After work today, I went to the CD manufacturing plant in Southboro, MA. Luckily, it is located about 10 minutes from where I live. I checked out the "proofs" of the new Hover CD and everything looked fine. Once everything is checked and approved, the next step is the printing of the booklets and the creation of the CD's. In about 3 weeks, we will have 1000 CD's ready to go. It's an interesting process from the beginning of the idea for the CD to the final stage when you have a fully finished product. Like a baton being passed from Hayastan to the Diaspora, the idea originates in Armenia from the local musicians and then the music is recorded there as well. From that point on, I receive the master CD and get to work in hiring a designer (Arsineh Khachikian has been my only designer and Ivana the only illustrator) Then, after you have the product, you have to sell it. This is usually the most challenging step of the way. I just switched my California-only mom and pop Armenian distributor to Garni Music run by Stepan Partamian. He does good work out in LA. Our North American distributor for the major stores is another company. So, all of the channels are secured and the product is sent out. Next is the obvious "machine" that cranks out press releases and gets the word out any way possible that a great recording is available and for people to buy it. (This is your cue and is shameless marketing use of this website to illustrate my point). Most semi-major to major labels pay about $2000 a month to promote and publicise an album. This gets the album or artist into what I call the "bloodstream" of the world music buying public. Anyway, I think the merging of knowledge and talent between the good people in Armenia and our good folks who volunteer for Pomegranate have created a nice model of how things can succeed when working together. Now, let's all sing "Kumbaya".