Distribution & release of a continuous mix?

Hi everyone – last year I self-released an album and went through the whole process: digital distribution and CD duplication via CD Baby, registration with the US copyright office, getting my ASCAP stuff together as an artist and a publisher, etc.

Now I’m looking to release my first techno EP, and the process isn’t as clearly suited to such a thing. In particular, the EP, while having four distinct grooves, is one continuous mix (clocks in at about 27 minutes altogether). It does not appear, at least from what I’ve seen so far, like CD Baby lets you submit one single audio file but time-stamp at particular locations, for example. When I started putting things together last night, the only options for starting a new release were “album” or “single” – my EP closer to an album, but then if you choose album you can’t just submit only one track. They do have on their FAQ site this question: https://support.cdbaby.com/hc/en-us/articles/210998223-I-have-a-CD-that-blends-each-track-together-i-e-DJ-mix-Will-it-stay-like-that-on-your-digital-partner-sites- but I’m not interested in having the tracks split up.

Part of the issue is hitting these barriers in the interface early in the process so you don’t necessarily see all the options that might be available further in. It looks like some people have submitted single track continuous mixes to Bandcamp, where I have my previous album, so that part should be straight-forward enough, but I’m curious if anyone else has gone though this process with their continuous mix albums/EPs, and what you might suggest. I’ve certainly considered skipping the digital distribution thing altogether, and may go that route. Any suggestions are welcome!

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Has nobody run into this? In some ways I don’t mind skipping the digital distribution part, although it does limit the potential listeners, but is that how people are handling this?

I’ve never used this service, but just a thought:

You have 4 distinct grooves. So what if you uploaded 5 tracks as an album/EP: the first 4 as individual tracks (the distinct grooves) and then the 5th as the whole mix, and just label it as “continuous mix”?

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I’ve thought of doing that, and I see that others have as well. I don’t want to be too precious about it (“people can only listen the way I want them to!!!” etc.), but because of the way the grooves are mixed together, splitting them up is going to make for some awkward and abrupt listening at the start and finish of each groove. My intention all along was to make it one extended piece, so splitting it up would be an aesthetic bummer for me. But your advice is solid, and appreciated, for sure.

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Yeah, then I would probably just release it as what they call “single” and upload one long track, if it’s not intended to be split up.

I used to listen to a lot of CDs that had both: individual tracks and continuous mix. I usually listened to the mix, because it’s typically a journey and meant to be experienced as such!

…also no experience with cd baby…which is nothing but another rip off level…
and also paywall gatekeeper biz to the streamingfarms and in this case, as far as i know, even another revenue sideway for planet earth’ biggest streaming farm, spotify…
their way to recompensate a little on their endless no name, no profit, no followers, never heard of “backcatalog”…

but i will also release some dancefloor only dedicated pieces of music this year…
and i also don’t want this to be delivered in chopped up single bits but in one continues flow of a set/mixtape style…and no, i also don’t want any digital skip markers/adress points in that one obviously bigger file…
but that’s all for the fun of it and promotional use only…

therefor not sure if i will ever bother to see them also uploaded to spotify, apple music and whatnot…
don’t think so…this kind of format is simply not suitable for the official streamingplatforms that much…and given the fact, that even if it would, somehow anyways, any revenue prospects are pretty slim with a clear tendency to nothing…

if u expect any kind of profits from such intentions, apart from uploading it to bandcamp, be aware that it only makes sense to give people the chance to hear what they’ve might heard somewhere else, in some sort of live/dj situation one more time at home or at some private party or because somebody else told them about such an occasion and recommend it now…

word to mouth is still thing and always will be…

if u like that to happen, skip all ur streamingfarm efforts, especially if ur forced to gatekeep again for that via self promote/exhaust and pay for urself please, like cd baby…
that brand name alone is already a horror and a not funny at all but totally last century joke to my ears…

while never the less, all my respect that u even fought through all american official registration hussle for this…it’s way easier here in europe to actually really do such things…

so, all i can recommend, fix ur mix, give it a proper name, run the audio through some tastefully curated graphic generator stuff, upload that to utube and give it a go on soundcloud and bandcamp for free…
make urself ready to be able to play it all out loud in person out there…
the last real bux u can make these days, when it comes to all of this…

so, if u wanna spread ur “sonic word”, u need dedicated links…not to streamingfarms, but to soundcloud, bandcamp and utube…and hope for the best…
while hey, even if there’s only one person or one moment, ur stuff made a happy day to happen, that’s already satisfaction…innit?