The Repulsive CD (an alternate view)

by Joseph Pehrson

What is it that is so repulsive about the compact disc? Is it all the plastic, plastic and shrinkey wrapping that proclaims loudly the presence of the ultimate commercial music object? Is it the jealousy of some of us composers for not having or wanting to borrow the huge amounts of cash to commercially author this glistening momento to self aggrandizement and vanity? Is it the stacks upon stacks upon stacks of these environmentally hostile frisbees , that take up walls upon walls of cherished apartment space? Or is it all of the above?

Well, there is hope in sight. Some have proclaimed the death of the compact disk to the neutrons and electrons of the Internet and I, personally, hope they are right. Musical ideas shouldn't be made of plastic; they should be as omnipresent and malleable as electricity. They should be updated at a moment's notice as the flow from the synaps of the composer's brain into the collectiveness of our shared consciousness. Well, OK, charge money for your mp3s if you will, but, even at that the Internet format, especially if downloaded to a portable electronic player, is the ultimate in instantaneous and changeable form. Composers change. By the time a composer pays off a hugely expensive compact disk effort through credit cards or paying back rich uncle Marvin or whatever, his or her style of writing is different. I've seen this happen. Mp3s on a website, or on several sites can reflect compositional change. The Internet form reflects the present music of a composer, whereas a compact disk is a frozen piece of history, a bee dying and clawing in amber.

Personally, I've had some success on a site called SoundClick.com. This is a particularly effective forum for distributing music since it's possible to track statistics of listener activity: whether an mp3 was played, downloaded, whatever. Some of my pieces on this site have had over 100 listens in the last year. In contrast: how many people go into a record store and actually purchase CDs of contemporary music of any but the very best known composers? Unlikely. On a site like SoundClick people "stumble" onto contemporary music from searches for general classical music. There is a huge base of potential listeners who are anxious to listen to and download free stuff for their portable mp3 players. Oh, that's the caveat with SoundClick: it's a free website but, at the present time, it's not possible to charge for mp3 downloads. Since I view my site on SoundClick as a vehicle for getting as many people to listen to my music as possible rather than as a means of making an income, this doesn't bother me much. There are other sites, though, where the more commercially-minded composer can charge a fee. Go for it. The going rate is about a quarter a download, not much. But, how many people are making money, any money, on commercial CDs? One is lucky to simply pay off the price of these vanity toys, and for most composers that's far from happening. Grants for recordings are similarly limited and sectarian and at least one of the main granting agencies for composer recordings is slowly going out of business as it spends down it's endowment.

So, you could save your pennies for the $5,000 to $10,000 (or more) it will cost you as a composer to produce a commercial CD. Personally I find this insulting to composers who have spent money on an advanced education and on honing their compositional skills. Furthermore, a good example of what happens with these fixed physical formats was the conversion from the long-playing record to the CD in the mid-80's . For the record company CRI, Composers Recordings Incorporated, for instance, half of the long-playing records which were composer funded, were never released on CD.   The composers just lost their money. This is happening again as CRI goes totally belly-up. Currently it is in bankruptcy and their inventory of composer-funded disks is being offered at the distinguished price of $3.50 each. Once this stock is depleted only some of the records will be re-released on New World Records, the current buyer. The other composers are losers once again.

Forgetaboutit ! Adopt a better business model: the Internet. Even if one only makes a small amount of money, one doesn't lose it. Let's wizen-up composers: there's got to be a better way.