A Weird Time for Releasing Music

Bone and Marrow's CD release show was a huge success, and I think people will be talking about  those performances for a while.  There's so much talent, innovation, and true originality coming out of Asbury Park, and I love to support it and be a part of it! We're all moving and writing at our own paces, but it's hard to predict in what way our audience is moving in terms of how they are consumers- via download, or buying a physical item like CD or Record.   Why are bands still releasing CDS?

 Zip files sit in my download folder for months and, at least for me, updating my iphone or ipod is not something I do all the time. It's like having a pet- it's maintenance! I'd rather put a cd in my car and listen to it when I'm cruising around. I don't have to get all bent out of shape if it hasn't been charged, or the cloud crashes, or my hard drive dies. You can hold it in your hand and it's going to work and sound the way it should.  On the down side, our cars may still have CD players, but Apple laptops today don't have a cd reader, so you can't get those songs on your Ipod or phone without an external. And that is something that bands and song writers have to think about. Who is our audience? How can our music reach their ears and still sound the way it should? Should we release both downloads and CDs? My answer- yes, make it accessible.

It's funny to me that we're all still having CD release shows like it's the early 2000s, but it just feels like a cop out to have a big release show where I pay for a piece of plastic just to give myself work.  I'd like to think I'm not alone in saying that buying music with an album cover or packaging offers a connection with the artist. Plus, it's both an audio AND visual experience.  It's worth it for me to pay the artist for something physical that I can appreciate and inspect before listening. It gives the music and musicians even more personality.  I'm not saying Bone and Marrow will never release download cards, but it will be done in a way to still provide fans with a package and experience.

An album I can't wait to add to my collection is being released this Saturday! I'm glad it's on a CD :)

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