Duplication vs Replication

[MOF]

I’ve had cdr versions in my cars for well over ten years in all sorts of weather, only one developed some clicks on the last track and that hasn’t got worse over the years.

[FrankF]

Compared to a vinyl record where a bit of rock glued to a telegraph pole is dragged along a ditch by an old tractor...

Ha! Nice one, centurion!

Or, occasionally, an old tractor with a copper kettle or two balanced on the seat.

[ConcertinaChap]

If you go the duplication route make sure the company providing the service can handle CD Text. This happened to me once with a run of 100 CDs which, when I got them, were missing all the text (ISRC codes and the like) I'd lovingly set up. The company claimed their duplication software didn't handle CD text and why did I want it anyway? Had to have a hell of a row there.

CC

[Mike Stranks]

As is often the case, a topic gets 'legs' and takes off...

Of course, the OP can do what he wants to do; he knows his audience and what they want to buy...

But I recall that on previous occasions forumites have been quick to observe that CDs - however produced - are yesterday's technology, that (with some exceptions - eg Hugh) they're not buying them, and observing that car-makers abandoned the technology several years ago.

So... if you still want to run with this...

* Do you still buy CDs?
* Do you play CDs in the car?
* If you make music, do you still produce CDs? How many do you sell? Do you make your music available via other platforms? Ratio of download:CD sales?
* If you gig, do you have a merch table that includes CDs? Do they sell?
* If you're a facilitator - eg James P - are you still asked to provide CDs? Frequently? Occasionally?

Personally, I've not bought a CD for several years now; I have no means of playing them in the car and no-one asks me if I can produce a CD for them - it's all 'files for download'. (I'm waiting to hear from a charity about their CD-library of talks etc they hold. They asked for my advice/assistance. They're keen to transfer the most-requested stuff to MP3 and work out a selling mechanism... The aim is to close the library as it's moribund... Similarly, the charity for whom I was audio-producer decided 8 years ago to stop producing audio material on CD and make it available exclusively via web-based downloads/players.)

I'm genuinely interested in what the music-buying public is buying in terms of product...

[Folderol]

Most of the bands at the New Forest Folk Festival have CDs on sale, and the same is true of Folk in the Barn (Kingston, Kent). I've bought a few over the years.

[tea for two]

I know there's high quality CD players still being manufactured purchased.
I know lots of people really like having thousands of CD collection.

CD is still a thing.

Personally I'm done with CDs from approximately 2005.
I have four 4CD albums currently.

I'd far rather have wavs and mp3 with artwork.
Easily transfer to phone and computer and USB mp3 player boom boxes.

Reading online music on USB sticks can sell as hotcakes.

I have considered putting all my completed albums on one USB
say SanDisk 16GB which is £5.

With some of my personal art listeners can have as phone homescreen desktop homescreen print for posters.
My thoughts speaking about each album each track,
how each track was composed, how long it took what I felt about each track.
Also a digital reproduction of my handwritten note to the listener.
To me this gives a lot more to the listener buyer.
It's as close as I can get to Vinyl with its art and sleeve notes.
It's also revelatory about the musician makes it personal for the listener buyer.

For all this including multiple hours of music £15 per USB seems alright to me.

[Wonks]

I still pretty much only buy CDs. Still the best way of supporting the artist(s) IMO. But I’ll play MP3s of them in the car and since about a year ago they go into storage in the loft after being FLACed for playing in the house on my Brennan B2.

[ConcertinaChap]

* Do you still buy CDs?

Yes

* Do you play CDs in the car?

Mostly when I buy them I transfer the contents to a USB stick and play that in the car, but if I've bought it at a gig or festival then it goes in the CD player on the drive home.

* If you make music, do you still produce CDs? How many do you sell? Do you make your music available via other platforms? Ratio of download:CD sales?

We do make CDs, duplicating them ourselves because sales are not big enough to justify anything else. Nevertheless they are worth doing because the folk scene in this country is still more orientated to CDs than to anything else, maybe because many of us are getting on a bit and CD is the last format they really feel comfortable with.

* If you gig, do you have a merch table that includes CDs? Do they sell?

N/A. Merch tables are a very rare sight at folk clubs. You just stand at the front and wave your CD around and beg people to buy it. Sometimes that works ...

* If you're a facilitator - eg James P - are you still asked to provide CDs? Frequently? Occasionally?

I usually do provide CDs, but recently I've had my first people (a duo) who didn't want a CD, just files ready for online.

CC

[Forum Admin]

I'm genuinely interested in what the music-buying public is buying in terms of product...

Hi Mike, me too, so I will create a Forum Poll to gather some feedback.

The POLL is available here - go vote please:

cheers,
Ian

[Kwackman]

Hi Mike, me too, so I will create a Forum Poll to gather some feedback.

The POLL is available here - go vote please:

cheers,
Ian

Maybe finger trouble at my end, but I get a "The requested topic does not exist" message?

[Forum Admin]

Hi Mike, me too, so I will create a Forum Poll to gather some feedback.

The POLL is available here - go vote please:

cheers,
Ian

Maybe finger trouble at my end, but I get a "The requested topic does not exist" message?

I deleted the first Poll after Wonks pointed out it was skewing results as nobody who has no CDs could vote... Doh!

Yes and No options now been added. Please vote again.

cheers,
Ian G.

[Kwackman]

I deleted the first Poll after Wonks pointed out it was skewing results as nobody who has no CDs could vote... Doh!
Yes and No options now been added. Please vote again.

