How do I make a Digital Album?

[RazielDiaz]

Hello!

I have been on this forum for a while and have learn a lot from people here, but I just thought of making an account just to seek help I seem to find nowhere. My question is, how can I manage to put together a digital album?

First a little context.

I have been playing music for 5 years now, but I just started recording and mixing music a year ago. I know the very basics, I don't have the gear though. I use a Shure SM57 to record my instruments, mostly guitar, bass, and vocals; I use SoundFonts for instruments I don't own or know how to play, and use Audacity to record (I know, pretty low tier gear). I am really happy with the results, I don't really have a problem working this way as I know how to remove noise, compress sound, equalize, and such.

I want to make an album. It would be a tribute album, re-writing the album of one of my favorite bands, the band is called Magnolia y Los No Me Olvides, it's a side project and they just released a demo album, which is the one i'm recording, as I don't want to take the risk of recording and releasing my low fidelity original music. It would also be a free download album.

The thing is I have several questions:

- Aside from the songs and the cover art, what else should I include in the album folder? I thought about credits and lyrics.
- How do I organize songs inside the album?
- What information should each song contain, like artist, genre, duration, etc?
- Can I get in problems releasing the album even if its free?
- Is it very necessary to use better equipment to record?

I thinks that sums it up. Thank you very much for your attention! Hope i'm not asking too much.

edit: also sorry if this is the wrong sub-forum

 

[DJ Mighty]

- Aside from the songs and the cover art, what else should I include in the album folder? I thought about credits and lyrics.
all the albums i have downloaded have only come with the songs and the front and back of the album cover i would only put those in personally

- How do I organize songs inside the album?
just organize them from first to last

- What information should each song contain, like artist, genre, duration, etc?
song/ title/ artist/ album/ year/ track/ number/ genre/ album artist

- Can I get in problems releasing the album even if its free?
i dont think so

- Is it very necessary to use better equipment to record?
im not sure on this one because i dont record

i hope this helped you

 

[RazielDiaz]

Yeah! It helps, thanks a lot! I haven't started recording it yet but I want to make a good start. Thanks!

 

[Ddream]

- Aside from the songs and the cover art, what else should I include in the album folder? I thought about credits and lyrics.

Its up to you what to include in the folder. Platforms like Bandcamp don't allow you to include more than one image (ie. the cover), but you can add other images that would make part of the folder in the bonus part.

- How do I organize songs inside the album?

This is more of a personal view, imo. you should organize the tracks according to the feel of them. You have tracks that are just right as album opening and closing. From what I've read about, when you produce different genres, you should keep them together so it won't sound scattered all around. Example: you have two melodic rock tracks and two heavier ones. you keep the two melodic together and the two heavier together. But, as said, it's more of a personal taste.

- What information should each song contain, like artist, genre, duration, etc?

Audacity lets you add tags for wav format songs, so you can add: track number, track title, album title, artist and year of release. I think this is enough info.

- Can I get in problems releasing the album even if its free?

Only if you're releasing copyrighted content with your material. It's common sense that "since I'm small, and releasing my music for free, I can't get caught if I use other peoples songs", and to tell you the truth, this common sense is WRONG. Labels and artists might AND WILL use their legal rights, even if you're not actually making money with your release. This might never happen, it's true, because you don't have enough exposure now. But think about 10 years from now. You hit the big charts, and then some artist or label discovers that on your back catalogue there's something they own. Bad rep for you, and probably legal problems as well.
If you really want to use something that's not rightfully yours, ask for clearance. But be prepared to PAY for it.

- Is it very necessary to use better equipment to record?

Depends on what you want to achieve. You don't see Steve Harris (bassist from Iron Maiden) using sub-par basses. You don't see James Hetfield using sub-par guitars. Obviously you'll need to work with your budget and try the best quality you can.

 

[fataltone]

think about all the digital albums you brought and there you go