I’m somewhere between halfway and 2/3 of the way finished with my next album-ish thing. My style and sound have both evolved a bit over the last year and I don’t really want to just do a standard digital release - I want to do something a bit more interesting. My current thought is a collection of 3 smaller EPs released as one overall package, each focusing on a specific style/mood. I also want to do a physical release of some kind. I’ve been bouncing around different ideas.
1: Tape. Classic, compact, kind of cheap. I’d need to decide on whether I was doing 3 individual tapes or just one tape, though - it could get expensive fast to do 3 runs since none of them will be particularly large.
2: Thumb drive/ usb stick. This is the one I most want to do but also the one I have less info about/ feel least sure of. A few artists I follow have done this. I love the idea. The big downsides are that a) most people rightfully probably don’t trust a usb stick they got from someone they don’t know, and b) it could also get costly. Related, I know Master Boot Record released a floppy, and I’ve seen laserdiscs before, but I don’t even know how to begin and I have no attachment/ nostalgia for those formats so couldn’t really justify the expense.
3: Vinyl. Cool as hell, but very expensive comparatively and I likely wouldn’t even break even (not to mention having to store them until they’re bought could be annoying).
4: A long-ass album meant to be shuffled/ reordered. Cool, but if someone sees a 20-track album it could come off pretentious or just be a daunting commitment that turns them off (and it isn’t like I have a large audience). This also makes a physical release more or less impossible because of the cost. I could do a double CD album, but I hate CDs.
So, this brings me to my question - what do you all think? Are my ideas completely whack and should I just stick to the tried-and-true? Any other cool formats you’ve seen? Do you just stick to digital due to the cost of having media pressed? This is very much going to be a labor of love. I’ve always wanted to have my music in a physical format.