Is a CD release viable anymore?

[PaulWarning]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I know a guy who does local gigs under one band name and originals gigs at festivals etc. under his own name with the same band.

it's a bit late in the day for us to do that, unfortunately, but there's local young band, sounds like the Jam, Sharp Class, who plan go out as a covers band called Sounds of the Suburbs, last I heard anyway

 

[casapete]

Just seen this on FB 

 

 

[BigRedX]

I think that's a bit out of date now...

 

1. No longer true for all services. Of the main streaming services Spotify is now the only one that doesn't offer an option for a format without lossy compression. However how important is that? I do much of my streaming listening in the car where the audio has to compete with all the noises of the road and driving. When I originally ripped all my CDs in the early 2000s for use with my iPod and HiFi, I spent several evenings deciding on the best format to use and decided that under most listening conditions I couldn't tell the difference between the original CD and a 320BR MP3. I suspect that most streaming listening is done in far worse acoustic environments.

 

2. What does this actually mean? When you buy a CD the only thing you actually own is the piece of plastic that the music is encoded onto. The music itself is just licensed. If it's a CDR rather than a glass-mastered replicated CD, you may find that your piece of plastic is no longer playable after less than 10 years. Then it's just a piece of plastic with hopefully a nice design on one side.

 

3. It could be argued that CD artwork is but a pale imitation of what you would get if you bought the same thing on vinyl. It also depends on how good the sleeve design is anyway. I have plenty of CDs and vinyl where the packaging adds little or no artistic benefit to the listener. I've also got some with fancy packaging that is actually an impediment to listening to the music. PiL's Metal Box (vinyl) and Scissor Sisters Ta-Dah (CD in a box) spring to mind.

 

4. Personally I like the algorithms. I like the way that when an album I've been streaming on Apple Music comes to an end the algorithm will play me more songs in a similar style. I've discovered several new bands this way. 

[Stub Mandrel]

I would have been impressed by Prime randomly playing me matching mole, except I wanted to hear the CCR track again...

[Spoombung]

There's very little interest in CDs these days even with bands that gig regularly. Having said that, a handful of people may want one... so see if you can order a run of 250 or less - that's what I'd recommend. Order a cardboard format, not plastic. Don't get tempted to order a 1000 - that's pure insanity. They'll gather dust.

[soulstar89]

On 14/05/2025 at 14:42, casapete said:

Just seen this on FB 

 

 

Im a 80’s baby and grew up on cassettes,cd’s and the mini discs. I am a very analogue person and prefer physical items. I loved opening up the cd and booklet to see who played what parts. Finding this info nowadays is so so long. Sometimes you can’t find the info. Baffles and frustrates me. 
 

 Sadly I am the minority and digital copies are the standard in this era. The impact of the smart phone has changed how people consume things. Laptops don’t have a cd drive anymore. Whatever the younger generation deem as normal is what the companies will keep doing. 
 

I walked past the iconic hmw in Oxford street London a week ago and it seemed like a cluttered pound store. It was so surreal to see what it has become. 
 

I say all this coming from someone who chooses to shoot analogue film rather than use digital cameras to create my art work. 
 

I hope physical items become more popular and the trend moves in this direction. Doubt it though.

Edited yesterday at 09:58 by soulstar89

[soulstar89]

3 hours ago, Spoombung said:

There's very little interest in CDs these days even with bands that gig regularly. Having said that, a handful of people may want one... so see if you can order a run of 250 or less - that's what I'd recommend. Order a cardboard format, not plastic. Don't get tempted to order a 1000 - that's pure insanity. They'll gather dust.

 Artist javier Santiago did this with one of his albums. He did a small batch of vinyl copies. I went to see him nearly the beginning of the year in brick lane London and spoke to him about it. He was happy he didn’t order a big batch. 

[TimR]

It's not very environmentally friendly. 

 

Creating trinkets that will mainly gather dust once the initial buzz has passed and the next CD is released. That's mainly what marketing and consumerism depends on.

 

What's the objective? Raise money, or spread the band's name in the hope more people come to gigs in other towns than where your mates live, and you make money from that?

 

 

[Lozz196]

On 12/05/2025 at 19:02, PaulWarning said:

it's a bit late in the day for us to do that, unfortunately, but there's local young band, sounds like the Jam, Sharp Class, who plan go out as a covers band called Sounds of the Suburbs, last I heard anyway

 

Really like this, agree re Jam like sound

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, TimR said:

It's not very environmentally friendly. 

 

Creating trinkets that will mainly gather dust once the initial buzz has passed and the next CD is released. That's mainly what marketing and consumerism depends on.

 

What's the objective? Raise money, or spread the band's name in the hope more people come to gigs in other towns than where your mates live, and you make money from that?

 

But is it any less environmentally friendly that the amount of power required for 5+ competing streaming services (who all have mostly the same catalogue) and the devices they are being streamed to?

 

And the objective is both, and if you are entertaining and good at promotion, IME it works.

[Stub Mandrel]

Some genres still sell enough vinyl to be viable.

[BigRedX]

9 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Some genres still sell enough vinyl to be viable.

 

And for some genres Compact Cassettes are a viable option. When The Terrortones released our mini-album on cassette we sold enough copies to make a small profit even though you could download the tracks for free from Bandcamp.

 

And a band who we played with at Whitby in April - Social Youth Cult - were selling their EP on cassette. Our synth player was going to buy one because he still has a cassette player in his car, but they had packed up their merch and gone before the last band of the night had finished playing, re-enforcing my assertion that in order to maximise your merch sales you need to stay until the last punter has left the venue.

Edited 9 hours ago by BigRedX

[ossyrocks]

On 12/05/2025 at 19:02, PaulWarning said:

it's a bit late in the day for us to do that, unfortunately, but there's local young band, sounds like the Jam, Sharp Class, who plan go out as a covers band called Sounds of the Suburbs, last I heard anyway

 

 

The bass player bought my MIJ PB-62 reissue when they came to play a gig in Morecambe. Nice chap.

[neepheid]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

but they had packed up their merch and gone before the last band of the night had finished playing

 

Rude (the band, not BRX!)

Edited 8 hours ago by neepheid
I confused mcnach

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

Rude (the band, not BRX!)

 

I have to admit I've done it on occasion when it's been a multi-band gig and I have another gig the following day. In fact I'll probably be doing it this weekend where we're on first of 6 bands at 5.15 and we have another gig at 3.00 in the afternoon the next day (that we need to be at the venue at midday for). However we've already let the promoter know that because of this, we won't be staying for all the bands. Also I doubt there will be many people in the audience for the first gig who haven't already bought all the merch they want from us.

[cheddatom]

Sometimes you just have to leave before the end of the gig. I think there's a polite way to do it. Say bye to the band(s) before they go on if possible. Should be common courtesy really. 

[neepheid]

3 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

Sometimes you just have to leave before the end of the gig. I think there's a polite way to do it. Say bye to the band(s) before they go on if possible. Should be common courtesy really. 

 

I know, sometimes humour is hard to get across in text.  What you didn't get was the hands on hips and the put on, faux outrage tone of voice.

[Lozz196]

26 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

Sometimes you just have to leave before the end of the gig. I think there's a polite way to do it. Say bye to the band(s) before they go on if possible. Should be common courtesy really. 

Agree, we (Knock Off) have a gig in a couple of weeks time and the allocated time in the dressing room expires at 6:45, leaving us nowhere to put our gear, so for me that`s when I`m going home.