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It’s here: the imaginatively titled First Afterword CD Swap – sign up now now now

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You may remember some time ago we mused on the demise of various CD swap clubs and so after much delay and DM’ing we present:

The cunningly-titled Afterword CD Swap.

Hosted by your hosts @kid-dynamite and @moseleymoles

In posts past we have lamented the demise of the Velvet CD swap and the like, so we’ve decided there was enough love across the massive to give our very own version a go. We’ve tried to keep the rules to a minimum to make taking part as easy as possible. For those who’ve never done one before, a CD swap involves you making a compilation, posting it to a couple of other people, who post you theirs. All tracks are anonymous, so you can’t apply your rockist prejudices, you review those you get, others review yours and then the tracks are revealed.

1 Sign up by the closing date by just letting us know in the comments to this post. Sign up for CD swap one: the Beginning, closes at the end of June.

2 We will then pair everyone up with two other people – you compile a CD (more later) and post it to two others. So post two out, get two back. You swap your addresses via DMs so no-one except your pairs need know you live at 10 Downing Street @philipmaybot.

3 Your CD: one CD only. 12 tracks only. Theme: Beginnings. Please rip your files without track or artist names so your partners can listen without prejudice. Artwork is up to you. Standard audio rip.

4 DM us your track listing. DON’T POST IT on this or on another blog post.

5 CDs to get to your partners in the mail by the end of July.

6 You can then let the world know what you thought of the CDs you received. Posting of reviews (we’ll work out a sensible way to do that) by the end of August.

7 We will post track listings in early september and watch the recriminations/accolades fly.

8 Either this will be something of which we shall never speak again, or we’ll do it all again maybe three times a year.

9. Any questions put them in the comments too.

3

Comments

  4. I’ll give it a go
    Woe betide anyone who receives a CD of third division punk bands shouting about starting at the start (I do listen to other music – honest!)

    Time to start preparing a list

    • Me! Me! Me!
      One question… do we put in only stuff that we think that no one may have heard before…for example I would be tempted to put in “Vambo” by SAHB (“In the beginning….”) or personal favourites or just ANYTHING?

    • There’s no such thing as a straightforward answer with me, I’m afraid.

      Pre-2007, TDK made all their branded CDRs and they were great. Between 2007 and 2015, Imation (a 3M spin-off company) made them for TDK under license and I’ve heard of problems (like discolouration or older CDRs not being able to read the ToC). TDK have re-owned their own CDR brand since 2015.

      There are only three top-tier manufacturers (Mitsui, Taiyo Yuden (known as JVC outside Asia) and TDK) with their own CDR manufacturing plants. They sell them for rebranding to Fuji, HP, Philips, Sony, and Yamaha, so you’re pretty safe with those but there’s no guarantee you’ll be buying from one of the top tier. Avoid pretty much everybody else, including ‘name’ brands like Maxell, Memorex and Verbatim.

      In short, as of 2017, I think you’re pretty safe with TDK and they’re the easiest to buy in the UK of the three trusted brands.

      Or, in really short: Yes.

  19. 12 songs though. No pressure!! I’m always trying to squeeze one last little one in on the end. Queen o’ the one minute song. Guess I’ll root out all my epic 6 minute + ‘uns. Have to ponder on the beginnings thing.

  26. Fantastic. Please count me in! Loved the Velvet CD swap over recent years and very sad to see its demise (though I completely understand why). Looking forward to this very much. 🙂

      • Your low grade punk I may…. perhaps…enjoy.
        I was more concerned with your sanity halfway through track 3 (of 12) of my softest-of-soft-AOR/World Music tracks.
        I am not an Evil person by nature.
        (Though I do like to do it LIVE bwah! haa! ha!!!)

    • @rec-room yes we will allocate randomly, hence putting you in three’s so you should get across two different people a good spread of genres. As @kid-dynamite said top tip is to get as many genres in as possible. So one low-grade punk song at the right time or indeed soft AOR may be just what the mix needs. But twelve of any genre is perhaps not the spirit of a CD swap mix.

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