A future history of the CD revival. In response to a piece on
cassette culture (
previously), music writer Tom Ewing reports from the 2020s' revival of interest in the compact disc format, and the interplays between hazy memories of growing up in the '00s, reaction against networked "social playlists", and a fetishisation of both the "glossy, uneasy sheen" of the CD sound and the constraints in working with physical artefacts.
posted by acb
on Mar 5, 2010 -
56 comments
MeFi Trainspotting Dept.: While most music consumers long ago traded up their sonically dodgy, graphically threadbare, non-bonus-enhanced early CD pressings of their favorite albums, a subculture has naturally arisen to absorb their discarded digital detritus. Witness
"Target CDs", a family which encompasses certain early West German and Japanese pressings on the Warner/Elektra/Atlantic (
WEA) labels.
So named for their
distinctive label design, Target CDs - unlike, say,
MFSL Gold CDs - make no particular claim to superior fidelity or longevity; in fact, due to their notorious "flat transfer" process from whatever version of the album happened to be lying around, it seems
quite the opposite. (Further evidence for the purely nostalgic and/or aesthetic value of these discs can be seen in the
"hypothetical Target CDs" threads.) Even so, as within any oddball subculture of collectordom, one can now expect to lay out
serious bucks for certain of these shiny little period pieces.
posted by mykescipark
on Jun 3, 2007 -
6 comments
The 23rd Century is a sweet band that just released their new CD, "Take A Trip Though Time With...The 23rd Century",
for free online in mp3 format. The album was created by metafilter user
tcobretti and his cousin. You can purchase the album
here to support them, or you can buy their tshirt, obviously inspired/ripped off from the
John Titor insignia. There is also a cool schematic-based navigation to the site, presumably from the same great mind who brought us
runoffgroove.com. [via
mefi projects]
posted by banished
on Mar 17, 2006 -
12 comments
Fiona Freed. Remember the
Free Fiona campaign (discussed last month
here)? Well, Sony hasn't caved (yet), but the entire album has been leaked online (get it
here or via
torrent.) I've listened to it a few times through, and all I can say is... wow.
posted by salad spork
on Mar 22, 2005 -
53 comments
No Xmas in U.S. this year:
Santa on Fed's "No Fly" list. Okay, that's just "
News" from the website of satiric rockers
Bah and the Humbugs, skewering Xmas since 1985. MP3s of the entirety of this year's CD
Farhenheit 12/25 are available
on the website, or you can buy the CD for $10 and all ten sheckles go to the
UN World Food Programme. More tracks
here, including the "Jolly Roger the Xmas Pirate" series and "Free the Reindeer. " Great stuff for that awkward holiday family get-together, where the music won't offend but the
cool lyrics can keep you chuckling to yourself all night.
posted by Shane
on Dec 17, 2004 -
4 comments
Trade in your Ashlee Simpson CD here.. A group calling itself HOPE (Horrified Observers of Pedestrian Entertainment) are offering to trade your Ashlee Simpson CD for one by one of Elvis Costello, The Ramones, X, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Aretha Franklin, Mr. Bungle, Ray Charles, Abe Lincoln Story, Grateful Dead, Neil Hamburger, Joni Mitchell, and Brian Wilson. Next target is the film
"Taxi".
posted by salmacis
on Nov 16, 2004 -
68 comments
Wizard People, Dear Reader is a bizarre re-reading (or, if you're Tim Burton, a re-imagining) of Harry Potter and the philosophers stone (or sorcerers stone for our friends across the pond). Basically you download it, burn it to CD and play it while watching the DVD. A new art form, a childish gimmick or somewhere inbetween?
Everybody will have a copy
soon, so get busy with the download (courtesy of the ever vigilant Talking Tina at Sissyfight.com).
posted by ciderwoman
on Jun 8, 2004 -
20 comments
As Attorney General for the State of North Dakota, I am pleased to enclose payment for your claim in the settlement of the Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation. Checks have gone out to people who "purchased prerecorded Music Products, consisting of compact discs, cassettes and vinyl albums, from one or more retailers during the period January 1, 1995, through December 22, 2000." Mine was for $13.86. I think I'll go buy an indie CD.
posted by travis
on Feb 24, 2004 -
24 comments
RipDigital converts your entire CD collection to 224kbs MP3s for about a $1 per CD. Send them your CD library and they'll ship your library back, organized by artist and album with enhanced song information, as either 50 converted CDs per DVD and for $99 more on a portable hard drive. If only they offered the same service for cassettes.
[via jkottke & waxpancake]
posted by riffola
on Jan 11, 2004 -
47 comments
Go Ahead And Leave Me, See If I Care! Was
not what
the late, great Jacques Brel sung.
Oh no. (
Scott Walker, imo, did the best cover.) And last Tuesday a 16-CD collection
was launched, with
all his songs -
and then some, including 5 he specifically stated he never wanted released. I've heard two of the songs - they're wonderful. But the question remains, with echoes of Kafka telling his friend Max Brod to burn all his manuscripts: should the wishes of dead artists be respected? Does time - in this case 25 years since his death - make it any less problematic? Or the fact that the publication was approved by the Jacques Brel Estate, i.e., his widow?
