Doing a bit of archive dipping, I noted the history of the CD swaps, which I can post in the first comment below.
Did anyone know there seem to have been 8 of them, going back to May 2017? So only 8-9 years ago, nothing in Afterword years.
Any appetitie for doing another, the last being in 2023?
31/05/2017 CD Swaps/CD clubs
14/06/2017 It’s here: the imaginatively titled First Afterword CD Swap – sign up now now now
24/06/2017 24 hours left to sign up to the First Afterword CD Swap
28/06/2017 First Afterword CD Swap – The Matches
09/07/2017 The Adfterword CD swap – an Update and a Request
03/08/2017 Afterword CD swap reviews – round 2
26/08/2017 Afterword CD Swap – last chance for blind reviews
19/01/2018 The Afterword CD swap (slight return)
31/01/2018 The Afterword CD swap: its’ (insert transfer deadline day pun) deadline day
06/02/2018 AFTERWORD CD SWAP
21/02/2018 Afterword CD Swap – one week to go
01/03/2018 CD Swap 2: The Reviewening
17/03/2018 CD Swap 2 – the laggards and ne’er-do-wells
18/03/2018 Can The Afterword CD Swap influence the Weather?
10/07/2018 Afterword CD Swap – is there enough Space?
28/07/2018 We’re nearly out of Space – CD swap signup deadline
23/08/2018 CD Swap III – In Space No One Can Hear You Review
05/09/2018 How is it out there in space? CD swap update
04/10/2018 CD swap – titles revealed
21/01/2019 CDswap is back like it’s 2019, oh it its 2019. Anyway it’s back.
16/03/2019 Put it down in Black and White – CDswap reviews here pls
02/04/2019 Where the HECK is the latest CD Swap thread?
14/04/2019 Are you in the bottom set for CD swap? The clock is ticking.
13/10/2019 The Afterword CD swap is back for one more turn around the block. Sign up now!!
29/10/2019 All in fair warned….the CD swap is closing
02/11/2019 “Change” CD swap – the matches
03/12/2019 CDswap Change – reviews here please
28/09/2020 Wot? No AW CD Swaps this year?
05/10/2020 CD Swap: Kick off is now
19/10/2020 Groups for the CD swap
12/11/2020 Winter 2020 CD Swap – The Reviews
06/05/2021 ATM Survey: Time for another CD swapfest?
12/05/2021 At last….the CDswap you’ve been looking for all your life is here
23/05/2021 It’s only the groups for the CD swap!
17/06/2021 2021 CD Swap – the reviews
18/04/2023 The swallows are back. time for a CD Swapfest I reckon?
27/04/2023 CD/NoCDswap – Desire
02/05/2023 CD (noCD) Swap 2023 – the groups!
31/05/2023 (no)CD Swap 2023 – It’s review time!
Incidentally, searching for ‘swap’ also brought up this thread
I started it, but take no credit for the inspired invention of you clever clever AWers.
Hi all
Myself and @kid-dynamite were your genial(ish) hosts for the CD swaps and @salwarpe if there is enough interest for another then we can ride again. I should say @kid-dynamite did the heavy spreadsheet lifting and I did the frothy frontman duties.
For those who have come along since 2023, the idea, though like many things here not in its first flush of youth, is simple.
You pick 12 tracks to a theme and burn them to a CD so the tracks are anonymous.
You’re paired with someone and post your CD to them, you get their CD.
You listen and post your blind tasting test review here.
The tracks are revealed – DOH! Can’t believe I thought The 13th Floor Elevators were post-punk bobbins from Barnsley etc etc.
If you can put your @handle in a comment here if interested then we will at least know how many of us have a CD burner still.
Thank you moseleymoles – I wasn’t trying to give you extra work, but it is good of you to step up promptly like that, also on behalf of kid dynamite.
I’d be up for it, though I would have to exchange digital files as the cross EU border fees (17 Euros per parcel plus postage) would make it a costly activity for all.
Of course via the magic of mp3tag everyone without a CD burner but with mp3’s (can’t comment on ogg vorbis, AAC etc) can make a dropbox version. So a physical CD not a requirement, just your good old digital files.
I can’t speak on behalf of @kid-dynamite as it’s 3 years since we last did all this.
Hold on, am I reading this correctly? It costs 17 Euros plus postage to send a small parcel from the EU to the UK?
Dios mio de mi vida.
It may be a bit less costly now, judging from this webpage, but I have been into the Post several times over the last years and was told that.
I always enjoyed these, so I’d be up to engage.
@retropath2
Yeah. Include me in. I’ve enjoyed participating over the years. Introduced me to some great music/artists. There’s also the simple pleasure of being so spectacularly wrong in guessing who/what I’ve been listening to.
Yes I would be interested in this too – the previous ones were fun like doing a mixtape for a girlfriend without the sex.
However I am something of a technophobe so would need instruction on how to create a digital file now that I no longer have iTunes (have Apple Music).
@SteveT
If I can find my CD burner and get it to function I’m in @Pyramid
I did my first one last time (cant believe it was so long ago). thoroughly enjoyed it, so I’d be up for it again @myoldman
I’m outside Europe so it’d be digital files for me
Last time it was mostly (possibly all?) digital files. Sending CDs by post is an expensive business these days. Particularly outside of one’s home country. And in the UK, Royal Mail is a bit flaky these days, to say the least.
Using software like Audacity* to create digital files is not very much of a learning curve for the uninitiated and tag information can be stripped out within Audacity if needed.
