Best-selling author and entrepreneur Rajesh Setty has a knack for making complex business concepts seem simple. His pioneering book Beyond Code was graced by a foreword from none other than “the business guru who created the field,” Tom Peters. His eighth and most recent book, Upbeat!, argues that entrepreneurs can thrive in very down markets.
Rajesh is also a sought-after speaker. But this year, when he realized he was booked tightly with other consulting, start-up, and writing commitments, Rajesh decided that the time was right to release his first training DVD.
“I needed something that could travel in my stead,” he explains. “Something that could get my message out while I am working on other projects. With a DVD, the people who book speaking engagements and events can actually see a preview of my talk. That gives them a lot of comfort to hire me.”
Rajesh settled on an affordable Oasis DVD case for packaging. He enhanced it with full color printing on the disc – just in case the disc and packaging are ever viewed separately from each other. “I want each piece to provide a sense of the project,” he explains. “On the other hand, I wanted to keep the packaging affordable, to permit mass reorders as the need arises.”
He engaged our in-house authoring team to put the finishing touches on the production and bring it together as a cohesive whole.
“Oasis served as a real partner to my team, rather than just a vendor, making everything so simple! I couldn’t be more pleased with the process, or with the result.”
Looking forward now, Rajesh is quite excited about the “whole new set of possibilities” that DVD projects represent – for projecting his personal brand and for enhancing his bottom line as a speaker, author, and entrepreneur.
Oasis has recently introduced a new way to sell your music: Digital Download Cards – and it is catching on far beyond our expectations. With an Oasis Download Card, fans purchase a beautifully designed “music credit card” at your event that features your custom artwork, take the card home, and use its code to download your tracks.
Oasis Digital Download Cards
500 of these little gems will only set you back $195 (sell them all at a standard $10 a pop and that’s $5,000 worth). That includes free hosting of your music and all the maintenance involved. Click here for more info
Listening to recent media chatter, you’d get the impression that most music is downloaded these days. Think again. Compact discs make up a full 80% of U.S. retail music sales (Wall Street Journal Tuesday, April 7, 2009, Page B4) and are the basic calling card and selling tool for every musician.
Why is the CD still dominant? One reason pointed out by Jupiter Research is that music lovers have noticed that compact discs remain “forward compatible” with whatever the latest music file format might be. Buy a CD from your favorite band and not only can you rip the music to your iPod, but you can also keep the disc as an archival backup.
Another reason, often commented on in psychological research, is that humans are gatherers by nature: we get a special thrill from collecting beautiful physical objects –books, magazines, stamps, antique china, paintings… the gorgeous artwork and packaging of a well-designed CD make it collectable, too. (To get a visual sense of how enthusiastic CD collectors can be, search Google images on the keywords “cd collection.”)
At Oasis, we’re constantly working to make our CDs and DVDs as attractive and collectable as possible. If you haven’t yet, please look through our catalog and check out the beautiful options we have to offer. If you don’t see your preferred look pictured, just call (888) 296-2747 and ask for Oasis Custom™. We’ll review dozens of unique packaging options with you, and cook up something that suits you perfectly!
An Oasis Disc Manufacturing Case In Point: Cheryl Wheeler’s Premium Digipak Marks Indie Debut of Legendary Songwriter
After a lifetime recording for labels, Cheryl Wheeler’s new premium Oasis Digipak marks her moment joining the rising tide of Indie musicians. As one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of a generation, and the only person we know of whose songs have been covered by such a spectrum of performers that it includes both Bette Midler and Garth Brooks (among many others), I’m grateful that she chose to bring the project to Oasis.
Cheryl explains: “My partner Cathleen Joyce did her initial research for this project on the Oasis website, where all of our questions were addressed in short order. Once we began working with your staff we were confident in our choice. There were also friends in common: knowing you had worked with Janis Ian, I asked her how she felt about Oasis and she replied with a stellar, glowing review.”
How Cheryl’s eye-catching premium package come about?
“Cathleen already had a good idea of what she wanted for the package design. Ultimately, with the help of your templates, we settled on a Digipak, with a 12-page booklet and a recycled clear plastic tray. We were particularly happy with the green options Oasis offered. This is my first independent release, and I’m loving it. Oasis really makes it easy.”
RECYCLED TRAYS ARE STANDARD
WITH ALL DIGIPAKS AT OASIS
Oasis Digipaks include – at no extra charge – 100% recycled hard plastic clear trays that feature a lightly-etched inscription that indicates recycled content. 100% post-consumer, flexible BottleTrays™ are also available at no additional charge. A sample of each will be included in your free eco sample pack! Recycled black trays, and conventional white trays, also available.
Micah Solomon President and Founder Oasis Disc Manufacturing
P.S. For information and expert assistance with any Oasis packaging format — including our Green Forestry Digipaks with 100% recycled trays — click here to chat live immediately with one of our client advisors, or call us at 1-866-409-8170. Click here to get your free copy of our latest (award-winning!) catalog along with samples of our environmental packaging.