(
My favourite Brel song, btw, is his wistful, sardonic tribute to his country: flat, boring Belgium: Le plat pays. It never fails to exercise the tear ducts, nope, never...)
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Oct 8, 2003 -
31 comments
In a move sure to please independent record store owners and further alienate everyone else, music giant Universal has scrapped its to lower CD prices to a MSRP of $12.98. Just when you thought
they might be getting it.
posted by keswick
on Sep 24, 2003 -
25 comments
Live CDs, immediately after the concert. Many times after I've seen a great show, I've wished I could have a recording of the evening. Now, using CD Burners hooked up to the sound boards, ClearChannel is beta testing a program that would make soundboard quality concert CD's available to audience members immediately after a show ended. I'm torn; it's a great idea, but it's ClearChannel... I want to like it... but I want to hate it, too...
posted by jonson
on Feb 8, 2003 -
25 comments
I made my claim. Have you?
This Web site was established to provide information about a proposed Settlement of lawsuits brought by Attorneys General of 43 states, Commonwealths and Territories, and by counsel for the Plaintiff Settlement Class entitled In re: Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation. You may be a member of the Settlement Group and your rights against Defendants may be affected if you are a person or entity that purchased these prerecorded Music Products from a retail store during the period of January 1, 1995 through December 22, 2000.
posted by Witty
on Jan 7, 2003 -
12 comments
Not 421 CD burners but "the equivalent of 421 burners". Now, most agree the RIAA is grasping at straws trying to control something they clearly can't, but this seems to be the most amusing yet.
This article offers a suggestion or two concerning the possible music industry slump.
posted by robotrock
on Dec 15, 2002 -
22 comments
Dr Venter says he will be able to provide an
individual's genome on a CD in about a week for $712,000 (£400,000) from later this year with the ultimate goal to sequence someone's entire genome in 24 hours for $1,000 (£562).
posted by nasim
on Sep 23, 2002 -
9 comments
Stomping on the little guy. Popular weblogger Davezilla has been handed a cease and desist from
Toho Co., Ltd, owner of the Godzilla trademark. The text of the C&D implies that they own the rights to any word ending in the letters "zilla". [more inside]
posted by y6y6y6
on Aug 13, 2002 -
106 comments
Good news for Mac-owning, Celine Dione fans "The process is pretty easy: I took a bit of electrical tape and applied it to the edge of the CD, the 'shiny side', - just a half inch of the stuff - and aligned it with the very edge 'data track session ring' visible on these copy protected CDs. Took the tape out to the outside of the CD and put it in my CD Rom."
posted by schlaager
on May 14, 2002 -
17 comments
Copy-Protected CDs: The List! Buying CDs as gifts this holiday season? If the people on your gift-giving list have MP3 players or listen to their CDs on their computers, you'll want to have this list handy, as these CDs have intentional "copy-protection" defects that may render them unplayable on computers, certain car stereos, and some other high-end audio equipment.
posted by tpoh.org
on Nov 30, 2001 -
14 comments
This site will burn anything you can point them to on the web onto a CD. Won't that violate a TON of shareware/freeware licenses? Will they do warez sites?
Link via
FilePile.
posted by Spanktacular
on Jul 5, 2001 -
4 comments
Music CDs sales are down, coinciding with Napster's decline. Personally, I haven't bought a new CD in months because I no longer have a source for finding new music (what I used Napster for mainly). I suppose word of mouth and listening to
online streams may help, but nothing compared to finding songs you liked on Napster, and searching others' files with similar tastes and finding new gems. Do you think the RIAA will notice this and change, or is control of distribution more important to them?
posted by mathowie
on Jun 20, 2001 -
30 comments
Lost or broken CD case? Ripped a disc and now it's just floating around on your desk? Freewheeling
College students to the
rescue! You give 'em the lowdown and you get a formatted paper CD case as a .pdf file. Input your own song titles or run an
album search through their DB. They even
archive mixes for you to share with others.
posted by donkeysuck
on May 11, 2001 -
4 comments
Napster proof CDs? (Salon link, so shoot me) A new scheme for copy-protected CDs that uses errors and false data to confuse your CD-ROM drive. (more inside)
posted by smeat
on Mar 28, 2001 -
22 comments
The Beatles are back and now online! Check out their new site for their new compliation CD
1P.S: The site layout was made on Mac with BBEdit 5.0
posted by riffola
on Nov 13, 2000 -
14 comments
Sony to introduce new CD format. No, it's not DVD-Music. It's a new double-capacity CD format that Sony says "will be able to prevent illegal copying." I'm assuming the new format will require all-new hardware to read and to write. So my question is, what's the point? Won't another music format just increase consumer confusion and make them more reluctant to buy? Why come out with a 1.3GB format just as recordable DVDs, with much larger capacities, are becoming practical? Do they really expect people to buy all new hardware to support what is obviously a dead-end format?
posted by daveadams
on Jul 5, 2000 -
12 comments
