Is a CD release viable anymore?

[Lozz196]

15 minutes ago, Twigman said:

L & XL are definitely the sellers in UK, USA, NL and Germany but in Spain and Italy we sell mostly M - I think they are generally smaller in the Med.

So beer drinking countries = L & XL

 

Wine drinking countries = M

 

Makes sense, who ever heard of a wine belly?

[TimR]

I'm 56, I don't own a CD player.

 

I do buy T-shirts if they look good and I can wear it in the high street or pub without looking odd, stand out or edgy.

 

There might be mileage in producing CD like cardboard inserts with a personal userID and link to a download area containing special editions and bonus tracks not available on Spotify. People can then visit the area, sign in with their userID. Then either add that to their Spotify app as a download or burn to a CD.

 

However, the point of having free sharable music, is that your audience grows exponentially through word of mouth and then people come to your gigs, buy t-shirts and tickets. Important now that hardly anyone listens to the Charts...

 

 

[12stringbassist]

My band's CD is about to break even on pressing costs. It's not been a worthwhile exercise for me in that the stress involved in getting it finally recorded and ready to go, due to the disinterest of (and problems with) one member, made it an absolute chore and I ended up recording all of the guitars as well as bass on 5 of the songs that are on it in my home studio or it wouldn't have ever been finished. The band hasn't been able to play most of the songs on it because one person was totally disinterested in the project and we've only had three songs appear in our live set since it was released. It's put me right off it as a result. And I should be fiercely proud of it.

[Stub Mandrel]

Of course you could sell t-shirts with a qr code to download your latest single.

 

If your t-shirt caused people to download a virus, would that make it malicious soft-wear?

[BigRedX]

9 hours ago, 12stringbassist said:

My band's CD is about to break even on pressing costs. It's not been a worthwhile exercise for me in that the stress involved in getting it finally recorded and ready to go, due to the disinterest of (and problems with) one member, made it an absolute chore and I ended up recording all of the guitars as well as bass on 5 of the songs that are on it in my home studio or it wouldn't have ever been finished. The band hasn't been able to play most of the songs on it because one person was totally disinterested in the project and we've only had three songs appear in our live set since it was released. It's put me right off it as a result. And I should be fiercely proud of it.

 

Anything that you still have significant quantities of after the band has become defunct is always going to be somewhat depressing. I still have about 300 copies of The Terrortones album, on vinyl, that I have very little chance of selling now, but due to the amount of money and effort I put into it, I'm loathe to chuck the unsold copies away. They'll continue to take up a large amount of storage space until I next move house at which stage they'll almost certainly go in the bin. (And shortly afterwards someone well-known will give an interview saying how much that like it and how it has been an influence on their music!)

[Stub Mandrel]

One of my bandmates is in a (much younger and trendier) band. They hit number 1 in the UK physical singles chart last year with an EP. (CD)

 

It was recorded 'as live' at a well known studio but was still surprisingly affordable. At our last gig he told me it had broken even at last.

 

The two biggest financial boosts they have had are a creative industries grant and being playlisted by Radio 1.

 

Everything is being reinvested in the band and they are gigging like mad*.

 

 

 

 

 

*which is a pita as it means the band we are both in isn't gigging much.

 

 

Edited 59 minutes ago by Stub Mandrel
Thought I had better confirm the format.

[BigRedX]

On 08/05/2025 at 14:55, TimR said:

There might be mileage in producing CD like cardboard inserts with a personal userID and link to a download area containing special editions and bonus tracks not available on Spotify. People can then visit the area, sign in with their userID. Then either add that to their Spotify app as a download or burn to a CD.

 

My band has worked the other way. You can only purchase one of our CDs by actually coming to a gig, and both of the CDs were are currently selling have "bonus features". "Lost Souls" includes a remix of one of our most popular songs that is only available by buying the CD, and "Robert Smith's Eyes" has special packaging that can't be replicated by an on-line image. It's a strategy that appears to be working. We expect to sell out of "Lost Souls" after the next 2-3 gigs and after 2 gigs we've sold almost a third of the copies of "Robert Smith's Eyes".

 

Currently we are not selling physical copies of either single on line, mostly because the P&P even in the UK would double the cost of the CD. We may reconsider when our album is released, but until then if you want a physical copy you need to come to one of our gigs.

 

However as I have already said, you need to tailor your releases to what your audience wants. Our audience are still into buying CDs so they are worth producing.