Over a year ago, I wrote a blog extolling the virtues of CDs and how awesome they are. The problem is that I don't mess with CDs much any more. I take them. I rip them. I file them. That's the last I see of the physical album.
Yet when I go to a show and find a band I love, I want their music. I want a physical product. Something tangible that speaks to me.
Most of the time, when I want to buy music, I go to Amazon. If I need it NOW, I buy it on iTunes and it's immediately on my phone.
My buying habits aren't unique. More and more fans are buying digital music.
What physical product can replace the CD that will offer that same tactile pleasure while meeting the demands of our digital buying need?
I've seen lots of options. One of the cool ones is the USB bracelet. However, the cost is rather high and it seems silly with a single album. It seems smarter to use for large album collections, like I have… But something just doesn't quite sit right with me.
I've thought about assigning different albums to different specific products like Tshirts. But shirts are expensive too. Sizes are difficult to determine and bulky to travel with.
A few days ago, I came across an interesting option and idea that I'd love your thoughts about–Booklets.
There are still a ton of people who lament the loss of the album jacket. Albums used to have more than credits in them. Sometimes you'd find song lyrics. There's room to tell a story if you want it. The Phantom of the Opera album had the libretto.
Personally, I was never into the album jackets. It was never my favorite thing. I just loved the music, but what about you…?
What if you had a booklet that told a story? Or some lyrics? Facts about the album?
Does that sound cool to you?
I have numerous albums that continue to sell but are not selling well enough for mass production. It's time to move them to a new media. I also have new albums planned for 2014.
Should they be released on CD? Is 2014 the year of the demise of the CD? Or will to go on?
Right now, I like the idea of releasing a physical product with the release of a new album. But I'm not sure a CD is the way to go.
What are your thoughts?
Are you still buying CDs?
Would you buy a booklet with a digital download?
[poll id=”17″]
I answered that I buy and listen to digital music in the poll because that’s true, but it was mostly because of a membership in emusic which forced me to use or lose credits each month. Otherwise… I don’t really buy a lot of music except for when I’m seeing a group in person and pick up a CD or two, such as your own or Pandorica Celtic. (Which I’ve undoubtedly just misspelled.)
I like physical CDs as a token of purchased music, and given my druthers, I would buy it that way. But there’s fewer places to buy it these days.
I buy and download digital music primarily. About the only time i buy CDs is at a show, where they are autographed. I then add the files to my computer abd the signed CD goes into my “DO NOT TOUCH box.
I think the booklet idea is great. Erica Mulkey – Unwoman – does this. I like having the lytics readily available.
I usually buy CD’s at concerts or renaissance faires. I add them to my iTunes library to listen to. If I buy digital I usually burn a copy to CD for backup. I have lost some songs when I had problems with the computer. I like the idea of having lyrics included with the album.
My favorite option nowadays is Amazon’s “AutoRip.” These are CDs that, when you buy them, you also get an MP3 version that you can immediately listen to. This way, I get a physical copy with the liner notes and full quality (such as it is), plus I get the advantages of instant gratification with digital.
Other than that, it depends on the music. For classical music, I definitely still prefer the full quality of a CD; for more popular music forms, I tend to just shrug my shoulders and go digital download.
I buy cd’s all the time. It’s more than just the music. I love the album art and like reading the inserts with the musician’s dedications. I love it when the words to the songs are included too. I have a cd by the band Fozzy, and they wrote a short history about each song. That was cool. When I buy a cd, it’s the whole package, music and written content. That’s why buying digital just doesn’t do it for me.
All of the above. I haven’t settled on a particular mp3 player or cloud service, plus I have a whole household sharing the music. Sometimes it’s easier to just grab the CD and go (or pull vinyl off the shelf and put it on the record player). But mainly the CDs sit in a drawer until I want to research the source of a song, which often is not documented anywhere except in the literature included with the CD. I think the happy meduim is music downloads plus a booklet (which I’d pay extra for if it had a lot of information).
I mostly stream, but I get a lot of game soundtracks digitally when I buy a Humble Bundle. I don’t buy CDs but will sometimes buy songs digitally on Amazon of Google Music. I also am at this moment listening to an album I backed on Kickstarter, for the digital version. (Fantasize by Kye Kye, if you wanted to know)
I listen to music all 4 ways, so I had a hard time deciding which way to vote. You really need a 5th option — all of the above.
I buy CDs because I like the physical CDs and the covers. I rip the CDs for my USB stick which I plug into my Chevy Volt to listen to the music in my car. I then put my CD into my multi-disc player for my stereo at home. I have only bought digital music a couple of times since it was only available in digital form. I don’t mind paying a little extra for the CDs.
I prefer to have the CD as I have vehicles that do not have aux inputs. So without a CD, I cannot listen to the music on driving trips, like to renaissance festival. I do rip the music to my computer so that I can listen to it throughout the house, but I do not want to purchase music that is only available digitally.