dftbarecords:

Eddplant’s new shirt, designed by Alan and featuring my handwriting (it’s super weird/awesome to see it on a shirt), is now in stock and shipping from DFTBA! And as a bonus, you get a FREE download of the new single “Singing About Hating You (It’s Getting Old)”.

-Kristen

Working on the cover art design for the compilation CD DFTBA Records - Volume 3… what do you think of this one? This is an early rough draft, it’ll probably change (a little or a lot or completely) before it’s released at VidCon.

I’ve been so busy the last two weeks.

I…

• finished designing a website for a new young adult mystery writer. It was a freelance gig, gotta love those.
• started designing a new website for myself. Won’t be ready for launch for another two weeks though.
• submitted a new Rhett & Link single to iTunes, it goes live later this week. I won’t spoil it, but I will say that when I told Kristen the name of the song, she replied “if you don’t remember what it’s called you don’t have to make something up”, it’s that out there.
• set the gears in motion for DFTBA Records to publish its first book! How freakin’ exciting is that? That’s a very long-term project though.
• landed this freelance gig designing “fantasy US Mint coins” for a book being published later this year. Basically, the author found a lot of old US Mint records describing coins that were never produced back in the 1800s and I get to design them for illustrations in the book. Love it!
• wrote the lyrics to “Shortwave, Part 3” …which I HOPE will be a new digital single by Luke Conard and I, we’re working with Jason Munday to see if we can turn my lyrics into sonic gold, yet again. ;)
• am working on producing the first single of this cool singer/songwriter I found on YouTube. I heard her video demo of the track and loved it.
• am working on designing the cover art for DFTBA Records, Vol 3 and putting together all the various new tracks for that so we can have it ready in time for VidCon.
• started a new Jillian Michaels DVD. I was getting bored with the old one. This new one kicks my ass though. 60 minutes of ab and weight and mat work. Ugh.
• sat on the phone with UPS trying to get them to pick-up 78 boxes full of t-shirts from Charles and Alli Trippy. Their drivers keep skipping the pick-up for some reason. Boo.
• designed a new t-shirt for Eddplant. He liked the first idea I threw out there, and that doesn’t happen often for any client. So, yay. Now to get it printed…

Okay, I think that catches everyone up. Back to work!

Alex has been having a lot of fun lately throwing around the “unsigned musician” phrase. Technically, Alex and most of the other DFTBA artists are “unsigned”. That’s because DFTBA is awesome, and we don’t lock our artists in to any kind of deal that would hold them back from exploring other avenues/options.

So Alex isn’t “signed” to DFTBA, he just has an agreement with DFTBA. He’ll sell the majority of his merch through us, and we’ll pay him an awesome royalty on what we sell. But he can also sell stuff on his own, or through other shops, and we’re cool with that too.

When Hank and I started DFTBA, we basically set it up to run how we, ourselves, would want a label to treat us. One thing that was important to us, and to others we came to find, was that we had options. Options mean loose agreements, not rigid contracts.

That said, DFTBA offers a better royalty cut on physical merch sales than ANYONE ELSE. And because of that, not only do the artists we work with continue to work with us time and time again, but we are constantly attracting new artists to our awesome little group, including recently, Nice Peter (Epic Rap Battles of History), Charles Trippy and Matt Maggiacomo.

So while you will still be able to buy Alex’s next physical release from DFTBA, including his new shirts and posters, you will also see him doing other cool stuff… like Sopio and Wrist Bands, the kind of brain crack that DFTBA started as, and that we would never want to limit our artists from exploring. =)

So a couple weeks ago I was playing Super Mario Wii, and Kristen was hanging out watching me wipe the floor with Bowser.

I kept losing my mushroom power on this one section and she blurted out “What doesn’t kill me, only makes me smaller.” I laughed. And then put it on a t-shirt. You can buy that t-shirt now from DFTBA Records: http://dft.ba/mario

w00p!

Yay, Kristen and I get to spend the next two weeks assembling 3,000 CD and postcard sets and then building boxes and stuffing said CD and postcard sets into those boxes. Happy new year…?

Flat $3 Shipping on Everything to Everywhere in the World, for 3 Days Only.

Last week DFTBA Records celebrated it’s three year anniversary of existing. w00t! To extend our thanks to all of you who have helped make us the best online record label EVER, we’re offering flat $3 shipping on every order placed in the next 3 days.

No matter how large your order is… no matter where in the WORLD you live… you will only pay $3 total for shipping for each order you place. No exceptions.

While our US customers will definitely get to save a few bucks, this deal is particularly good for our numerous international customers. International shipping is EXPENSIVE, and while our normal international shipping rates are some of the lowest around (seriously, do some comparison shopping on other merch sites), we thought it’d be fun to go even lower this Cyber Monday.

Also, while DFTBA is located in the states, a massive 45% of our orders come from other countries around the world. With the holiday gift-giving season approaching, we’re hoping this will encourage you international folks to order now. DFTBA packs and ships orders six days a week, so, your order will be packed and shipped within 48-72 hours of being received (usually quicker). However, international shipping is slow and out of our hands. Once your package leaves our warehouse, it can take anywhere from one to six weeks to get to you. So, we really really really want you to order today if you want items to arrive in time for Christmas. And to help drive that home, we’ll save you an average of $10 on shipping for the next three days.

So, go nuts! Want 30 Pizza John shirts? Only $3 shipping! Order them all at once and they will only cost you 10 cents each to ship! Need 60 copies of my latest album Erase This - who doesn’t?! Only $3 shipping! Those will only cost you 5 cents each to ship! Hah.

Okay, so again, for 3 days (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) you pay only $3.00 flat for shipping, no matter how big your order is or where you live (I swear, every single country… Is your house/apartment/condo/motorhome/houseboat located in a country on the planet Earth? Then YES, we ship there! For only $3!!). All this to celebrate our 3 year anniversary.

Thanks again guys, you rock completely, and we look forward to another 3 years of fulfilling all your nerdy music and t-shirt and poster needs.

Today is DFTBA Records three year anniversary of existing.

You’ve probably heard of John Green’s upcoming book, The Fault In Our Stars. It comes out in January. John loves to read his new books on blogtv and youtube, but no matter how much we all beg and plead, he’s never recorded his own audiobook in his voice.

That changes this January with The Fault In Our Stars Audiobook Box Set. This box set is limited to only 3,000 copies and is available exclusively from DFTBA Records. There will be no digital version of this released anywhere, these 3,000 copies are it.

The box set includes John reading the book (6 CDs), a DVD of videos by John, a Hectic Glow wristband, a Hectic Glow concert ticket, and numerous postcards from locations in the book.

There will be a second audiobook released for The Fault In Our Stars for Audible and Amazon, but that one will be read by a female narrator.

This is DFTBA’s first Box Set, first Audiobook, and a new direction for authors that we’re all really excited about. DFTBA has, for a while, wanted to work more with/for authors with dedicated fan bases, offering products that major publishers couldn’t, or don’t want to (like Maureen Johnson’s magnet sets). This is an awesome first step in that process, and I hope we’ve put together a package the hardcore John Green fans will love.

The Fault In Our Stars Audiobook Box Set is available now for pre-order. Shipping January 10, 2012.

Say good-bye to the old DFTBA warehouse. It has served us and all of nerdfighteria well. Our new warehouse is more than three times the size, and I’ll get pictures of that tomorrow!