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DCI CD's no longer available?


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Any way to purchase audio recordings now? 1974–1999 in particular?

Yes. The old Fan Network website is still operational, but has been switched to downloads only. You can get all of the audio recordings there. dci.thefannetwork.org

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It's like everything else with the forward procession of technology: You can still buy every year of audio recordings, but it's now as full-show downloads onto your computer. The Download of the Week, over the course of 40 weeks, offers special discounts on audio and video downloads. For example, this week's Download of the Week is the 1979 Blue Stars. When you click on the link for the audio package at the bottom of the article, you're taken to this site for the audio downloads. For this week, you can purchase all twelve of the 1979 Finalist corps as a package for $15.99, a savings of $4.00. Next week, the year of the featured corps will also be on sale for $15.99 for the entire collection of Finalist corps for that year. (That comes out to $1.25 per corps.) As I mentioned earlier, I present every year over the course of the 40 weeks, giving fans a chance to download the audio bundles for whichever years they wish. They can also download the video bundles at a reduced rate for that particular week.Having been one who has no plans to convert his CD collection to mp3 format, I'm somewhat distressed to read that some auto manufacturers are already starting to not offer CD players as standard equipment in lieu of mp3 players that people can directly plug in their iPods. But that's the reality of the day and it's not going to ever move backwards, (despite LPs making an unexpected comeback in some circles). Translation: I feel your pain.

You have to think positively. Vinyl is making a comeback. Of course they are $30 or so a pop, so they're no bargain. You'll just have to wait twenty or thirty years till CD lovers become nostalgic for CD's.

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  • 4 months later...

The "NEW" DCI has a "Shop" tab across the top that still has all of the varioius media for purchase...

Looks like this has now been removed. There is currently no way to purchase old DCI audio recordings (and at the rate things we’re going, I doubt they will return in the future). Sad.

Edited by Hrothgar15
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Looks like this has now been removed. There is currently no way to purchase old DCI audio recordings (and at the rate things we’re going, I doubt they will return in the future). Sad.

I don't think anything's changed recently about this, although I note that the website may seem a little glitchy at the moment, maybe depending on your browser and add-ons. One time it worked fine but another time I had to Open the SHOP page as a New Tab to get here:

http://www.dci.org/sell/SellHome.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=33500&DB_OEM_ID=33500

From there hover over Audio/Video *on the left side* and then CDs and you'll see that most recent year CDs (with the notable exception of 2014 at the moment) appear there. The coverage is spotty and you can't get CDs earlier than the early 2000s, but I don't think they've been available for a while.

I think DCI says CDs generally but particularly older material doesn't sell well enough to justify carrying much inventory and so don't reorder that material after a particular volume sells out. You can find used CDs of material no longer available from DCI on eBay but may have to be patient, depending what you're after.

If you see something different than a year ago, so I'm missing something, let me know.

Also keep in mind that part of DCI's justification for dropping older top 12 CDs was that you could get that audio material by subscribing to Fan Network which hasn't been true this year, though they've also said they eventually intend to restore the audio archives to a retooled Fan Network if they could work out the rights.

Edited by Peel Paint
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I don't think anything's changed recently about this, although I note that the website may seem a little glitchy at the moment, maybe depending on your browser and add-ons. One time it worked fine but another time I had to Open the SHOP page as a New Tab to get here:

http://www.dci.org/sell/SellHome.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=33500&DB_OEM_ID=33500

From there hover over Audio/Video *on the left side* and then CDs and you'll see that most recent year CDs (with the notable exception of 2014 at the moment) appear there. The coverage is spotty and you can't get CDs earlier than the early 2000s, but I don't think they've been available for a while.

Sorry, I meant access to the 1974-1999 audio recordings. Got official word from DCI over email that these are no longer available for purchase:
"Unfortunately, all downloads had to be removed while we work through licensing agreements with the music publishers. We hope to be able provide this content again in the future."
As I said, it seems like entirely wishful thinking. If you're a fan who wants to purchase finals recordings from before 2000, you'll have to find people willing to sell their old Legacy Collection CDs, from when those used to be sold years ago. :sad:
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Talk about vinyl making a comeback. Maybe I should retire now and make a side business converting to CD/PC format.....

Hello eBay and Amazon, but Amazon seems hit and miss finding older corps sounds.....

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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I'm tempted to quote John Lennon, "No, no, You Can't Do That," but I don't want to have to negotiate with Yoko or whomever is holding the rights to that song. :tounge2: I would argue that you can digitize your own personal copy of an LP for your own personal use--others may disagree--but you can't legally sell it and could have trouble doing so on eBay:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/downloadable.html

Not saying it's never done, in other genres, particularly, but if somebody with copyrights (DCI, a corps, a composer) complains about a listing offering homebrew digital recordings, eBay or Amazon will pull it. I see people get away with it on eBay with homebrew digital recordings of older material like Old Time Radio shows--that's because some though not all of that material lapsed into the public domain, but even with the material that didn't, nobody young enough to care is complaining. And it isn't worth much. You can get hundreds of OTR shows for $10 shipped.

Even before the copyright issue got ugly in drum corps, the older stuff went off-sale a while ago around the time DCI made it available on Fan Network. DCI says there is limited demand for their pre-2000 material, and I think they're right based on auction action on eBay for legal listings. Those can get okay prices like $8-10 for an LP or $20-25 for a DVD with a few bids. If demand exceeded supply, you'd see 20 or 30 bids for an auction closing at higher-than-original prices. Generally speaking with the older material, you don't. This doesn't encourage DCI to sell hard copies again or to spend a lot of time or money getting copyright clearance to stream it. The used market like eBay may be able to satisfy what demand there is for it. That's the place to look if you want to amass a collection.

Edited by Peel Paint
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  • 5 weeks later...

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