Herbert Midgley's Blog: I burned my first CD of my own music in 1999

I burned my first CD of my own music in 1999

I burned my first CD of my own music in 1999. It was amazing at the time. I could now make a digital copy of my music and share it with the world on Compact Disc, wow! At the time I had a 1x CD burner. That means I could burn a CD that I composed in real time. Also at the time, you couldn't do anything else on your computer as you burned your CD. And about 35% of the time you burned a coaster. Yep, the good old days for sure!

Here is the Cover Of My First CD

So this is the cover of my first CD. Wow! Times have changed. It was printed on printer paper and it looks like some kind of paint program. I think that is a photo of me from an early digital photo. The digital cameras at the time shot photos on a floppy disk. About twelve photos could be saved on a floppy disk.

I remember making this CD. I used a midi sampler to record a lot of the compositions. Also, I used a synthesizer for others using midi. It was a fun challenge to record the files digitally so that I could burn a CD. Now I could have my music protected for all time because it was digital. Zeros and ones! Eighteen years later, and the music industry has completely changed.

Here is the Cover of my Latest CD

So here is the cover of my latest CD Mode of Music. It's on Amazon to purchase. Eighteen years ago it would have been amazing to think one day that I would be able to sell my music to an international audition, however, no one buys physical copies of music anymore.

In 1999, people started to download music and over the last eighteen years, musicians make a living through touring or merc. In 1999, 938 million CDs were sold. In 2016, 99 million CDs were sold. Streaming services are up, CDs and Mp3s downloads are down. Way down.

What will be the future of music? Streaming for right now. I'm sure there will be a new way to listen to music in the future, a few years from now. Little that I knew back in 1999 when I recorded my first CD, that was the year that would begin the end of physical media. And now in 2017, downloading Mp3s are being replaced by paid streaming services.

I would like to think that one day all of my music will be available forever. However, if one CD survives, perhaps someone will convert it so they could listen to it. I'll smile now for what they will hear. I wonder if it will be one of my songs or my experimental electronic music? Only time will tell! Compute that!