These are sites that have been useful to us:-
Recording.
https://www.rollingaudio.co.uk.
We recorded our first album as band with Julie Bartley of rollingaudio as the engineer at Cupola Studios in Newcastle. With Julie’s help we completed the recordings in two days and Mastering(something we only decided to do some months later) took another day. Cupola studio wass easily accessible with adequate parking. It’s well equipped and we were able to record with the drums all miked up and videolinked in one room and the 4 instruments/amps and two vocals in the main studio and with headphones for everyone so we could all hear what we needed. Julie was great to work with and put everyone at their ease. We recorded everything in one go as a base, then as it had mostly gone ok(I’d say because we’re so good or so well rehearsed – but I guess it was pure luck) we recorded one track again, then added trumpet, backing vocals and re-recorded vocals on the following day. Considering most of us either hadn’t recorded previously or so long ago as to have forgotten, it was an enjoyable experience and we were all happy at the price which seemed relatively inexpensive.
Music Distribution.
After some research we decided to use Too Lost as distributors for our album. While most other distribution companies that I looked at seem to charge as extras for just about anything you’d need to do Too Lost charges an annual fee which covers as many releases as you want and too more platforms than you could shake a stick at. The interface to add an album is a bit daunting but I managed to do it without having to ask anyone(though did I do it right), though there is help available. There is masses of analysis and info available on the website about your releases once they’ve and payments info – (though I doubt we’ll make anything from that judging from the rates that streaming platforms pay). If you do begin to make money you get 100% of it(some distributors charge a percentage).
Luthiery, musical instruments.
Andrew and his associates have been most helpful and have provided excellent advice and assistance with our guitars. The shop has a wide range of new and used musical instruments, amplification, pedals etc., and they’re also very nice people.