When Grammy winning singer and songwriter Janis Ian’s autobiography was due to come out on Penguin Books, she called me up because she wanted to release a companion greatest hits CD collection. And she wanted to go over her best packaging options.
The two of us zeroed in quickly on something other than the plastic jewel cases she had used earlier in her career. “This time around, I really wanted the packaging to be special — it’s not every year you get to release an autobiography and a CD that goes with it! I was also trying to keep it eco-friendly, but still affordable.”
Considering several options, we ended up with a double-CD Digipak. Because, really, what a Digipak says is “premium.” That you have invested in what it takes to give your audience a top-quality product. Janis’ other interest — environmental friendliness — is also addressed in Oasis Digipaks. We have 100% Green Forestry Practices certification for the board stock we use, and use 100% recycled plastic for the trays (up to 100% post-consumer, depending on the tray option you chose).
I hope you’ll let us send you an eco-packaging sample kit (click here or on the link below my signature) if you are planning a CD or DVD project. Sample kits do not include CDs and are only shippable within the U.S. presently, for which I apologize. Thanks so much for your interest!
Are you up on the Roadtrip Nation phenomenon? It grew out of some friends working through a dilemma together that had stumped each of them: “What do I want to do with my life?” Fresh out of college and unsure about the career paths in front of them, they were determined to expose themselves to more than just traditional life roads. Painting an old RV green, they hit the road to talk with inspired people from all walks of life to find out how they came to do what they love for a living.
Today, Roadtrip Nation has evolved into a PBS series, three books, an online community, and more. And when Roadtrip Nation wants to spread the good word about their show, they do it with discs packaged in the Green Forestry line of disc packaging from Oasis. To date, they’ve used Green Forestry Sleeves (pictured), and the new 100% post-consumer-trayed Oasis Bottletray Digipak. These formats are lighter and lower-impact than other options, giving them the youthful, eco-friendly feel that suits them. If you’re interested, I’ll be happy to send you a free Oasis Environmental Packaging Sample kit now which I believe you’ll find useful to help start planning out your new project.
I encourage you to catch Roadtrip Nation’s latest adventures on your local PBS affiliate, or check them out online at www.roadtripnation.com.
Micah Solomon President and Founder Oasis Disc Manufacturing
P.S. Like all complete Oasis packages, musical projects packaged in full-color Green Forestry Sleeves and Recycled Tray Digipaks include complete Oasis Tools of Promotion: We send your music (the track of your choice) to 400 or more radio stations in your chosen genre, provide you with distribution at iTunes, CD Baby, Brick & Mortar retailers (on demand), free web hosting and your own website, a full year of Sonicbids, and more.
If you want assistance with any Oasis packaging format, my team is happy to help you if you click here to chat live immediately with one of our client advisors, or call us at 1-866-409-8170.
I’m thankful that this has been the most productive year in our history – for Oasis and for our clients. We’re extremely lucky to have such a creative, productive, and loyal group of customers, and I wish you the very best heading into the new year.
I also want to send out a heartfelt thank you to the more than 600 Oasis clients who requested we make contributions in their name to the Jazz Foundation of America. This is an overwhelming outpouring, and will help the Foundation to continue its important work. The Jazz Foundation of America is a national organization dedicated to saving and enhancing the lives of jazz and blues musicians in need. Every day the Jazz Foundation prevents homelessness and eviction by paying rents and mortgages, offering free medical care and operations, and creating employment through its programs.
Since Katrina, the Jazz Foundation has increased its caseload five times over by serving all ages of musicians who suffered from the disaster, including many with young children still at home. The Jazz Foundation now cares for approximately 1,000 musicians with 1,600 emergency cases a year.
Thank you again for sharing 2008 with Oasis. We have made many new friends and enjoyed doing great projects with our old ones. Best wishes for the start of 2009.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending a marketing presentation from marketing guru Seth Godin, in conjunction with the launch of his latest bestseller: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Portfolio, 2008).
In one of those worlds-converging moments, I found that Seth’s surprise musical guest — and musical marketing example — was Oasis client Jen Chapin (accompanied by her inimitable bassist husband Stephan Crump). I hope you have had the chance to hear Jen, perhaps at the grand opening of Oasis’ Manhattan office: If you don’t know her yet, Jen’s a singer and songwriter and an advocate for the charity World Hunger Year, founded by her dad, the late Harry Chapin.
Here is the marketing lesson Seth drew in his talk from Jen’s lineage:
Jen Chapin performs at Seth Godin event, New York Times Center
The world has moved on from the career-building techniques that worked in Harry’s era: in those days you could hinge everything on just one single career-making advocate — in his case, DJ Jim Connors, later immortalized in Harry’s song W*O*L*D. In Jen’s/our era, you need to build, fan by fan, your own supportive “tribe” for your musical career.
