ScottFromWyoming wrote:
I use media mail all the time. For small things like CDs it doesn't save any money over first class. Costs just over a buck to ship a CD-sized padded envelope from here, which costs about $.70 if you can't reuse an old one. My last mix (2 CDs) was about $1.25 postage each.

 kurtster wrote: 
Media Mail has many restrictions; it's intended for bulk mailers of things like magazines. It replaced what used to be known as "Book Rate" which anyone could use if they happened to be mailing books to someone. There may be a way for an individual to still get to use it but I'm not aware of it.
 
Remember my trick of folding the CD up inside a heavy sheet of paper: 64¢ to mail that and I had a 100% success rate, even to Canada (96¢ or so).

Edit: a Media Mail single piece (not presorted bulk mailing) of 6 oz. would cost $2.38. If you had enough to presort them, you'd be looking at $1.82.

First class 6 oz. Large Envelope (thicker than 1/4") is $1.73 so...

 kurtster wrote: 
It might have something to do with where you were sending them, and what sort of envelope/packaging they were in. Media Mail does impact the delivery speed—at least it has in my experiences in the past.

 kurtster wrote: 
Yikes, fourth class? Holy smokes, that must be even slower than catalogs and junk mail.

 Zep wrote: 
Yes, its 4th class mail.  Not sure how it affects speed of delivery.  The wife asked before posting but was not allowed to use it for some reason.  Perhaps standing in line for an hour and a half had something to do with it.

 kurtster wrote: 
You still beat me.  Mine are being hitched up today.  Artwork's a killer, man.  So's the post office. Where did all these people come from?

Oh and by the way, I don't know if it's been mentioned in this forum, but the lady at the PO told me about a class of mail called "Media Mail," which has a lower postage rate than regular first class.  It's on the usps.gov website.

 kurtster wrote: 

Same here, our pod should expect there's this weekend hopefully...... & then we have a second trip to the PO to send others (you K being one of them) copies...... that ought to occur tomorrow......

My discs finally went out today, sorry for the delay.  Hope my pod gets them soon.
They were done on Monday, but some stuff happened, delaying things.

 SeldomSeen wrote: 
Man, you must have used the RACING snails!!

I GOT A CD FROM THE NETHERLANDS!!!

It looks FABULOUS.  I can't wait to listen to it!  Except, that, well, I CAN wait, because I have to wait, 'cause I have to finish this website and I have to stay awake late again to do it, which means I have to listen to an audiobook so I don't fall asleep... anyway...

Wheeeeeee!!!

 jagdriver wrote: 
Gotcha. I'm sure the CD will play fine in my car CD player (which is where I'd listen to it other than the computer), it's just a little bit of a p.i.t.a if one wants to listen to a track over again or something once it has been listened to in the way that you intended it. No biggie.
 
As for the DVD, that's one hell of a collection of tracks to give to all of us. Thank you very much for that!
 
Question: Why so down on iTunes? I use it and don't have much of a problem with music management on it, though perhaps that's because I've been using it for so long that I've got all my settings the way I like them, and do much of my music management manually. 

 newwavegurly wrote: 
The DVD is just a collection of tracks. The M3U was an aborted attempt at getting the disc to autoplay on Windoze machines when inserted. You'll have to roll your own playlist, as rmgman did using (the dreaded) iTunes, although the M3U is editable in any plain text editor.

As for the CD, it's intended to be played in a CD player... not necessarily a computer (although it plays fine on a PC using WMP, Winamp, Media Center, VLC or whatever). This disc was really created so that it could be played on a regular car stereo system featuring a plain-Jane CD player. Further, there is only one long (an hour plus) track (CDA format) in that all of the songs are segued together RP-style—there are no gaps between tracks.

 jagdriver wrote: 
jag -

My CD is coming up as one big long AIFF as opposed to individual tracks. Was that your intention?

Also, regarding the DVD, when I pull up the playlist, it merely lists the tracks in alphabetical order... didn't know if you had set it all up as a playlist in a different order or if it was just a DVD full of music. 

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Hey, well, we were just getting amped up for what was/is to follow.....

 jagdriver wrote: 
Sorry.

 Alexandra wrote: 
Thanks, Alexandra. In fairness, I have been doing this for awhile and have been able to develop the technique thanks to CorelDRAW! Granted, it still takes inspiration, but many RP postcard swappers blew me away with their creativity. I saw this as an opp'y to join in, to once again tap the dormant right hemisphere of my brain. When I once again stumbled upon the Escher art, my first thought was what a cool CD cover it would make. The mixtape theme followed the art in this case. The art and music for the bonus DVD already existed, in that I've been brewing up a batch to send to friends for Christmas. I'm just glad the fuser kit in the company's color laser printer held out; it completely died right after I printed all of this up and they're not ordering a replacement right away due to lack of revenue.

 Alexandra wrote: 
Oh yeah! You got one made especially for you for the Cookie Swap last year too. See why I had to join this group when Fishy started it?
 
No idea what my sister's theme is, actually. I know she was working on it yesterday, and that's about it.

 newwavegurly wrote: 
You're so good....
OMG, jagdriver has just raised the bar for CD art. It's spectacular. I hope that is not a requirement in this club......

Hey - your sis is next up this month for our pod. I'll bet you know what her theme is.

 rmgman wrote: 
You're very welcome, R, and thanks for the kudos.

...sending this evening...

 jagdriver wrote: 
Incredible, JD! The "mixtape" was great and I caught the theme after the 1st Beatles song (I didn't peek at the song list). Some fantastic stuff I was not familiar with; some songs I love but did not have in my collection. I was actually jumping around and using my T-square as an air-guitar! (Pippin was looking at me very strangely...)

I'm listening to the songs from the DVD now. I'm pretty much an audio software newbie, so I only use the "dreaded iTunes" that you mention. It did not recognize your playlist file, so after I imported all the files into iTunes I had to create a "smart playlist" setting it to choose all songs added on the date I brought them into my library.

Thank you ever so much!

4 out of 5 done in my pod, and now awaiting the next big adventure from over the hills and far away (lunar1963).