I’m 40, and when I was a teenager, EVERY band had CDs. And I know a lot of music has shifted to digital. So much so that I heard Best buy stopped selling CDs. Presumably because nobody buys them.
So I wonder what musicians sell besides t-shirts and posters at concerts. Do the kids have ANY CDs? Do they buy mp3’s? Do they just use pandora and spotify? Do they even own their own music?
I’ve given up on trying to understand the lingo. Other generations lingo sounds stupid to me, but still understandable based on context.
I have NO idea what a skibifibi toilet is…sounds like a toilet after some taco bell and untalented jazz, but maybe I can try to understand their thought process on media consumption.
Sometimes I buy CDs and rip to flac so that really obscure shit doesn’t get lost forever.
Upvoted. Because my favorite music comes from bands that I’ve been in tiny concert venues, where I’m 1 of 13 people in the crowd.
I’ll admit that even though she’s not my style, Taylor Swift has some…as the kids would say…bangers.
But my favorite music is with bands that I 100% can say you’ve never heard of, and is so obscure I doubt you could even find it.
But people like you are helping make obscure music easier to find. Awesome!
I had to fix my ratio on redacted. I found I had so many CDs of random local bands that were handed out at shows that weren’t online. It was weird to basically be the only person that had some music online.
I did the same thing at the same place a few years ago!
It’s crazy, because I know a lot of those bands aren’t together anymore. They never made it and are effectively forgotten to the internet. I feel like a custodian of music history. If I didn’t put them online, they’d have disappeared entirely.
I’ve definitely had that feeling before. I was really into Chinese rock bands and bought a bunch of CDs. I’ve been slowly uploading them. I mean China is a big country with lots of people, so it’s not like these bands are completely unknown, but when I used to go to concerts in China some of the groups that I thought rocked the hardest didn’t tend to pull big crowds. And when you look on Chinese Internet for this stuff, you usually find crappy MP3s, not rips following proper procedures.
I still think about the band where I showed up late because the train to Beijing was delayed and then the taxi driver couldn’t find the venue address, so I just barely caught their last song. Then afterwards I was hanging out chatting with people and they were like, since you only got to hear one song you deserve to meet the singer. And they were friends with the singer so they called her to come out. It seemed like she was blown away that any foreign fans at all are into her music, and when she found out I didn’t yet have a place to stay for the night and was planning to find a last minute hostel or hotel she said “no, you’re not doing that, you’re staying with my friends who have a spare room”.
Whenever I rip & upload Chinese rock, I think about those people who were so friendly and gracious towards me. Like who tf invites some random stranger at a rock concert over like that. And none of those bands, even the ones that made it “big” really got the attention that I thought they deserved. They were pouring their heart and soul into their music.
I’ve gotten a free CD at a concert recently. I don’t have anything to play it on.
I dug out my Wii for it once… Which probably proves im not a young person anymore
Could the Wii even play audio cd’s???
It had the capability (as with DVDs), so as long as you’ve got a modded Wii and the right homebrew software, yes!
Man, I started answering you and realized I am also 40 and…yeah.
But, were I to go to a show, a CD? Nah. But a sticker or socks or something, certainly.
No, definitely not. I buy music off of bandcamp occasionally, to support the artist and get the cool swag that comes with the album, but I don’t physically have a way to play cds.
I don’t intend wasting space with a CD player
What’s a CD?
Shiny disc with hole in the middle. Look through the hole and you can CDs nuts.
angry upvote
I dont know why but this post feels like a teenager trying to sound like a boomer on the internet. (boomers arent 40 anymore btw)
I’m 38 and man, you sound like you’re 75 🤣
I’m assuming you haven’t been to a concert in a few decades? I went to see Pantera and Lamb of God about 6 months ago and the only merch being sold was overpriced t-shirts, like $45-50 USD.
That’s probably just because those are old acts that have the benefit of charging fuck you prices for a shirt. The last time I saw disturbed, their shirts were priced like that.
Other I saw alestorm and gloryhammer last year and the shirts were like 35, CDs were 20, and I got a rubber duck captain thing for like 15. mc chris had similar prices, but he also had a full discog flashdrive for like 100, and as much as I’d love to support mc on that, I have all but like 2-3 albums so it’s just not worth it to me.
I’m 22 and 240 months… And I wonder why not small USB sticks with m4a files on them… Maybe some behind the scenes footage and a digital poster or message/manifesto?
A) it’s a horrible idea from a security standpoint
B) all the anti-piracy groups would probably have a heart attack and attempt to shut it down in any way possible
C) it’s a lot more expensive for the band to pay for this type of distribution compared to CDs
D) it will most likely end up as e-waste
For point c, it’s actually cheaper depending on how they do it. One of my favorite artists, mc chris, has done USB discog sales for over a decade. He charges like 100 for it last I saw, but it’s also a custom USB along with having like 10-20 albums and Eps.
