How to Review Album Art Proofs

Video Transcript

"FREDERICK BURCHELL: Hello. My name is Frederick "Ricky B." Burchell with B4 Entertainment on behalf of Expert Village, and today we're going to talk about producing, manufacturing, marketing, and distributing your independent CD. Now let's continue to talk about manufacturing. Another thing you have to consider when you're manufacturing is the artwork. When you get your artwork, you have to have your--you're going to have to have the person who's designing your artwork communicate with your manufacturer, and you need to call ahead of time before you can even get the person to start working on the artwork. You need to find out what type of format do they need the artwork in. A lot of times, they have templates. You can download it and then the person can design the artwork around it, but you gotta make sure that it has--you gotta find out if the CD replication place is do they need whenever--when I'm making the artwork for the CD, the front and the back, and all the inserts, do they need it CMYK or do they need it RGB? It makes a difference. Lots of times, when you get your work, ask him for a proof. Say, "Can you send me a proof?" Because sometimes, I've seen it before where people get their CD's artwork manufactured and the artist wasn't communicating with 'em, and then all the words won't be on the CD. And they'd be like, "Oh, man this is the worst. I've messed up." And it could've been avoided if they have got a proof or it could've been avoided if the person who was designing the artwork communicated with the person who was manufacturing the artwork. So it's so important to have them communicate with each other so the artwork doesn't come out looking funny or anything and that you get a proof before you get the CDs back 'cause you can have the CDs back and some of the colors would be looking a little bit funny or it'd be dark or just something won't be right. So it's so important to get a proof when you're doing your CD artwork."