ICON blog

F**k Buttons' newest release - Tarot Sport on Pitchfork Top 10

2009-12-15T12:00:00.005-05:00

Kudos to ATP recordings! Their new release, the latest release from the British electronic power duo F**k Buttons is entitled Tarot Sport. The CD, which came out a couple of months ago in the US has gotten some seriously nice reviews... including being chosen for Pitchfork Media's best new music list. Not too surprisingly ATP decided on ICON for the US pressing. The package consists of a custom 4 panel digipak with embossing, a matte coat and spot UV. You can check out Pitchfork's review here.

Check out Bandize!

2009-11-19T15:40:00.005-05:00

Hey All!

We've found a great, great, great, tool for bands and record labels to get organized. The site is called Bandize.com.

What it does is helps bands and record labels take control by giving them an intuitive, simple way to get organized - all on the web. Its pretty nuts. They created a suite of tools that just about any band will be sure to find extremely useful. You can track your all of your shows, contact, merch, finances, social media stuff and more all in one spot. What might actually be the coolest feature onBandize.com is the way you can update your content there and have that stuff update across your social media accounts like Myspace.com, Facebook.com, Purevolume.com, and more. Big time saver.

Anyway, we're huge fans of this product over here at ICON, and encourage all you folks to check it out at Bandize.com.

ps. What a wicked awesome logo!

Help out a friend of ICON

2009-02-04T16:20:00.003-05:00

Hey folks...

Just wanted to pass along some info about a friend of ICON who is going through a rough time right now and needs your help!

Anna Ives, the daughter of Zac Ives from Goner Records, has been undergoing treatment for a brain tumor over the past two years.

To help with the economic burden, they are holding auctions, accepting donations, and holding benefit shows in the Memphis, TN area.

Please visit the link for more info...

http://www.goner-records.com/AnnaIvesAuctions/index.php

Go Green with ICON: Special Package Deals

2009-01-05T18:01:00.002-05:00

ICON has put together some awesome package deals for 2009. Not only are they the kind of package deals that save you a bunch of money, but they're all good for the environment too! The three Special Package Deals that are currently featured all include 100% recylced stock! So, check out builtbyicon.com for our more information on our latest package deals!

Special #1
- 1000 full color CDs
- 5" jacket printed in full color on recycled stock
- insertion and wrap
- free barcode

...all for $999

Special #2
- 1000 full color CDs
- 4 panel EcoPak printed in full color on recycled stock
- insertion and wrap
- free barcode

...all for $1,199

Special #3

- 1000 full color CDs
- 4 panel Digipak printed in full color on recycled stock
- insertion and wrap
- free barcode

...all for $1,299

All configurations are also available on our regular board stock.

For more information on our Special Package Deals please give Rich a call toll free at 1-866-400-ICON or e-mail us at sales@builtbyicon.com.

ICON's new address

2008-11-12T06:55:00.001-05:00

Hey Everyone! We've moved into some better digs!

Please start sending all packages and mail to:
ICON Omnimedia, Corp.
220 Knickerbocker Ave.
Bohemia, NY, 11716

All of our phone / extension / fax / e-mail information is all the same.

If you've recently sent stuff to our old address, don't worry! We're checking the mail every day at the old location as well.

So, please update your address books, and if you have any questions, just let us know.

Thanks!

INTRODUCTING THE ICON ECO-PAK

2008-08-04T16:38:00.001-04:00

It's been months in the works and it's finally here! We are extremely pleased to introduce the ICON Eco-Pak! The ICON Eco-Pak is a low-cost, environmentally-friendly alternative to standard jewel box packaging. And it's not just the environment that benefits from the ICON Eco-Pak, it's your wallet too! Because they're pretty inexpensive. We've got a package deal for $1,199 that includes:

1000 Units

- 3 Color Silkscreened CDs

- Full-color ICON Eco-Pak

- Insertion and shrinkwrap

If you'd like to know more about the ICON Eco-Pak and the package deal on 'em, give Rich a call toll free at 1-866-400-ICON or e-mail us at sales@builtbyicon.com.

