CDs vs. Streaming

By a show of hands, who still purchases CDs?

Ok. Great. There’s still a lot of us out there! And that is great news to the Indie artist.

I’m going to be honest about buying CDs and streaming music…I love both ways to listen to music! Putting a CD into your stereo and then checking out the CD artwork and notes cover to cover, is an awesome way to connect with the band or musician. Some artists really put a lot of thought into their album layout and that is just really cool to me.

Then there’s, “Alexa, play me John Mayer’s new album.” Music starts playing just by asking your device to play it! Any song or genre you want, streaming into your headphones, throughout your house, in your car, almost instantly. You can even find some of the most obscure music that someone recorded in somebody’s basement 30 years ago on a tape recorder just by going to YouTube and searching for it. You don’t even need to know the name of the song. Just search for a few words together that you think might be the right lyrics and almost always you’ll find what you’re looking for. It’s great!!!

So why do we need CDs? Well, I’ll state my case in just 2 reasons:

1) I mentioned it earlier, it’s a great way to get closer to the band or to help you understand the album better. If you have multiple CDs from a particular artist, check out the covers. Each cover really does convey the emotion and feeling of the songs they recorded for that particular album. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” is the first one that comes to mind. Check that cover out and listen to that album and you’ll understand what I mean! Or Michael Jackson’s album, “Thriller.” That was his coming of age album. The cover shot of him staring all serious into the camera. That was him telling the world, “I’m and the G.O.A.T.” You can’t really see that on a screen. You need to hold it in your hands and actually experience it while listening to the music

2) This reason is a little more personal. Support your independent artist! Indie artists still make CDs. We still sell them at our live shows and we are extremely proud of the music that we produce. It’s such great experience for both the listener and the artist when you can purchase music directly from the artist themselves! And from the artists point of view, selling a CD to someone direct is like giving your best friend or child or significant other, the most perfect gift in the world! Yeah, it feels like that.
This reason also ties in to reason #1. You may not get to read or learn much about the indie artist online or in magazines, but you will learn a whole lot about them through their music, especially their physical CDs. Plus, your money is going straight to the artist when you’re purchasing from an independent artist. I’m not trying to take CD sales away from major recording artists. I still buy CDs, especially from the artists I really love…i.e. DMB, Common, D’Angelo (every 10 years!), John Mayer, Weezer, Jack Johnson, The Roots, Mumford and Sons, just to name a few artists that are continually putting out albums. I’m only saying that it’s much more common to stream top recording artists than it is with indie artists.

So to conclude; CDs are great. Streaming is great. Do both and when you have the chance to buy a CD from your favorite band or musician, do so. And when you purchase a CD from a local or independent artist, THANK YOU!!!!