State of the Indie CD Business

Listening to recent media chatter, you’d get the impression that most music is downloaded these days. Think again. Compact discs make up a full 80% of U.S. retail music sales (Wall Street Journal Tuesday, April 7, 2009, Page B4) and are the basic calling card and selling tool for every musician.

Why is the CD still dominant? One reason pointed out by Jupiter Research is that music lovers have noticed that compact discs remain “forward compatible” with whatever the latest music file format might be. Buy a CD from your favorite band and not only can you rip the music to your iPod, but you can also keep the disc as an archival backup.

Another reason, often commented on in psychological research, is that humans are gatherers by nature: we get a special thrill from collecting beautiful physical objects –books, magazines, stamps, antique china, paintings… the gorgeous artwork and packaging of a well-designed CD make it collectable, too. (To get a visual sense of how enthusiastic CD collectors can be, search Google images on the keywords “cd collection.”)

At Oasis, we’re constantly working to make our CDs and DVDs as attractive and collectable as possible. If you haven’t yet, please look through our catalog and check out the beautiful options we have to offer. If you don’t see your preferred look pictured, just call (888) 296-2747 and ask for Oasis Custom™. We’ll review dozens of unique packaging options with you, and cook up something that suits you perfectly!