Since 2005 I have been curating and designing custom mix CDs under the Wimbo Zuri imprint. Wimbo Zuri—which means “Beautiful Song” in Swahili—offers music lovers who want to commission a special, personalized gift for their significant others, family members, or friends. A typical Wimbo Zuri mix includes songs selected for their musical, lyrical, cultural, and historic quality. A typical mix features songs spanning several decades, in several languages, joined together by a common theme.
I already have several past projects to offer up as examples or even for sale as-is:
- Locally-flavored road-trip mixes: Pick a state, country, region, or route.
- Literature-based mixes: Eclectic riffing off of themes and charactars from books of the bible or your favorite big novel.
- Mixes for friend groups: Perfect for reunions!
- Acrostic mixes (perfect for birthdays) Awesome, carefully selected playlists with secret messages encoded in the first letters of each song.
- Mixes for Weddings and Other Celebrations
- Science-Based Mixes We specialize in taxonomy (songs for different kinds of animals and plants—insects, birds, trees). Want a mix of songs about stars, in order of brightness? We’ve got you covered. Anything else you can imagine? Just ask.
Clients can select a governing principle for the album, and then suggest details with special meaning for the gift recipient: languages, artists, themes, names, etc.
The product: A beautifully designed CD, with detailed liner notes, and extraordinary music therein.
The pricing: Once WZ covers its pass-through costs (mp3s, materials, postage), the album will already be quite a bit more expensive (~$30) than something you would have bought on iTunes (~$15). But we think it’s worth it.
- Existing album: $30
- Simple design tweak to existing album: $20
- Thorough personalization of existing album: $70
- Totally new, soup-to-nuts personalized album: $150
All fees are payable via Paypal. For more info and a quote for your specific project, email me at wimbozuri@natebarksdale.com.