WeTransfer, Dropbox and other similar sites can then be used to send your finished “CDs” out to recipients.
*Audacity comes as a completely free download without any annoying adverts. Windows, MacOS and Linux versions are all available. Installation is straightforward.
Ooooh, I was hoping someone else would be tempted to scratch that particular itch before I gave in and asked if anyone was up for another round!
So count me in please, I’ll look forward to it.
I will be curating and creating physical discs with proper wav files for those folk with whom I am grouped, and the discs will come with original artwork as well. If a job’s worth doing…
Digital files can be made available if you really insist, but I will sincerely hope to get yer actual CDs if possible.
For the benefit of @moseleymoles and @kid-dynamite, the themes we’ve done to date were as follows (months are approx):
July 2017 – ‘Beginnings’
February 2018 – ‘Cold’
August 2018 – ‘Space’
April 2019 – ‘White’
December 2019 – Change’
November 2020 – ‘The Future’
June 2021 – ‘New’
June 2023 – ‘Desire’
Get your thinking caps on boys, let’s have a theme for this year.
I’ve kept each year’s effort that I’ve made, so if anyone wants a copy of them just drop me a line and a zip file can be yours. You’ll likely need to have Shazam to hand from time to time*.
*’cos I’m darned if I still know who some of the tracks are by.
I don’t mind doing some organising, although mildly irked that this thread has come along literally the day after my CD player upped and died for no apparent reason! Nevermind, there’ll be another, and I may also embrace the digital option
Think I’ve participated in all of them (and spent a lot of cash on new discoveries).
Think the last one I went purely digital as cost/lack of equipment/general laziness stopped the burning of CDs.
I will bite and dive in for this.
@carl
I think my preference is for a digital swap.
I second Mike_H’s comment about Audacity. It’s very easy to use.
I’m in
I’d be up for this. Never participated back in the day as postage to/from Australia would have taken the fun out of it. But digital files, yep
Throwing my hat into this ring.
Physical CDs if you like for UK-based peeps, but it’ll be digital-only for further-flung members, ‘cos expensive.
The idea is that you’re grouped into 2s or 3s with other subscribers – you aren’t expected to mail out physical discs to everyone involved!
Good grief, a few quid and a couple of recycled jiffy bags surely won’t break the bank. Obviously, I’m not paying enough tax.
For me, a lot of the appeal is the acquisition of curated compilations from Afterword colleagues; as has been said, it’s a bit like exchanging mix-tapes with girl/boyfriends, without the lusty aspect.
If I sent a female a link to a WeTransfer zip file, in pursuit of charming said woman, I wouldn’t realistically expect even an acknowledgment of receipt.
I’ve done this before a few times, so I do know how it works.
It would appear that International postage rates are now a lot less than when I last looked. £4.30 for a Large Letter (max 35x25x2.5cm) weighing 100g or less to all likely destinations. That’s doable.
Accompanying customs forms are mandatory for nearly all International destinations.
Declare the contents as A Gift (because that’s what it will be) of only nominal value.
Good advice – and scribble in that it’s “second hand” as well – an honest statement for a CD-R, and swerves the VAT issue I think.
Hi all
Yes it appears that there is enough interest in one more CDswap (though perhaps we need a new name to reflect the amount of digital-only shares planned).
Let’s let this post run to until the weekend for expressions of interest, when there will be an official launch post. Exciting!
Shall we do a reel-to-reel swap as well? 15ips minimum?
Gonna need a Revox sent with it, if you get me as a reel-to-reel partner.
I wish I could afford to own one, let alone send one!
I could do a minidisc swap if anyone’s interested. It’s the perfectly format for this kind of thing.
I could do a minidisc swap, but I doubt many other AW-ers could.
I used to MD-swap (started out with cassettes, then CDs and moved on to MDs) with a pal in Edinburgh a long time ago.
Maybe the hosts could match us up. I can’t recall if we ever were in a previous swap.
Count me in as well….always good fun…and also lots of angst involved in the track selection of course..!
Selection, whittling down and sequencing …
Then of course there’s the cover art.
…and the dialogue, the sound effects, the mysterious inserts within the CD booklet, and finally, the hidden track!
My CD swap 7 disc (theme: ‘New’) had the lot:
Various sound effects and dialogue, then into:
New Water – C. Duncan
Cristo Redentor – Donald Byrd
New Day – John & Beverley Martyn
New York Jig – Natalie MacMaster
Talkin’ ‘Bout New Orleans – The Meters
Brand New Day – Al Kooper
Visions Of A New World (Phase 11) – Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes
Pastures New – Nickel Creek
New Life – Ian Carr’s Nucleus
1990 A New Decade – Soul 11 Soul
Streets Of New York – Cerys Matthews
New Moon At Red Deer Wallow – Rain Tree Crow
dismayingly long silent pause, then into sneaky 13th track:
News From Verona – Portico Quartet
Love doing these. The job’s definitely worth doing well if you can be arsed.
I am interested! That’s a good reason to burn cds again
Sounds like a plan.
Those who received my selections may beg to differ, but I enjoyed the CD’s I received. I was introduced to a few new artists, heard some interesting and occasionally challenging music, so I’m definitely up for it
@Bogart
With allusion to Spike Lee, could you label your set ‘a Bogart joint’?
“With allusion to Spike Lee, could you label your set ‘a Bogart joint’?” @salwarpe
I once had a stonemason friend make me a house name thingy stating ‘Bogarts Abode’ does that count?