caix wrote:
I still say the death of the CD will come when the PR business figures out how to send/receive albums via the interwebs or at least gets used to the idea of mp3 only albums being mailed as CDRs.

charliedon'tsurf wrote:

caix wrote:
I still say the death of the CD will come when the PR business figures out how to send/receive albums via the interwebs or at least gets used to the idea of mp3 only albums being mailed as CDRs.

That is beginning to happen already. The music director at the community station I DJ said in 5 years no record labels will be sending physical promos. Many radio promos people are already pushing stations toward on-line downloads for delivering promotional music. The vast majority still send a CD with a one sheet to radio, but it is tilting toward digital delivery.

I hate to see music become all one and zeroey, but at the same time it would be a godsend for promotional budgets for little labels. To do a good national mailing to radio and press is way over $1,000 for postage and bubblepacks and that does not even count the CDs you giveaway and the time spent stuffing envelopes. Clicking a send button would be much cheaper.

caix wrote:

charliedon'tsurf wrote:

caix wrote:
I still say the death of the CD will come when the PR business figures out how to send/receive albums via the interwebs or at least gets used to the idea of mp3 only albums being mailed as CDRs.

That is beginning to happen already. The music director at the community station I DJ said in 5 years no record labels will be sending physical promos. Many radio promos people are already pushing stations toward on-line downloads for delivering promotional music. The vast majority still send a CD with a one sheet to radio, but it is tilting toward digital delivery.

I hate to see music become all one and zeroey, but at the same time it would be a godsend for promotional budgets for little labels. To do a good national mailing to radio and press is way over $1,000 for postage and bubblepacks and that does not even count the CDs you giveaway and the time spent stuffing envelopes. Clicking a send button would be much cheaper.

how do they receive digital kits, though? an album or even a few songs is enough to bloat an inbox to the point uselessness.

in the printing industry, they're set up to send and receive large files through their websites. do these types of places have these depots to drop off digital kits with? or are we simply relying on something like sonicbids, which hosts files and such? (sonicbids isn't really set up well for hosting press kits for albums, since you can't really put a whole album in your kit and the kit isn't designed to stick with one particular album - though it's possible to set up an epk geared towards an album).

Del75 wrote:That interview with Bob Weston posted elsewhere on EA was certainly an eye opener in regards to it being fairly common practice amongst other mastering engineers to use the 16 bit cd pre master to cut the vinyl.

charliedon'tsurf wrote:I will try to follow up and post what I find out.

dipshit jigaboo wrote:

ironyengine wrote:The death of CDs will come when someone comes up with a better way for me to listen to music in my car. Until then I'll keep them alive my goddamned self, if I must.

You can buy a car stereos that have USB ports in them. That way you can hook up an Ipod, mp3 player, or just use a usb thumb drive to store music. I got a new car stereo with that option for 70 bucks new, although "good" brands are generally twice as much. I keep all my car music on a little 2-gig thumb drive. No more scratched CD's. No more CD binders. No more skipping if I hit a bump too hard. No more fumbling around with CD's if I'm trying to find something to listen to. Just a little thumb drive I can easily stick in my pocket. If I'm sick of an album, I just hit a button until I find a new one. I'm in my car most of the day as part of my job and have not missed CDs at all.

BadComrade wrote:Used CD sales are actually on the rise. The people responsible for that are mainly people in their 40s and 50s. Those people don't want to sit at a computer and search for some fucking album they want, then burn it to a CD-r that's only gonna last a handful of years. They wanna go out and buy something that they can hang on to forever.

BadComrade wrote:Really? I have CDs that are 21/22 years old. They all work. I've never had a CD go "bad", and I own a couple thousand of them. I'd love to hear about your experiences. Are you talking about scratches? Take care of your CDs and don't scratch them. Hell, even if you DO scratch a CD, 95% of the time, you can repair it. Try repair a scratched record... Oh wait, you can't.

Many CD-Rs won't last "forever", because the dye layer is organic, and will eventually break down. The aluminum on a manufactured CD won't break down if you take care of the CD. Older "silver top" CDs are very susceptible to problems, if mishandled. The oil from your fingers will eat through the thin coat of lacquer on top of the aluminum, and once that layer is gone, the aluminum will start to flake off. Once the aluminum is gone, there's nothing there for the laser to reflect off of. That's why you're supposed to hold CDs by the edge. That's not really a problem with CDs that have heavy silk screens on top, which most do these days...