So, in this day of from-the-ground up, democratized musical career building, the question is: What are you doing to build your tribe?
I’m convinced each and every day that Oasis clients do the best work in our industry. Of course I’m tickled pink when Oasis clients get signed to major labels or have their music featured on network TV
Ingrid Michaelson • Keep Breathing • Grey’s Anatomy
but as often as not we’re working in what’s called “the long tail”–in genres, niches that the mainstream may not even have considered. That is often where you’ll find the Oasis family creating great stuff and thriving.
In that spirit, I want to briefly shine a spotlight on a unique Oasis client and the work it does, which just blows me away.
Screen Archives Entertainment (SAE) is one of the largest distributors of soundtracks and movie music in the world. Just as fascinating, SAE produces exhaustively restored film music recordings under its own label, working with major studios, composer estates, and universities to preserve music that would otherwise be lost to deteriorating celluloid.
The seed of the company sprouted when entrepreneur Craig Spaulding opened a retail store with a sideline in eclectic music LPs. Spaulding cultivated soundtrack contacts across the globe and soon became known throughout the U.S. as the place to go for obscure and rare scores.
He sold the store, but kept SAE as a conduit for preserving rare recordings, focusing on pre-1960 Golden Age films with cherished soundtracks. Universities and studios soon came calling for Spaulding expertise in creating restorations that captured the excitement of each project — from the inclusion of the composer’s own personal notes to the finest mastering of the music, to the effective marketing of the final product.
Today SAE has contracts with composers, their estates or heirs, and major record labels to for these lovingly produced soundtracks for collectors, released in limited quantities.
The lure of these recordings is intriguing. Even if you’re not formally a student or collector of this work, it is transformative to hear these soundtracks as you go about your formerly mundane daily life. Nothing, for example, makes a morning commute more triumphal than hearing one of these classic soundtracks surround you on your ride. Just don’t be tempted to jump the gap if you see a drawbridge is going up–no matter how the music swells, I still suspect that only works in the movies, folks.
Have I got a story for you! It’s about an independent (extremely) musician I’ve worked with forever here at Oasis and how his song “All I Want is You” came to be the centerpiece of the opening sequence of the movie Juno (the extended, hand-animated sequence where she’s walking along and drinking SunnyD).
He’s a singer-songwriter named Barry Louis Polisar. He is a very, very nice guy. More to the point, he’s a great example of someone who doesn’t wait for the world to give him a lucky break in the clichéd “I’m going to be a rock-star someday” style. Instead, he shows up for every gig on time, he tracks down every lead. He self-publishes. He performs at schools and libraries all the way from his hometown (near Washington, DC) to Fairbanks, Alaska. He really, truly, keeps himself open for opportunity to come his way. And it does.
Now, after a lot of years in the business he is suddenly, and on an impressive scale (the Juno soundtrack has sold 600,000 copies in the first 3 months alone) truly an “overnight” success. I call his story:
Be Open to Possibilities
–OR–
How one Oasis client got a killer break because of his great attitude and our Tools of Promotion.
Here’s how it happened:
Barry manufactured several CD titles in the Micah-running-things-out-of-his-basement days of Oasis. For each title he qualified, like all Oasis clients, for our Tools of Promotion program: radio broadcast promotion, Brick & Mortar distribution, and more. But he was such an early client of Oasis, we hadn’t added the iTunes/online component of the program yet.
When we did, and he heard about it, he sent us a nice note asking if he could get certificates for all his titles retroactively – the hand-embossed pieces of paper that, back then, we would have required to get into the online part of our program.
Now a lot of people would just chalk their timing up to bad luck, and assume a company, even Oasis, would leave them in the lurch. But because Barry had faith and wrote us such a nice note, I went to the mailroom
(AKA, my living room), got out the embosser, and hand-made five certificates for Barry and put them in the mail.
Fast-forward 7 years… Jason Reitman, the director of the movie Juno, is trolling through iTunes, where Barry is featured, thanks to those retroactive Oasis Tools of Promotion certificates. Reitman mis-types the title of a song he thinks he wants for the film and hears Barry’s song instead.
He emails Barry and asks if he can use it for the film. One hit movie, 600,000 soundtrack copies, and a flood of worldwide licensing requests later, and there’s your happy ending to this very nifty story.
Micah Solomon President and Founder Oasis Disc Manufacturing
P.S. Want to get your music in the Oasis Tools of Promotion? It’s included, at no extra charge, when you manufacture CDs with Oasis! Click here to receive complete information – plus you’ll get ten new tips on thriving in the music business and our brand-new catalog.
RECYCLED TRAYS ARE STANDARD
Micah Solomon
President and Founder, Oasis
-- the author of this blog.
micah@oasisCD.com
