Music Op - CDs Are Life (and maybe business)
Hey everyone. Welcome to the fifth edition of Music Op, my monthly piece where I discuss whatever music-related topics come to mind. Before we start, I would like to mention that future editions of Music Op will be released on the second Tuesday of each month instead of the first Tuesday. It’s a minor change, but it will save me in months that begin on an early day of the week.
January was not a very eventful month for me. I kept getting sick at the beginning which was quite frustrating, but other than that I was mostly just along for the ride. My birthday was on the 17th, and as somewhat of a late Christmas / early birthday gift, my girlfriend Uma presented me with one of the CDs of my dreams: the Japan-exclusive deluxe version of Cashmere Cat’s 2017 album 9. As far as I know, this was the only official release of this CD besides a possible tour version. I saw Cashmere Cat live in 2018, and I faintly remember seeing him post an Instagram story the day after my show advertising the CD… it was quite sad, however the show was still fantastic. Anyway, this CD was something I always wanted but never felt the need to purchase off Discogs or anything. It is wild now to see this dream CD in real life in front of me, and my collection is a sizable amount closer to being complete now (a feat that will never actually be possible to complete). But big shoutout to Uma for being the coolest and blessing me with an ultimate grail CD.
Now open for CD business
I had a quick business experience in January that opened my brain up to a new, odd business idea. Someone came into Common Beat Music (the store I make videos at part-time) looking for a way to burn some audio to a CD. My friend Bay referred me to them, and I was able to whip up their CD pretty easily in exchange for a few dollars. The audio track was actually for a court, since the person had been illegally billed by a car dealership or something, and the court needed a hard copy of the audio.
My new goal is to figure out how to advertise this; maybe a website, but preferably not through social media. It also would be a lot easier to run as local as possible for a bit before trying to mail CDs out to people, if that even happens. But it seems like burning CDs has gone from something that is done for casual use to something that is done out of necessity, which less people have the means to do at home in 2025. Laptops barely even have two USB-C ports now, let alone a disc drive.
For this business, I would love to eventually offer artists a full-package CD plan, where they receive a CD that has a printed booklet, back tracklist card, and a printed label on their disc. My friend Bay and I have discussed this type of business idea since like 2022, and we are finally getting around to looking for a printer that can print high-quality images on thick paper for CD booklets, record sleeves, cassette J-cards, etc. But for now, all I have is a B&W-only office printer that I found on the street a few weeks back, which does work but is obviously quite limiting. But for now, the fact that someone would pay for me to burn them a CD with one audio track on it makes me excited for where this could go.
Speed Reviews are back!
Last spring, I started a series on my YouTube channel called Speed Reviews, where I would give a one-minute, unedited video review of a new album while a timer counts down. This idea was originally a short-lived series I did in high school with my friend Sam Updike, but now in the era of TikTok and YouTube Shorts, I figured this series might work quite well in the current landscape of short-form video. I did almost 20 reviews before putting the series on an indefinite hold, since I finally found some more inspiration for my regular YouTube videos after birthing the Soundmap Let’s Play series.
It was always a goal of mine to bring back Speed Reviews, since they had performed fairly well on both Youtube and TikTok (some still get consistent views today). So, I have decided that I am going to try and review an album each week for the series, and see how long I can maintain that schedule. Between the various, often unpaid tasks I assign myself (one of which already being a weekly music review for BLIGATORY), this goal will be challenging to keep up with. But, if the views are there and I block out my days off correctly, it should be possible.
That being said, here is the playlist link for Speed Reviews on my YouTube channel. If you have TikTok, my username is atticusrealm. Unfortunately, I think my account was shadowbanned for reviewing FKA twigs’s EUSEXUA, as it has the word ‘sex’ in it and I most likely included it as a hashtag on the post… not my brightest moment but maybe I can review some Kidz Bop or something next to make up for it.
My Top 10 songs of January 2025
This was a month where one album ended up crushing the competition in my top songs chart, unfortunately. I liked the FKA twigs album a fair bit as well, but on singular tracks, it got nearly wiped by the 24-track behemoth that was Showbiz! by MIKE. Honorable mention to “JRJRJR” by Jane Remover though for barely missing this.
10. “Trouble” - Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
8. “Girl Feels Good” - FKA twigs
7. “Let The Devil In” - Eddie Chacon
1. “Then we could be free…” - MIKE
Thank you all for reading this edition of Music Op! I have been trying to decide whether this is the ‘January Edition’ or ‘February Edition,’ since it covers January’s topics but releases firmly in February. Leave a comment if you have an idea for this conundrum.
