Which Is Better? CDs or Downloadable MP3s?

The very first medium used in music distribution and sold to the public was just music sheets in the 1800s. These sheets were sent out to entertainment production outfits and performed in variety shows called vaudevilles. More than a century later, music’s physical medium had evolved into plastic formats we commonly refer to as compact discs.

More than a decade today, it’s evolved into intangible digital downloads.

Now, a band from Cagayan de Oro emailed me a couple of weeks ago asking about my opinion on the pros and cons between CDs and downloadable MP3s. I decided to post a huge portion of that email below (verbatim):

Which would you rather prefer?

Artists selling their albums at a more expensive price with a superior CD quality (i.e. pressed CDs/printed CDs)?

or

Artists selling their albums at a least expensive price but with a lesser CD quality (i.e. CDRs/burned CDs) but with an album full of songs that would use up the entire 80min CDr?

My take for this one is that in the advent of MP3 players and Ipods, people usually just rip the CD's songs to MP3 formats and play it in their mp3 players, leaving the CD in their cabinets gathering dust. So in my opinion, less and less people will be using the CDs. So having a superior quality CD is no longer important if this would be the case. People would just rip it, transfer it in their Mp3 players.

I am asking this question because we have plans in releasing a new album. And we are thinking of using this line of positioning. More Songs for a lesser price but using CDrs only. Cds would be sold maybe around P150-200/CD. Compared to pressed CDs which are now being sold at P280-300/CD.

Answer : I don’t see the point why one should give out music of inferior quality. The listeners ergo the fans want good quality music. Period. Give them what is for them and what makes them happy. Why compromise the quality when you can provide the best?

Today, I think what is most important to the music fans is not the album but the songs. If you are a music collector, I’m sure you have experienced buying an album with 14 songs worth and only 1 or 2 fit in your eardrums. (Labels have learned this painfully over the years and yet they lose nothing because it's always charged back to the artists against their royalties).

A perfect example here is Extreme’s worldwide hit “More Than Words” in the late 80’s. When the song hit the airwaves, the album moved into music players and up the charts. The bad news was that the consumers discovered the chartbuster as the only good track in the album. In fact, the rest of the tracks didn’t “gel” with the single.

Buyers of that album returned the merchandise to the stores and the store owners shipped it back to the label's warehouse (some record stores even posted a note on their wall saying WE DO NOT ACCEPT RETURNS OF EXTREME ALBUM - it must've been that bad).

You see, before you even think about putting more songs in a CD, deciding between a pressed format and a burned CDR, think about the quality of your music inside and out first. Since ultimately, it's the fans who have the control in deciding on buying your songs (IF they like it), you now have an opportunity to understand how your music should be presented to them.

I understand that your band is also acting as your own record label. Since this is the case, one of the ways to build a strong and huge fanbase is to give your fans what they like to hear, not what you want them to have. You are right - a CD may collect dust in the end. But still, do not compromise quality.

Now people would just say why not purchase the song via download? I think if you download 1 song, it would cost you around P20-30/song. And as an artist, i still can't find a way to reconcile how we would be able to monitor the downloads and be assured that we are getting the right numbers from the dowloading service providers. But if we are selling the CDs, then we would be able to keep hold of our physical inventories and our number of units sold. And if we would be consuming the 80min CDr, then that would give us around 17-18 songs which if you would compute it by the price of the CD that we are selling, it would cost you something like P11-12 per song. So still very much cheaper than what the downloading service providers are giving.

Answer : The quality between CDs and music downloads are, unless all fans have trained ears, practically the same. In fact, no matter what medium – vinyl, CD, cassette tapes – the consumer’s experience is enjoyed because of the song, not because of the medium. The medium is just the material aspect being made available to the public at a time.

Whichever medium you choose to distribute, the consumer ultimately decides whether they like your song or not. It’s another decision for them whether to buy your songs or not. And then another decision whether to buy the entire album. Bottom line is it’s not your role to worry about how much the consumer can spend.

I sense that the issue here is more about financial investment. In which case, and if I am correct about this presumption, I’d recommend that you sell your music via TuneCore.com. Believe me, it works. Just make sure you read the FAQs religiously.

If you worry about inventories, believe me, it’s probably the most boring and the most gruesome task in any distribution business. That's what labels are for. It's one of their main services. Unless you are willing to compromise your time for creativity, you wouldn’t like it.

Another thing is that by producing CDs instead of just having it available for downloads, we are giving graphic designers/Artists a chance to promote their works by giving them an opportunity to design our album's packaging.

Answer : Hmmm… this is a good point to consider. Or maybe it would be more fun if the artists that work for you work on a voluntary or for-the-love-of-it basis instead of promising them promotional benefits. It can be difficult not to build expectations around your goals and vice versa so if you can, try to keep everyone away from this probable negative outcome.

So there… I guess my general answer is that it’s really up to you. When the CD medium was first introduced, there was resistance but eventually it caught up. Now, they are fast becoming obsolete (but maybe I’m wrong).

The evolution of music was from paper to tapes to vinyls to tapes to plastic compact discs to MP3s...

Today, professionally pressed CDs cost about P35,000 - P60,000, and maybe even more - just to make for 500 pcs excluding shipping cost (since you are in Cagayan de Oro).

While downloadable MP3s are apparently becoming the new music business model. No frills, no shipping hassles, less cost, etc. All you have to do is simply trust the website you are working with... now that's another issue isn't it?