This is something I am thinking about hard, as I get ready to go into the studio for my next album. Short term (i.e. for the next 2-3 years), I think that the CD market will be severely eroded, but will not disappear altogether in this timeframe. So I will certainly have to produce a number of CDs for those who will want to buy this format, but I will only be distributing those personally at gigs, festivals and through my website's PayPal facilities. Reviewers and radio stations will also require CDs in the short term.

In any case, the pricing on the CDs will have to change - when Joe Cocker's new album sells at supermarkets for £8.99, it is stupid for us lesser mortals to be charging the same or higher. Some artists have already knocked down their prices, and I am about to do the same.

I will investigate the cost of producing little flash memory fobs, on which to store the music and Adobe versions of the artwork and sleeve notes. If viable, I might have a small batch manufactured, to see how they go.

But for now, I think my emphasis for any third party distribution (i.e. not directly from me) will have to be the kind of service offered by CDBaby, where they distribute to digital services like iTunes etc on my behalf. I am already using that for the last two albums, and it is proving very useful indeed. As for artwork/sleeve notes for buyers of the digitalised/iTunes versions, I am thinking of putting those up on my website for viewing/downloading free.