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.
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.
I would buy their vinyl though! I’m also in my 40s, never listened to records before 2023. I jumped on the bandwagon and haven’t looked back. Something about all that effort to listen to 22 minutes of music and getting to enjoy an entire album is just fun.
What’s your setup, and do you find that the sound quality is superior to streaming or physical media?
I’m by no means an audiophile, I just have a Victrola I bought at Best Buy and run through my Bose sound bar using the headphone jack. I wouldn’t say it is better audio, but the highs don’t hurt my ears as much as digital music does.
I’m in my 40s too. I usually look for vinyl, if I’m inclined to buy music at a show.
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.
Not a younger person, but last concert I attended, the artist was selling bandcamp codes for their albums (I got two for €5 each). On top of that CDs and vinyls, each would include a bandcamp code too, so I assume people without CD players or turntables can get the physical item and still enjoy the music digitally
Thats pretty awesome.
I have seen people purchase vinyls instead of CDs.
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?
Yeah, from what I tend to hear from teenagers, I don’t think most of them own their music.
The thing with CDs or MP3s is that it takes time for you to build up a collection. If you got started on that before streaming services took off, it’s probably worth listening to.But if you’re starting from scratch today, you’re basically deciding between listening to one or two albums in your collection vs. all the music you can imagine for a monthly fee. The value proposition of the latter is then just hard to beat.
I believe, streaming services generally don’t allow you to add your own MP3s into the mix either, so even if you get a cool CD/MP3s from a local band that’s not on these streaming services, then there’s still not much you can do with that.
Spotify at least does allow you to add local files on a computer, and they even sync tracks to your phone when they are on an offline playlist when the devices are on the same network. I’ve done that myself to get some otherwise unavailable songs into my catalogue, and am thinking of starting the move to owning all my music that way
Ah okay, that is cool then.
I am literally importing them from japan and other countries on discogs because I prefer that over downloading from soulseek.
Last resort if either physical costs 100% more than MSRP or not as much sentimental value I will just pirate the flac or sometimes I buy digitally.After I aquired the media I rip it and put it on my Jellyfin server.
Age: 25 y/o
No, because I wouldn’t go to a concert. Too much people.
For me it’s not about the crowd it’s about the parking situation. F that.
I definitely do. Supports the band in question, and I get to rip the audio off the CD for my digital collection. Best part, if I lose my digital music collection and can’t access a backup, I still have the disc to rip from again.
Pins, patches, vinyl, tapes and very rarely CDs.
My band is planning out our merch for the fall and we’re planning on two shirts, four larger patches, 2 to 6 pin designs, logo patches and a 7-inch (TBR). It’s a street punk band.
My death metal band has a slightly different table, but it’s those things in general.
A band we play shows with often has hot sauce they produce for sale as merch.
Yo, the Elder hot sauce is great, though. I went online to buy more a few months after I saw them, lol
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I’m not much younger & I’m not going to read the comments. They’re either ignorant, or they don’t care, or they’ll reflect my opinion. You need to stop & think – how do I get money from my hand directly to the artist(s)?
The artists receive very little from streaming revenue or CD sales (unless onsite at concert, maybe). The recording label eats up a lot of profits. So honestly I’d buy tickets, I’d buy merch at concert, I’d put cash money directly into their hand.
Anything else might be stolen by the venue, the recording label, the third parties, the goddamn United States government, etc etc etc.
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 remember being in high school about 15 years ago and going to a show where a band was selling music on a flash drive. That felt so clever, since the world was just starting to ditch CDs at the time.
I didn’t really answer your question at all though, sorry lol. I don’t think many people buy. Some people collect stuff but it’s probably analog/vinyl, not CDs. Everything is just streaming over buying now.
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.
40 meaning 49 years old
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 could see this being awesome but include FLAC and MP3 on a branded USB promo card like this:
https://www.logotech.com/technology/usb-flash-drives/usb-business-cards.html
