The CD-R Folk CD

Subject: RE: The CD-R Folk CD
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 09:33 AM

oh and btw..

I've bought [what was stated on an official artist website
as] 'new factory pressed CD's' direct from one of my favourite
established 'vintage' folk artists.
One of the discs arrived scratched to buggery
as if it had spent a few years on loan in a Public CD Library.

..but I let it go without complaint
because its a fairly 'rare' out of print release,
she's getting on a bit in years,
and I considered it a lucky privilege just to spend time
talking to her on the phone.

Subject: RE: Folklore: The CD-R Folk CD
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 09:25 AM

I have hardly ever had a CD-R fail. Whereas I have had a lot of commercially produced CDs that were unplayable out of the box - the only way I could get them to work was by copying them on my Mac using error correction and then burn a CD-R copy. I think the usual cause was failure of the reflective coating (it looked odd, rainbow splotches).

The big difference with commercial products is often the packaging. You won't get many bands producing something like Jordi Savall's recent products - multilingual booklets in hard covers.

Subject: RE: Folklore: The CD-R Folk CD
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 09:22 AM

In cases of such CD-R media failures;

if I was a regularly gigging solo artist,
I'd consider it my responsibility to
include a contact email adress printed in the CD package
offering some kind of practicable online backup
of rar/zip flac files [& md5/sfv etc] for any faulty CD-r's purchased.

I'd find any simple, effective ways to solve problems, despite potential risk
of abuse of trust..

Subject: RE: Folklore: The CD-R Folk CD
From: Howard Jones
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 09:01 AM

I certainly agree that it should be made clear that it's a CD-R. Apart from other considerations, I would want to make a back-up of a CD-R, in case it misbehaved. I'm not sure it's intended to mislead, I suspect there are still a lot of people who don't understand the difference.

There's also a difference between a CD-R burned on someone's PC and one produced by a commercial manufacturer, which should be more robust and more likely to play on a range of equipment.

Price is another matter. Surely you're paying for the music, not the medium? Cassettes (which really were fragile) weren't much different in price from the LP, as I recall.

Subject: Folklore: The CD-R Folk CD
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 07:36 AM

Just had another of these crash on me, which cost me a tenner a few weeks ago... I know we've touched upon this before, but I've no problem at all with Folkies doing their cottage-industry CDs - I do a fair few myself - but let's be honest here, eh? Call it a CD-R - which is no more a CD than a cassette is a long playing record - and sell it at a realistic price - £5 tops.

And the covers! Don't get me started...

And those sharp, flash Folk Singers I must bring 'em in -
With their home produced albums, and they think it no sin,
To sell you a CD when it's a cheap CD-R -
That'll cost you a tenner but won't play in the car!
Honesty's all out of fashion -
These are the rigs of the time, time, me boys!
These are the rigs of the time!