Thanks

[Drew Stephenson]

* Do you still buy CDs?

Sometimes, my first port of call is Bandcamp but if they're not there then a CD is the next option.

* Do you play CDs in the car?

Frequently, but I also break the law and rip things to a USB or phone as soon as I get the CD.

* If you make music, do you still produce CDs? How many do you sell? Do you make your music available via other platforms? Ratio of download:CD sales?

Nope, stopped making CDs a few years ago. I have a garage full of them and have never recouped the cost of production.

* If you gig, do you have a merch table that includes CDs? Do they sell?

N/A.

* If you're a facilitator - eg James P - are you still asked to provide CDs? Frequently? Occasionally?

N/A.

[James Perrett]

* If you're a facilitator - eg James P - are you still asked to provide CDs? Frequently? Occasionally?

I don't actually create many physical CD's these days but probably around 40% of the projects that I master have a CD version produced.

I have two artist customers who regularly get me to burn CDs of their work. Both are slightly older than I am (but only slightly).

The main label that I master for is aimed at collectors so physical products are important to them. Currently they are producing more vinyl than CDs thanks to a relatively successful run of picture disc singles but most of their album projects are released on both vinyl and CD as well as being available digitally.

I think most of the transfers that I do for Cherry Red also end up on CD - again these tend to be box sets for collectors so the physical product is important. The original albums are often re-issued on vinyl but all the extra versions go onto CD.

[giddyap]

If I may steer back to original question, I'd ask Wonks and Blinddrew - It sounds like you duplicated your own cd's. Did you ever have issues with those cd's being unable to play on certain cd players?

Again, my uneducated hypothesis is that given technological improvements burning cd's (duplication) is no worse than having them replicated.

[Wonks]

I’ve got some CDs that I’ve burned that haven’t played on a particular CD player. My previous CD player was a fairly high-end (at the time) Sony one that I had for many years, but it got temperamental about what CDs it played as it aged. It did originally play all the CDs I burned myself

Sometimes it needed 30 minutes to warm up before it would play certain CDs, even brand-new commercial ones. And then it stopped playing quite a lot of CDs at all, so it had to be replaced. The replacement played my burnt CDs OK.

But that’t recently been replaced by a Brennan CD ripper/FLAC storage & player, and there were quire a few of my burnt CDs it wouldn't read. It may be that the burnt CDs have deteriorated since I last played them, as they are probably all over 10 years old, some maybe 15.

[MarkOne]

-Do you still buy CDs?
Yes, occasionally. Particularly for smaller indie prog bands at their gigs

-Do you play CDs in the car?
No, not any more, not since I had a CarPlay gadget installed, now Siri plays what I ask her to do*

-If you make music, do you still produce CDs? How many do you sell? Do you make your music available via other platforms? Ratio of download:CD sales?
Not any more. My first album was a full on CD release, with a beautiful DigiPak gatefold sleeve and an 8 page booklet with lyrics and credits. I reckon I just about recouped the cost of production (But not the cost of the professional mastering by a big(ish) name producer. I still have about 300 in unopened cartons in storage. I now only do streaming only releases**

-If you gig, do you have a merch table that includes CDs? Do they sell?
The pandemic put paid to my band project (as did the lead guitarist and bassist moving out of the area) But I probably wouldn't think about physical product any more

-If you're a facilitator - eg James P - are you still asked to provide CDs? Frequently? Occasionally?
N/A

* Also my current in-car CD (Yes it still has a CD slot - It's a 10 year old car) isn't a real CD player it's a CD ROM reader that sucks in the data from the CD and streams it from a memory buffer, and the CD firmware doesn't do gapless playback which really annoys me particularly as many artists I like merge tracks together -Ever listened to DSOTM or Wish You Were Here with gaps between the tracks. It's infuriating!

** Unless some kind label owner would like to stump up for a gorgeous gatefold double LP release on 180g vinyl

[ManFromGlass]

I forgot about that car feature that rips a cd into it’s memory. Then when you have engine work that requires disconnecting the battery I assume they are gone from memory. I also have a USB connection that reads most of the files I have on the stick in it. Sometimes I get the File Unplayable message and it moves on to the next.
As for pressing and selling - our first CD was professionally pressed and took 10 years to sell out the original 1000. The second and third were 1000 each and it hasn’t been 10 years but we have about a third left of each. I give them away. I donate them to other arts companies fund raisers. Buy the CD for $10 and get into the concert for free and 2 free CDs with admission were some of the tactics we used. I sell them online for free if the buyer covers shipping and postage. As the music is very niche and somewhat alien to western listeners ears I sometimes say they are a great Xmas present for someone you don’t like! Better to get them out there than collecting dust on a shelf. During the early plague a CD shop in Japan and one in the USA wanted 10 at a time. This worked for awhile until the post people lost an order and I was out the cost of shipping to Japan. I’m not sure what to do once some goof posts the CD’s on youtube which will happen.

[Drew Stephenson]

If I may steer back to original question, I'd ask Wonks and Blinddrew - It sounds like you duplicated your own cd's. Did you ever have issues with those cd's being unable to play on certain cd players?

Again, my uneducated hypothesis is that given technological improvements burning cd's (duplication) is no worse than having them replicated.

I got mine done at a place in Bradford but I don't know if they were duplicated or replicated I'm afraid. Never had any complaints about playability though..

[ManFromGlass]

My car has rejected CDs. My ancient tower has rejected CDs. I can’t say 100% that they were only the replicated ones, and it was a rare occurence.