Tech: Alternative to CD's

Subject: Tech: Alternative to CD's
From: RTim
Date: 11 Dec 19 - 07:42 PM

Hi All - I have the situation of having sold all copies of one of my CD's - that was produced in the UK by a Record Company that is no longer in existence and been wound up....therefore I cannot get any more copies.
I own the copyright to the music etc (the are all Traditional songs), but do very few gigs a year - but still want to be able to sell copies of my music.

Someone I know has recently started selling her music on an USB Thumbdrive....

Does anyone else have experience of this as either buyer or seller...ie. does it work with NO problems.

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Tech: Alternative to CD's
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Dec 19 - 08:25 PM

They don't last as well as CDs. But if the customers are putting the stuff onto their own internal storage media that may not matter.

Subject: RE: Tech: Alternative to CD's
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Dec 19 - 11:36 PM

Last year, I went to a concert by a California Celtic group named Golden Bough. They had "cassettes" for sale for $45 - actually a flash drive hinged inside a very authentic-looking cassette case. The cassettes had nine albums on the drive, so it was a nice bargain. I loaded the albums onto my computer's hard drive, and never used the "cassette" again.
But it was a fun gimmick.
I have two of your albums, and both are excellent.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Alternative to CD's
From: GUEST,bernie&red
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 01:34 AM

I've been selling usb drives of our CD's, (as well as the CD's) for the past 4 years. To start with,I had them duplicated professionally & they printed our logo on the drive as well.They cost about $5.00 each & contained 10 CD's.
They have been selling steadily at gigs. I have since started duplicating them myself & buying 2 GB drives from Amazon. I had a CD sized sleeve printed & bought polythene bags with a zip closure, & put the drives in the bag, secured to the printed matter with blue tack.
So .... it looks professional.
All late model vehicles have a USB connector, but few if any have a CD player any longer, so that is a also a good sales pitch.

Subject: RE: Tech: Alternative to CD's
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 02:59 AM

One alternative is putting them on-line. But the golden rule is if they have the money and are keen, take the money while they are keen. Which means exchange of some physical item is the best way.

I print directly onto CDs and burn them myself. 0.4 GBP a pop. Plus the CD/DVD burner. But that is mainly because I give them to the people I interview/record with their recordings. And the CD is the more durable medium for printed stuff. The track list goes on paper and I buy CD sleeves with windows - red of course!. Strictly non-commercial, the CD is a thankyou. And given most of those people are oldeish CDs are understood, computers etc are less so.
But CD-R have about the same life as memory sticks. MTBF is maybe 5 years (both), after that you can't guarantee anything.
all 41 hours is on - Stroud Voices, audio history archive

Subject: RE: Tech: Alternative to CD's
From: matt milton
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 03:42 AM

To be honest, I would never even consider buying a USB drive at a gig. Though I suppose maybe if you packaged it nicely - on a card with some interesting artwork?

I think I'd be more likely to buy a CDR: if you are only playing a handful of gigs here and there then it's not too much effort to just burn some CDs yourself, stick labels on them and print off some covers.

But you should DEFiNITELY set yourself up with a Bandcamp page. That's how I discover, listen to and purchase most of my music. It's silly not to.

Here's an example - one among hundreds I could link to - of an exemplary bandcamp page:
Adam Kiesling's old-time music bandcamp page

Subject: RE: Tech: Alternative to CD's
From: DaveRo
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 03:51 AM

Would I plug a USB stick that I'd just bought at a gig into my car...? I doubt.

Subject: RE: Tech: Alternative to CD's
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 03:35 PM

Quite!
Think of all the vectors for introducing malware into modern "auto update" fly-by-wire modern cars. There have been reports of hacking, and can you trust car makers to install anti-virus?
The bets are off until the car designs mature, the hard way! Bang.