Ron - apologies for the delay in responding to your question - a very busy time right now!

To answer your question - the Waifs' CDs show a distinct change of
shade on the "burned" side, which as far as I am aware is the clearest sign that the CD is a CDR. I've shown the CDs to a number of people and they all agree that they are CDRs.

The Waifs are not signed to a label (the CD clearly states this is an "independant release") but is distributed by Hot Records/Didgeridoo records who appear to be an established company (their biggest name is Eva Cassidy). I think I'll contact them - not
to complain but because I am intrigued ... and not a little concerned that an act like The Waifs appear to have such low sales.

In partnership with Julie Ellison I have just set up a new label and we are about to send our first release to mastering - and then to the pressing plant. I agree with the earlier comments about actual costs, if you can be sure of selling a reasonable number then pressing makes a great deal of sense, and of course it is more professional.

However, I have been wondering about the acceptibility of CDRs for a while and, ironically, I was thinking about posting this question on Mudcat anyway when the Waifs CDs arrived and prompted my post.

In terms of our own label (Acoustyistics Ltd) I know that Julie will easily sell enough to justify pressing - but there will be some artists who we would be interested in signing for artistic reasons but for whom it would be difficult to make a financial case due to likely low sales. There is one project at the moment under consideration (some inventive reworkings of trad American songs) which will never tour or gig but will produce material worthy of recording. I believe this material should be made available for artistic reasons but it has to be done so in a financially responsible manner.

In these cases I would be happy to put the effort into recording and
production (which we are mostly doing in-house) but would feel a little uneasy comitting the label to a pressing of 1000 or more CDs.   As an embryonic label this would take funds away from the job of promoting our main releases.

I was therefore thinking of releasing these "special projects" on CDR - following VRDPKR's system of "burning as sold" - and probably on a separate imprint (provisionally called "The Acoustyistics Red Label").   It would be made clear to the consumer that these were CDRs - and why they were not released on the main imprint.

The arguments given here have been illuminating (Mudcat proving to be a stunningly effective resource once again), and I think you have all convinced me that, as long as the status of the product is made clear to people before they buy, then releasing on CDR is acceptable.

All the best
John Robinson
http://www.JulieEllison.co.uk