ICON - FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

2008-08-04T16:32:00.002-04:00

This August marks ICON's five year anniversary! We've been trucking along bringing you the best CD and DVD manufacturing, authoring, and mastering for five extremely enjoyable years. We've come a long way from that first August, when we were getting all of our faxes at the restaurant down the road. It's hard to believe it's been that long. But on the other hand I guess it was a while ago that we were toiling away that first summer in Wells' parents' spare room. ICON has picked up some great people over the years, too. Andre has been here over four years. Rich has been here over three. And Ruth and Kristin have both been here over two years! Congrats everyone! If nothing else, we can say we have our own fax machine now! The picture is of our two founding founders, Wells Tipley and Andrew Karaptis, in the first few weeks of ICON. You can find out a bit more about our history, mission statement, and the folks who work here on our about page.

INCREASED DUPLICATION CAPACITY

2008-07-11T12:37:00.002-04:00

In the coming weeks ICON will be doubling it's capacity for short-run CD and DVD duplication. This service is becoming more and more popular, and ICON's low prices and amazing quality are quickly gaining a great reputation. The increased capacity will allow us to turn jobs more quickly, and take on more work. For more information about our short-run CD and DVD duplication, check out the page on our site here.

ICON COMMERCIAL

2008-07-11T12:35:00.002-04:00

ICON is now offering commercial printing services! Swing by our new site at at builtbyicon.clickprint.com to check out what we can do. Some of the productions include Stationary and Envelopes, Rubber Stamps, Business Cards, and more. If you have any questions about ICON Commercial, give Andre a call toll free at 1-866-400-ICON.

Release Spotlight: New Found Glory & International Superheroes of Hardcore

2008-05-05T11:56:00.004-04:00

A pretty great looking release this month from Boston's Bridge Nine Records! This is New Found Glory's newest EP and it comes packaged with a full length CD from their alter-ego band, International Superheroes of Hardcore. It's got absolutely great comic book styled artwork through out, starting with the O-Card and working it's way through the 12 page booklet, and the 2 offset printed CDs. All in all, this thing looks amazing.

DropCard Sampler 2008 and New Brochures

2008-05-05T11:54:00.002-04:00

Okay, so the super-awesome ICON DropCard Sampler 2008 is hot off the presses and back in our office. We're mailing out a bunch next week to labels and bands. So if you'd like a package with the DropCard - along with the recently completed ICON/Eulogy CD sampler - just shoot us an e-mail with your address and we'll send the stuff right out!

Blu-ray Disc beats up HD-DVD

2008-03-04T16:21:00.001-05:00

As many of you have no doubt heard on the interweb, BluRay has emerged victorious in the bloody format war. We're still sorting out pricing and stuff, but if you have any questions about doing BluRay, just let us know and we'll sort it out!

New Product Available

2008-03-04T16:18:00.002-05:00

Committed to finding creative physical solutions to the distribution of digital media, ICON is proud to introduce our new line of custom branded and pre-loaded high speed USB drives.

Dropdrives can be imprinted with any artist or company logo and pre-loaded with music, video, anything! We are rolling out our new line with twelve different shapes, 64mb up to 2GB of storage space and cool options such as auto-run and data lock with many more features to come.

We'll have more information up on the site soon, but in the meantime, let us know if you're interested!

Happy Birthday Andre!

2008-02-08T15:42:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to Andre Bermudez! We went out to a great lunch today at the new Japanese restaurant down the road. Wish him a happy one if you talk to him this week!

Parts Unknown Records added to ICON Next Digital Distribution

2007-12-26T16:52:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you many of you know the genius and extremely handsome guy that is 50% of the mammoth Parts Unknown Records. But what you may not know is that a large chunk of the Parts Unknown catalog is now available online at places like iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody, Amazon, and tons more through the illustrious ICON Next Digital Distribution.

Look for bands like: Pissed Jeans, Snake Apartment, Violent Students, The Worst, Violent Minds, and more.

If you want more information about having your label distributed digitally through ICON Next Digital Distribution, just shoot an e-mail to iconnext@builtbyicon.com.

Attack in Black Drop Cards

2007-12-26T16:48:00.000-05:00

One of our first Drop Cards orders is now complete and back with the happy customer. Dine Alone Records created a killer Drop Card to include with the vinyl release of Attack in Black's November album, "The Curve of the Earth." You can check out Dine Alone Records and Attack in Black by clicking here.

Check out more information about Drop Cards by clicking here.

