Posted on - March 26, 2008 [at] 5:23 pm by Brad
Tagged in - business, cds, music
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I’m nearly all out of CDs of I Don’t Know What I’m Doing and have a new album slouching slowly towards release. Thinking about dropping a few grand on plastic discs while I myself have downsized my once large CD collection to about 15 “keepers” is a tough thing to reconcile. It feels stupid.
I think I’m stuck with pressing CDs up for the near future. But what to replace them with?
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19 Comments on this post
Avuton Olrich on CD changes
March 26, 2008 at 5:58 pm
USB Disks?
Eric on CD changes
March 26, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Vinyl.
Darg on CD changes
March 26, 2008 at 7:22 pm
You could only keep the discs and the inserts of the CD’s you own. That way you can keep your music, and not spend a large sum of money on cases.
Scott Reynen on CD changes
March 26, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I suggest you offer both USB drives and CDs.
Eric on CD changes
March 26, 2008 at 10:56 pm
outsourced, on demand cd production?
tunecore has CD 1000 for $1000 right now.
Dano on CD changes
March 27, 2008 at 3:58 am
SD Cards :P
scottandrew on CD changes
March 28, 2008 at 11:21 am
MP3 + FLAC bundles + short run of CDs. I think that’s how I’m going to do all of my future releases from now on, until the market for CDs dwindle to nothing.
Short runs are more expensive per unit (and technically they’re CD-Rs, but it’s getting hard to tell these days), but if you just want to test the demand, it might be wiser NOT to drop a few grand on a full run of 1000. Use that money to buy better equipment and make more music :)
Vinyl might be worth dabbling in. USB, meh.
Universal Indie Records on CD changes
March 28, 2008 at 8:06 pm
With the price of multi-duplicators and printers coming down… spending 3k on one might be a better investment. Now you have the means to manufacture yourself. The can be placed on auto so you don’t have to stand there watching them. Hell, the bootleggers use em.. why not someone with a legitimate company.
Discmakers offers a few good ones.. though I’m sure you can find one a lot cheaper.
Ken on CD changes
March 29, 2008 at 1:55 pm
MP3s are fine as a delivery medium, but how do you maintain the sequencing of tracks? It doesn’t matter for every album, but for those that do have specific sequencing MP3s and their ilk are problematic.
Ash on CD changes
March 30, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Hey, I’m one of those junkies that collects CDs, and I for one would be distraught if you dropped your pressed ovverings. I’d still buy your merch, but a pressed disc is forever(ish) whereas CD-Rs tend to drop out of my collection.
Being in Australia, I really don’t have the ‘net connection to download FLAC from artists as much as I’d like to, but that’s the next best option I think.
After that we’re starting to get into lossy media, and that’s where the collection value really starts to slip away. :-(
RJ on CD changes
March 31, 2008 at 1:41 am
Some people still like to purchase the physical CD. There are those that want something to hold in their hand – something tangible. There are even those that might have downloaded for free and at that point it only makes sense to get something physical they can keep.
Not to mention, when you release your second CD, new fans might want both CD’s (old and new) in which case you could offer a deal of some sort (reduced shipping or something).
RJ on CD changes
March 31, 2008 at 1:44 am
PS. I realize you were looking for replacement ideas – just adding some of my thoughts regarding selling disks. :)
PPS. To those who are talking about USB options, are there any cost-effective ways to do that or any real-world examples of artists who do this? I’m just interested.
Brad on CD changes
March 31, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Seems like USB’s more of a stunty/gimmick thing than an actual viable delivery method. But I dunno. (Not that I have anything against stunts and gimmicks.)
Interesting feedback, I’m committed to doing CDs this round but it’ll be short-run and I’ll eat the extra unit cost to avoid winding up with a basement full of dead media.
orijimi on CD changes
April 1, 2008 at 12:39 am
If it’s gonna be short run, could you put out a preorder option so I don’t miss out on it? Give people a time period to preorder and you can make the appropriate number of CDs for the early adopters, and then some for the people who buy it afterwards. I don’t wanna check back a week or two after the release and find there aren’t any left. I have no idea how fast (or slow) these things sell.
Scott Gentzen on CD changes
April 1, 2008 at 12:35 pm
A $300 signed edition with a book, Blu-Ray and 180-gram vinyl?
orijimi on CD changes
April 6, 2008 at 12:03 am
Those would sell out in a day. Brad is as popular as Trent Reznor. /sarcasm
Scott Gentzen on CD changes
April 8, 2008 at 6:58 pm
You never know what people will get into. Too bad it costs a lot to have something like that done. I think it would be funny to have something like that just in case someone out there is goofy enough to buy it.
If I had that kind of disposable income, I’d consider it. I’m sure Brad would appreciate $300 more than Trent would.
There’s an artist out there that goes by the name “i am jen” (iamjen.com) that’s doing something interesting this year. You pick the track list and give your mix a name and she burns the mix to CD and creates custom artwork for it. Costs more than buying the MP3’s but it’s a real neat personal touch.
brett on CD changes
April 17, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I released a digital only EP at the beginning of the year and no one has even asked for a CD copy (that could be because no one wants it, but whatever lol). I consider myself a music collector, and haven’t bought a physical CD in the last 4 years unless it was signed by the artist or had some sort unreleased track on it. I bought your CD and Scott Andrew’s latest off the net and could care less if I have the physical CD to go with it.
kim on CD changes
April 18, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I really want a copy of the CD I Dont Know What Im Doing but i cant pay using the internet. is it possible to send a check?