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 5 hours 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.

[Twigman]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

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

 

 

I know that feeling - one of my bandmates is 1/3 of Above & Beyond who are still big on the EDM scene.

We don't gig as much as we should because of his commitment to that project.

I can't say i blame him as it has made him into a multi millionaire whereas we only get a few hundred in streaming royalties every few months.

[cheddatom]

We have an album out next month. We're doing CDs and limited edition Vinyl. We put it up for pre-order this morning on our website and we've already had 20+ orders, so clearly, it's working for us. We'll sell them at gigs too

 

[TimR]

42 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

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.

 

How do you get your music to new audiences? 

[PaulWarning]

27 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

We have an album out next month. We're doing CDs and limited edition Vinyl. We put it up for pre-order this morning on our website and we've already had 20+ orders, so clearly, it's working for us. We'll sell them at gigs too

 

I suspect we're talking about bands that are a lot less successful than Headsticks 😊

[cheddatom]

9 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

I suspect we're talking about bands that are a lot less successful than Headsticks 😊

 

Hah, we're still a small time band Paul! We have a loyal following on that scene but it's probably 500 people at the most. We don't get any air play or playlisting and we're struggling to get bigger gigs/festivals

[BigRedX]

44 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

How do you get your music to new audiences? 

 

Probably equally through gigs supporting better known bands and being on popular streaming playlists.

 

Both require that we spend time doing promotion and research so that promotion is effectively targeted. 

 

From a gigging PoV we have made a conscious decision that we are not interested in "headlining" and that a support is far more valuable to us. As a result about half the gigs we have done recently have been to capacity audiences either due to the popularity of the headline act or the overall combination of bands on the bill. It also helps that the band fit into a genre with an enthusiastic and dedicated audience. We're now starting to see people wearing our T-shirts at gigs (and not just ones where we are playing).

 

On-line, it's all about getting on popular playlists and pushing each new release on social media, without coming across as "spamming". It's a delicate balancing act. However we currently have a handful of songs that get around 40 streams a day, and more importantly new people following the band, saving the songs and adding them to their personal playlists.

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, cheddatom said:

We have an album out next month. We're doing CDs and limited edition Vinyl. We put it up for pre-order this morning on our website and we've already had 20+ orders, so clearly, it's working for us. We'll sell them at gigs too

 

 

That's excellent. Can I be cheeky and ask you who you are using for the CD and vinyl production, how many of each you are having done and what it is costing? You can PM me if you don't want to share that info in public.

[cheddatom]

Just now, BigRedX said:

 

That's excellent. Can I be cheeky and ask you who you are using for the CD and vinyl production, how many of each you are having done and what it is costing? You can PM me if you don't want to share that info in public.

 

The album is going to be distributed physically through FOAD Records, not sure what the deal is there but I think they made the vinyl. 100 each of 3 colours. 

 

CDs are through a company called Birnam https://www.birnamcd.com/

 

I'd guess we went for 1000 of them and it'll take 18 months to shift them all - that's been the case for the last few albums

 

I'm not sure about costs sorry, as you can tell, I don't get involved in that side of things.

[BigRedX]

4 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

 

The album is going to be distributed physically through FOAD Records, not sure what the deal is there but I think they made the vinyl. 100 each of 3 colours. 

 

CDs are through a company called Birnam https://www.birnamcd.com/

 

I'd guess we went for 1000 of them and it'll take 18 months to shift them all - that's been the case for the last few albums

 

I'm not sure about costs sorry, as you can tell, I don't get involved in that side of things.

 

Thanks!

 

We've been toying with the idea of a vinyl version of the album, but as we'll be funding it completely ourselves, it's difficult to justify the cost when it's 2-4 times more expensive than CDs depending on the quantity and packaging. And as I said previously I still have 300 copies of the Terrortones album that right now are unsellable, plus the fact that for our audience CD still seems to be the most popular format.

[PaulWarning]

37 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

 

Hah, we're still a small time band Paul! We have a loyal following on that scene but it's probably 500 people at the most. We don't get any air play or playlisting and we're struggling to get bigger gigs/festivals

surprised that you're not getting playlisting or airplay, I last saw you at at last years Bearded Theory, you had a decent crowd, I guess the fact I see you get on at smaller festivals has skewed my judgement, just looked at your plays on Spotify, and yes they're not that great.

You do do a lot of gigs around the country which is good for album sales, Verbal Warning have been stained by doing mostly covers gigs locally, we struggle to get any originals gigs these days, one comment for a local promoter when we asked about a support slot for a punk gig (999) he was putting on "Why would people pay to see you when they can see you for free in the local pub?" 