Upcoming Releases from Whoa Oh! Records

2007-11-26T10:52:00.000-05:00

Our buddy Jonnie over at Whoa Oh! Records has some new stuff coming out shortly, and we're working on getting it ready for him. Namely, The Zatopeks’ "Damn Fool Music", a collection of early material from MC Chris entitled "The New York University 8-Track Discography 10th Anniversary Edition", and the full length debut from Full Of Fancy, "Sweet Baby Jesus". But according to the Punknews.com article here, they've also got a 7" coming out from Lost Locker combo which is Jonnie's band with another friend of ICON, Bill Florio. You can check out their stuff on their MySpace Page. Check it all out and enjoy!

Hometown Heroes Compilation Series

2007-10-29T11:32:00.000-04:00

A customer of ours, Arm The Pit, is pleased to announce the creation of a series of compilation CDs of original music called Hometown Heroes. Their goal is to showcase local music and artists from towns across the country. They have a series of compilation CDs planned and each Hometown Heroes benefits an area's local charity.

It's a pretty neat idea and we wish them luck.

Check out their site at http://hometownheroes.armthepit.com.

Boss's Day

2007-10-16T09:35:00.001-04:00

Hello All, and Happy Boss's Day! Today the fine folks at ICON are taking Wells out to one of his favorite pizza places for lunch and have begrudgingly agreed to call him 'sir' all day.

Slingshot Dakota

2007-10-01T15:01:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! A couple of us ICONers got the chance this weekend to catch up with the band Slingshot Dakota when they played on Long Island. We currently have their latest CD, which is being self-released, in production here. A good time was had by all, and it was nice to meet the drummer, Tom, and to see Carly again!

Equal Vision's latest release for Chiodos hits the Billboard Charts

2007-09-15T15:36:00.000-04:00

Congratulations go out to our customer, Equal Vision Records, who's "Bone Palace Ballet" by band Chiodos has hit the Billboard charts in a big way. Chiodos debuted it's first week at #1 on the Billboard Indie charts, and #5 overall.

ICON printed the booklet, tray, and o-card for this release.

Check out Equal Vision at: www.equalvision.com

Happy 25th Birthday Compact Disc

2007-08-16T14:49:00.000-04:00

I saw this article while I was cruising the internets:

Happy 25th Birthday Compact Disc

Only 25 years? It feels longer. Anyway, happy birthday shiny plastic disc! You've been so good to us!

Two ICON customers merge to be come one bigger ICON customer

2007-08-10T11:43:00.000-04:00

Longtime ICON customers Deathwish, Inc have just announced that they are merging with another longtime ICON customer, Malfunction Records. Pretty cool news. You can read all about it over at the Deathwish website.

ICON and Lumberjack

2007-08-03T15:54:00.000-04:00

Here's some neat news. We've been working with Lumberjack Distribution, now called Lumberjack Mordam Music Group, for many years now. So, it's interesting to me when the IndieHQ blog posts Lumberjack's top scanning albums of the week. Anyway, this week I checked the post against our database, and figured out that we manufactured 4 of their top 10! I thought that was pretty cool.

You can check out the list here.

We made the discs for: A Skylit Drive, Kill Whitney Dead, Whole Wheat Bread, and August Burns Red.

The new ICON sampler has a name... and art!

2007-07-27T12:08:00.000-04:00

Hey all... the new installment of the ICON sampler, which we're doing with Eulogy Records this time around, now has a theme: pugilism. That's right, the sweet science of boxing. So, the sampler is now called "Fisticuffs Free-for-All: ICON versus EULOGY"

Ryan over at Alphabet Arm is doing the artwork and it is shaping up to be awesome. You can check out the front cover below. The gold is going to be foil, and I think we're doing it on uncoated stock. Rest assured, it will be radical.

If you missed it last time, the track listing is:

Audio Tracks:
Know The Score- Terminal
Calico System- Gasoline
The Burning Season- Awake The Ghost
Hoods- Ghetto Blaster
Fjord- Ascending White Mountain

MP3 Songs:
Thick As Blood- 2005
On Watership Down- Candy’s Dead In The Water
Calico System- The Rising Tide
The Burning Season- Bite The Bullet

Quicktime Videos:
The Warriors- Downbeat
Set Your Goals- Mutiny