The Changing Roles of Compact Discs

Do you really need to manufacture a bunch of CD’s to get heard?

The answer is “no”.

Technology has changed the way that we listen and buy music. 22 years ago when Phil Collins was the first artist in the industry to only manufacture a CD instead of an album (the award winning “No Jacket Required” CD), industry insiders thought that he was crazy.

The CD ended up being Album of The Year, winning several Grammies in the process and the album era was officially beginning to end.

Let’s look at a brief history of recording and distribution.

The singles concept – This is the concept that is coming back into vogue, only via the Internet. In the 1950’s records were cut as singles and distributed to local radio stations. Singles allow an artist to really give their best on a couple of cuts as well as on alternate cuts or what was called a “B” side. Singles were used primarily for radio station promotion with sales of the single being a secondary issue.

The album of singles – record companies basically started grouping singles together in an album concept in the early 1960’s. Even though the singles were not connected, it was a hodge podge of A and B cuts and with the improvement of the stereo phonograph, record companies started taking advantage of putting a bunch of singles on one recording with the same time format as the original single.

The concept album – The first concept album, overall was the Beatles St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. It had a common theme, link tracks and orchestrations that were highly dynamic and were driven especially for album sales. At this time, groups started experimenting with extended versions of singles (compositions that were more that 3:57 seconds long). Other artists that were groundbreakers in the album concept were the Beach Boys and Isaac Hayes. This format was to last until the mid 1980’s.

The Compact Disc – Primarily, the CD was manufactured to provide a clearer sound that wax and became the main selling instrument, replacing the album format by 1990. The CD’s allow the artist to put more music on the CD (up to 80 minutes worth of music as opposed to the album format which was at max 45 minutes for both sides).

Digital Downloads – The current trend is moving towards digital downloads from a selection of artist songs. The CD’s role has changed totally from a sales tool to a promotions tool, especially for indie artist. Establish artists are still manufacturing CD’s because they have a track record and some fans would rather fight than switch but they are also embracing digital technology.

As an indie artist, if you are going to manufacture CD’s, you are better off selling them at your concerts and making downloads available through your internet web-site. You can manufacture the single version of songs on a sampler that will guide people to your web-site to download music.

The industry hasn’t found a way to use these hybrid forms of distribution. CD manufacturers are against digital downloads saying that fans prefer their music on CD. It’s funny, industry insiders said the same thing 22 years ago about the album format.

As an indie artist, you can have the best of both worlds. CD’s in this age will be used more for marketing and promotions than sales