It would be much more expensive to press, bundle and package/ship that many CDs in comparison to a single USB drive. And since it’s also merch, point 4 is unlikely. He’s never cared about his music being pirated (and even has lyrics about his music being ‘forever free for the poor kids’, so B isn’t an issue either.
Option a is basically do you trust the artist, which one would hope they’re trustworthy, but they could also Sony you if they weren’t…
For point c, it’s actually cheaper depending on how they do it. One of my favorite artists, mc chris, has done USB discog sales for over a decade. He charges like 100 for it last I saw, but it’s also a custom USB along with having like 10-20 albums and Eps.
That’s pretty cool, but at what quality? MP3? AAC? M4A? FLAC? You don’t know until you buy it and plug it in, you know that a CD is going to be WAV files which is uncompressed audio mastered at the best quality possible, which you can then rip to your desired format. If whats on the USB drive isn’t FLAC, you’re limited to what they gave you.
It would be much more expensive to press, bundle and package/ship that many CDs in comparison to a single USB drive
It all depends on if you’re doing it yourself or if you have someone that’s already setup to do it as a business. After a quick search, I found a site that will do 100 CDs with inserts and jewel cases for $255, I’m sure the price goes down with the more you order. The same site offers custom USB drives with silkscreen printing (how else are you going to know what’s on it amongst all your other flash drives assuming you intend to keep it?) is $330 for 100, so if the artist is actually putting multiple CDs onto a single USB drive than it definitely is cheaper for them, but I’m not sure how many bands would actually do that.
And since it’s also merch, point 4 is unlikely. He’s never cared about his music being pirated (and even has lyrics about his music being ‘forever free for the poor kids’, so B isn’t an issue either.
That’s one artist, lots of artists care about their music being pirated because it cuts into their revenue, which they get very little of in the first place (referring to CDs, not streaming which is a lot better for them in terms of revenue). IDK how old you are, but I’m guessing you don’t remember Napster/Limewire/Kazaa. Also, a lot of the time it’s the companies that own the rights to the music that care the most because they’re the ones that get like 70% of the profits.
Option a is basically do you trust the artist, which one would hope they’re trustworthy, but they could also Sony you if they weren’t…
Ah, yes, the good old Sony rootkit.
I have seen people purchase vinyls instead of CDs.
I came across a quality cassette tape player while cleaning out my MIL’s house. I’m keeping it for when the cassette tape fad rolls around, with people claiming the sound “just sounds more authentic” or some shit. Then I can sell it on eBay for a grand or something stupid.
Already there in Japan so give it a few years
Nah, CDs don’t make sense for me anymore. Nowadays I stream from Apple Music.
You buy stuff at a concert to support the band.
People go to the concert to support and see the band. Not everyone is able to double down when prices are the way they are.
Okay, I’m sorry. Please allow me to rephrase.
When one buys stuff at a concert, the intention is to support the band.
jfc
I’m not trying to be obtuse and I’m not against supporting artists. I’m just pointing out that a lot of people don’t want stuff they won’t use even if it does offer support. That’s why everyone will typically offer wearable merch. If you bought it based on how it looks chances are you’ll wear it. The reality is cds don’t get much use anymore, vinyls don’t travel and most people can’t tell the difference in quality or haven’t taken the time to notice it and will never unless taught.
I just turned 40. For my birthday I went to go see a small disco funk band. They run their own merch table, tour around the country in a van, have day jobs, etc. I wanted to support them so I was gonna buy a T-shirt, but it was $25, I only had $20 on me, and they didn’t take card. So I got a $15 CD. They also didn’t have any change, so I had to wait 5 minutes for them to go to the bar and get them to break a 20.
Then I got home and realized I didn’t even have a CD player. So I dug out an old DVD drive and installed in my desktop, ripped the CD to FLAC, pulled the drive out, and threw the CD into my old box of CDs I haven’t opened in 10+ years…
I was gonna say “only $25 for a concert t-shirt?” because they wanted like $50 for one at a Pantera concert about 6 months ago…then I saw this was over a decade ago.
No, this was 2 months ago
Its an independent band that runs their own merch table after the show. Its not a band with 3+ decades of content that can charge $50 for a shirt.
Ah, I misread the last part. Of course if it’s a small Indie band they’re not going to charge out of the ass for stuff, that’d be dumb on their part.
Yeah, but that’s Pantera. Any time you go to an old head concert they’re going to charge you fuck you prices. My wife went to see Motley Crue a few years ago, and they were charging about the same, and a bit less for Jett’s merch. As she so eloquently put it, “the main reason old bands go on tour is they need money”.
Going to smaller/newer bands’ shows has much more reasonably priced merch. But for those old heads, you’re paying for the well known name and so they can supplement their social security payment while trying not to break a hip on stage.
The tickets were only like $100 a piece for second level seats and that was mostly because of the ticket pricing bullshit. It was like $60 for the ticket and $40 of “fuck you, pay me” money and then the taxes on top of that. I saw Metallica back in 2018 and it was $100 for pit tickets. I was like 30 feet from James.
