Crescent City Duplication sold to Louisiana Red Hot Records
New Orleans – November, 2019:
Diana Thornton and Mike Hogan have sold Crescent City Duplication to Louisiana Red Hot Records, who will continue offering CD/DVD duplication services to the New Orleans region. THIS SALE DOES NOT INCLUDE CRESCENT MUSIC SERVICES, which Diana founded in 1997 with mastering engineer Parker Dinkins to offer CD design and manufacturing. Diana was a local singer/songwriter and graphic designer at the time, and she and Parker recognized a need for a local option for CD design and manufacturing.
Diana and Mike aren’t retiring from CD production or the music industry. Diana will continue to provide her award-winning print and digital graphic design and photography for CDs, books, publications, and event guides – she is an expert with over 30 years experience. “I’m currently working on several more books on the Beatles for Bruce Spizer, and I’m playing music and performing again.”
In 2011 Diana partnered with Mike Hogan, another New Orleans mastering engineer and musician in Egg Yolk Jubilee, to form Crescent City Duplication to split off Crescent Music Services’ duplication business into a separate company. Since then they have duplicated thousands of CDs and DVDs for local bands, musicians and companies. Crescent Music Services and Crescent City Duplication are still the only dedicated companies in the region specializing in CD/DVD design, duplication and manufacturing.
But Mike and Diana decided it was time to pass the torch for the duplication part of things. It was important to keep this critical service in the city because it is so time sensitive, and they wanted find someone who would provide the same high quality personal service. Red Hot and CCD had already been working together for the label’s inhouse projects, so when Carmen Sunda (owner of LA Red Hot) and Lilli Lewis (General Manager at Red Hot) expressed an interest in also servicing non-label clients, they began negotiations.
“Red Hot has a fresh network of clients they can tap into, and I believe they will bring new ideas and energy to the company.”
For over 20 years, Louisiana Red Hot Records has released over 200 albums of Blues, Jazz, R&B, Gospel, Funk, Zydeco, Cajun and Rock, and is a leader among Southern independent labels in marketing and worldwide distribution.
Red Hot will be using the same high quality Rimage equipment and will be upgrading the duplicator and disc printer as part of the sale. They will have access to the hundreds of CCD masters and artwork for existing projects for seamless reorders. Mike and Diana will also be available as consultants and on call for technical support, questions or production help if they get busy to ensure a smooth transition.
“The big labels and Apple want you to think that CDs are dead. I reject this concept, and believe that physical product, along with performances, are the only way indie bands can make any money. You can’t make a living on streaming royalties or even downloads (which Apple is about to kill). So Indies have to be able to sell their music some way and CDs are still the best format to control the sale of music for maximum profit.”
Diana reminds people that she is not selling Crescent Music Services, so will still be offering CD/DVD manufacturing, which she has done for 22 years for Basin Street Records, Ellis Marsalis, LPO, National Park Service, and hundreds of other local and regional artists. Furthermore, she will continue to design for her existing duplication clients, and can forward the print files over to Red Hot for production.
Mike will continue mastering and DDPs. He, too, will keep working with his existing clients and can then forward the DDP over to Red Hot for fast local duplication or to Diana for full manufacturing. And, of course, Mike plays regularly with Egg Yolk Jubilee and in second lines.
So, if you need CD/DVD duplication (orders of 100-300 units) – go to www.crescentcityduplication.com for more information.
For graphic design, photography and CD/DVD manufacturing (orders of 500+ with glass mastering), call Diana Thornton at Crescent Music Services at 504-312-2354 or go to www.crescentmusic.com.
For mastering and DDPs, call Mike Hogan at 504-377-1076.