some have online quotes - very fast to get your prices. I just googled, and a site popped up with 200 CDs for $199. Wow! Prices for smaller quantities have really come down in recent years. You need to fill out anti-piracy forms to manufacture a CD. Ask the manufacturer how many days turnaround time they need to get you finished CDs. That gives you the last possible date that you can record the students and still get your CDs back in time to give out to the students before Christmas break. Allow yourself at least an extra week. Manufacturing cost is very dependant on how much print material you insert. At the most, include just a CD cover and on the inside list the classes and songs they perform. If you include more than one page, the cost jumps by a lot. One year, I photocopied CD labels with just the title, and had the kids decorate them themselves. Each parent got a CD decorated by a child in the school.
Get quotes from recording companies in your area. Choose best engineer for the $. (not necessarily the least expensive) Meet with engineer, and give him/her your accompaniment tracks. My recording engineer can do on-location recording. We get a cleaner performance by having the accompaniment tracks pre-loaded. He plays the accompaniment tracks for the kids to sing with through monitor speakers, and then records the voices. If the engineer has accompaniment tracks in advance it will save time. Discuss this with your engineer and listen to his suggestions.
Schedule the day for recording with the engineer, ALL the teachers in the school, the admin, the nurse - whoever sees kids. Book the recording engineer. Book yourself a sub for that day. Allow 20 minutes per group. Give teacher’s a copy of the schedule early, and give them another copy of the schedule the day before the session. Try to do this before the end of November - it’s weird practicing Christmas music in October and November, but you need the extra time to get the CD manufactured.
REHEARSE, REHEARSE, REHEARSE - remember - it’s not practice that makes perfect---it’s perfect practice that makes perfect. Make a home-made test recording of the class using the voice recording on your iPhone, or do it with Audacity on your computer. Let the class hear what they sound like, and ask them what they think could be improved. If the class is well rehearsed, the recording will be a breeze. You also have to accept that some classes may never be perfectly in tune - be realistic about what you can accomplish in the time you have. Your students will sound “real” when they are recorded.
Design the print material to go into your CD. Remember - the more print, the greater the cost. Just list your classes, track numbers, the name of the song. Don’t go into detail! One page max for most cost effectiveness.
Record We ran the recording session much like school picture day. Regular music classes were cancelled for the day. If you have to, book a sub to go to the classes that you are supposed to teach, because you’ll be needed in the recording session. The class came in to the music room, we had accompaniment tracks ready to roll, and recorded the classes performance. We didn’t do more than 3 takes. Usually the 2nd take is going to be the best. After the 3rd, you’re wasting your time. You have to have your groups well-rehearsed BEFORE the recording session. It’s really expensive to do the rehearsal in the session. Some other hints: - Parents love to hear their child singing alone. One year we recorded the K classes doing the cookie jar chant, with a word substitution. All those parents have a priceless recording of their own child’s voice. class: Zoom zoom zoom. My heart goes kaboom, now who stole the cookie from Santa’s plate? _____ stole the cookie from Santa’s plate! solo: Who me? class: Yes, you! solo: Couldn’t be! class: Then who? In Christmas Favorites, the song “Jolly Santa” has opportunities for 8 solos. This is also very cute in performance or on CD.
Work with engineer on edits. You need to hear the tracks and decide which is the best track. You should have an idea before you start of what order you’d like the CD to be in. Then it’s fairly straightforward to compile your CD.
Take orders for the CD from students. Get the order form out before you record! Order the number of CDs you have presold, plus about 25% extra for parents who didn’t pre-order. Sell the extra CDs at your holiday concert. Cost of Project: Purchase of Christmas music with rights $200-300 Recording Engineer $200-500 (cost varies! get quotes) CD duplication cost $1-1.50 / CD with print $1500 Total Cost: $2300 Sales: Sell 1000 CDs at $15 $15,000 or Sell 1000 CDs at $10 $10,000 Consider offering 1 CD $15, 2 CDs $24, 3 CDs $30 It’s often most economical to produce 1000 CDs, so selling more is better. Total raised: $12,700 or $7700
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