There are some local originals bands around but they struggle to get any gigs at all, a conundrum for sure

[cheddatom]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

Thanks!

 

We've been toying with the idea of a vinyl version of the album, but as we'll be funding it completely ourselves, it's difficult to justify the cost when it's 2-4 times more expensive than CDs depending on the quantity and packaging. And as I said previously I still have 300 copies of the Terrortones album that right now are unsellable, plus the fact that for our audience CD still seems to be the most popular format.

 

Extensive gigging for decent fees means we've always had the cash for physical products. We're a very lucky band in many ways!

[cheddatom]

1 hour ago, PaulWarning said:

surprised that you're not getting playlisting or airplay, I last saw you at at last years Bearded Theory, you had a decent crowd, I guess the fact I see you get on at smaller festivals has skewed my judgement, just looked at your plays on Spotify, and yes they're not that great.

You do do a lot of gigs around the country which is good for album sales, Verbal Warning have been stained by doing mostly covers gigs locally, we struggle to get any originals gigs these days, one comment for a local promoter when we asked about a support slot for a punk gig (999) he was putting on "Why would people pay to see you when they can see you for free in the local pub?" 

There are some local originals bands around but they struggle to get any gigs at all, a conundrum for sure

 

Yeh it's frustrating Paul. Bearded Theory went great, then they put us on on the Wednesday afternoon this year! We played Beautiful Days a few years back, went down a storm, never asked back. etc etc. I think maybe we're just too old to really get anywhere. Anyway, it's good fun and pays for the beers!

[PaulWarning]

1 minute ago, cheddatom said:

 

Yeh it's frustrating Paul. Bearded Theory went great, then they put us on on the Wednesday afternoon this year! We played Beautiful Days a few years back, went down a storm, never asked back. etc etc. I think maybe we're just too old to really get anywhere. Anyway, it's good fun and pays for the beers!

it's certainly a young man's game, there's a lot of truth in the saying "if you've not made it by the time you are 30 you're not going too"

Our latest guitarist is 22, brings the average age of the band down to slightly under 50 🤣.

it's hard work gigging all over the country, I guess that's why there's personnel changes invovled with some bands, I don't think Headsticks have had that problem have they?

[BigRedX]

17 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

Extensive gigging for decent fees means we've always had the cash for physical products. We're a very lucky band in many ways!

 

We're getting there, but there's not the gigs or money being offered for us to be out every weekend at the moment, plus our synth player has family commitments. That means we are trying to stick to gigs that will put us in front of new potentially receptive audiences. However we've made enough from T-shirt sales in the last 6 months to pay for a decent run of CDs when the album is finished.

[cheddatom]

6 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

it's certainly a young man's game, there's a lot of truth in the saying "if you've not made it by the time you are 30 you're not going too"

Our latest guitarist is 22, brings the average age of the band down to slightly under 50 🤣.

it's hard work gigging all over the country, I guess that's why there's personnel changes invovled with some bands, I don't think Headsticks have had that problem have they?

 

Yeh, same line-up for almost 14 years now! I think the main reasons we've done relatively well are

1. We're all pretty flexible with our jobs so we can finish early to get on the road and take random time off etc.

2. Our frontman makes and sells merch for a living, so in the early days, he'd sell the merch to the band on credit giving us time to build up cash. He's also constantly changing designs etc. so merch became a big thing for us, and brings in the cash to fund the physical product.

 

We've been keeping the diary pretty clear the last year or so hoping for more support slots to bigger bands akin to BigRedX. Unfortunately it's not paid off for us. The one offer we had was a full tour for £80 per night. We're too old to be sleeping in the van so it'd cost us circa £500 a night for hotels, fuel, food etc. Worth the risk in some opinions but we didn't take it in the end.

[Lozz196]

I`m in agreement with the "support bigger bands" theory, better to try to sell to 500 of someone elses fans and make them your own, as long as it`s similar music styles there`s a reasonable chance of picking up sales as a result. 

[jonnybass]

On 07/05/2025 at 12:11, Wombat said:

Buy wearing a T-shirt or hoodie with a really useless band on could make you look like a dork! 😂.

 

But more seriously, great comments peeps. Keep ‘em coming!

I always wondered about a QR code inside the t shirt collar, with the QR taking you to bandcamp where people can then enter a code (again somewhere inside the t shirt) to download a copy of the album. Kinda similar to the little cards you get inside some vinyl to download a free copy of the album.  But this is more a free download when you buy a t-shirt.

 

Jonny