Sterling and other CD-Rs

[hyperdanny]

a DG release on CDR that is not an Arkiv cd? wow, i never heard of such a thing....could it be a counterfeit?

[adriano]

It's definitely not an Arkiv release, otherwise it would be indicated somewhere. That's why I am very much astonished.
The 20-page booklet is complete, but it is printed in unusually shining and darker characters, different than DGG's usual much softer printing brand. Also both the b/w rasterized photos inside and the front colour picture appear as having been reproduced on a more primitive machine.
But who would ever counterfeit such a totally out-of the repertoire CD? Since I have ordered it from the USA, it may be possible that they have allowed  their distributor there to make CDR reprints. In an You can believe me, it's a blu, rarther transparent CDR with missing center digi info ring, almost identical to those Sterling CDRs. The label is also 1:1 DGG-like. And everywhere one can read: "Printed in Germany"... Perhaps DGG also started making CDR re-issues of particularly rare titles.

[Mark Thomas]

As the thread has moved on from Sterling new releases, I've moved the purely CD-R related posts to this new thread. The original thread is here.

[adriano]

Thanks very much, Mark :-)

[hyperdanny]

thank you Mark, great idea.
@hadrianus I share your astonishment: I thought that the Arkiv-manufactured CDR's were the only case of DGG reprint licence, in the US, and anywhere else, for that matter.
I had some of them, but with time I was able to discard them all, because the releases I had in my collection were reprinted in Japan as SHM-CD's, an expensive, but very high quality support.

[raffite33]

I think the changeover from CD to CD-r for Nimbus/Wyastone Estate labels happened in 2011.  That said, their stable of labels has grown since then and now includes Altus, Cameo, CRD, DMV, Halle, Integra, Lyrita, Red Priest, Retrospective, Saydisc and Sterling. 

Like Arkiv, Presto now has their own licensed, on demand, CD-R thing.  Naxos has been doing CD-Rs of out-of-print Naxos & Marco Polo titles.  Albany Records also do their back catalog on CD-R, but I don't know about their new releases.  Albany also now warehouses and ships for the Berkshire Record Outlet, and I've been getting more CD-Rs in my orders lately, but that could simply be coincidence, I guess.

Polygram, now Universal, was doing some of their own on CD-R for a while, DG mostly, but I imagine they've quit that and left it up to Arkiv & Presto.  Other labels I've gotten CD-Rs on include Bridge, Harlequin, Altissimo!, Rounder, Smithsonian/Folkways...  well, the list just keeps growing. 

I've ordered titles from Amazon and gotten CD-Rs and then ordered the same title from CD Baby or Amazon UK and then gotten regular CDs.  It is all very annoying and hard to navigate.  The one thing I can say for sure about CD-Rs is that, in my decades of experience, they are far more susceptible to heat and humidity than regular CDs.

[Mark Thomas]

A perfectly understandable attitude, John, and I agree with you about their mealy-mouthed response, but they do state an underlying commercial imperative: "when demand does not justify replicating a CD with a minimum run of 500". Of course labels should be honest about using CD-Rs, but increasingly we're going to have to face the choice between CD-R/digital download or nothing.

[TerraEpon]

CD-Rs are a perfectly legitimate way for a record company to keep catalogue items available when demand does not justify replicating a CD with a minimum run of 500. The sound quality is identical and its duration as a media source is up to 100 years. There is no legal obligation to declare the type of media used, however, if you are unhappy with the product you have received, then Guild will offer you a full refund for the item in question but it cannot offer a replicated CD. Please let us know.

I got a very similar quote back when I got an ArkivCD buying through Amazon (waaaaaay back when they were pretty much limited to Marco Polo and a few other labels).

[Mark Thomas]

I really don't like being some doom-laden Cassandra about this, but this is how things are going to be, at least in the short term. In the long term it'll be digital downloads, if we're lucky, or streaming only. The thing to remember about King Canute is that he wasn't trying to stop the tide coming in, but rather to demonstrate to his subjects that he couldn't prevent it so, rather than railing against what looks to be inevitable, I suggest that a more positive way forward is to figure out your best strategy for dealing with it. For myself, like so many of us my hearing is no longer good enough to distinguish between CD and digital download sound, so I've gone over to digital downloads (and digitising my CDs) coupled with investing in a house-wide sound system to get a bonus from the change. I'm future-proofed for at least the next few years and I'm happy with that. For now at least.

[Alan Howe]

...and yet many companies are still doing it properly (issuing CDs, that is).

[Mark Thomas]

The issue at present seems to be with low-volume labels (like Sterling and Nimbus) and what to do when stocks of "proper" CDs get low,  but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before "print on demand" CD-Rs become much more common.

[Alan Howe]

Is the situation in Germany different from here? Are there more CD-collectors over there?

[Mark Thomas]

Possibly, I don't know but, with global classical CD sales of the sort of repertoire we discuss here in the very low thousands, it'll be worldwide sales of CDs generally which is dictating the trend.