Marching Music Downloads, RIP

[chaddyt]

Well.  This sucks.

https://www.dci.org/news/marching-music-downloads-store-to-be-retired-after-december-31-2025/

[ShortyRock]

Beat me to it!  A very sad day.  Was really looking forward to getting this years audio....  😭

[chaddyt]

2 minutes ago, ShortyRock said:

Beat me to it!  A very sad day.  Was really looking forward to getting this years audio....  😭

Agreed.  Boston's first championship and no way to relive it.

I'm not sure how you sustain a viable performing art medium that can only ever be experienced at a live performance.  

[pags]

I'm extremely disappointed, but not shocked.  This is in line with what WGI and BOA are/aren't doing (as far as offering CD's or audio performance downloads), and both those activities are doing just fine with a medium that can only really be experienced live.  More and more the parent organizations are putting it on the individual participating units to comply with copyright and any associated distribution logistics and requirements for any long-term recordings.  Considering how those issues almost completely undid the activity a decade ago, I can't really say I blame them.  But again, now I have no access to obtain and preserve the recordings of performances I've come to love.  What surprised me last year when they did away with the CD's was that they also changed the Digital Downloads database without warning, where it went from having everything from 2014 to the present to just having 2022-2024.  A little better heads-=up on that one would have been appreciated because there were some shows I hadn't gotten around to purchasing from the 2014-2021 timeframe.  I'm still scouring the internet for recordings of DCI Finals from 2010 and 2011 on CD, among others.  Oh well.

 

Edited December 17, 2025 by pags

[pags]

As a quick follow up, while I think it is unlikely (for all the logistical and financial reasons DCI is backing out for), I do find myself wondering if this could inadvertently result in some sort of collaboration/partnership between some of the corps to bundle together their shows and make them available for purchase/download.  Again, I think it's unlikely because if a corps like the Blue Devils, with all their known recording and production capabilities and past videos, don't release any CD's or individual performance downloads (and haven't for years) then a collaboration with groups who don't have those things seems borderline impossible.  Still, wouldn't it be "hilarious" if this gives rise to something like a G7/G8 collaboration amongst the corps most likely to get downloads if they were to work together?

[perc2100]

59 minutes ago, pags said:

This is in line with what WGI and BOA are/aren't doing (as far as offering CD's or audio performance downloads), and both those activities are doing just fine with a medium that can only really be experienced live.

 

True, but as others have said both of these lean heavy into the scholastic aspect so there are plenty of HS programs & parents to partake whereas DCI does not have that aspect.

1 hour ago, chaddyt said:

Agreed.  Boston's first championship and no way to relive it.

I'm not sure how you sustain a viable performing art medium that can only ever be experienced at a live performance.  

Yeah, I know I'm almost 50 which is "really old dinosaur" in DCI vernacular, but nearly everyone of my generation discovered the activity though commercially produced/sold videos or audio recordings.  I first discovered it via official VHS tapes, and 'deep dove' into the activity with an instructor's record collection he dubbed for me.  I spent so much money of DCI CD's, not just the annual Championships CD's but SCV/BD/Cadets various 'through the years' CD's.  I later bought DVDs, and some classic Blu-rays DCI produced for a hot minute (that 3-volume 'greatest hits' collections of shows on Blu-ray were outstanding!!).
It's been a bummer 'only' being able to watch DCI in the off season via illegal youtube vids, but that's all DCI provides so what else can we do

[MikeN]

I get the "why," but this still blows.

Mike

[leed17]

1 hour ago, pags said:

I'm extremely disappointed, but not shocked.  This is in line with what WGI and BOA are/aren't doing (as far as offering CD's or audio performance downloads), and both those activities are doing just fine with a medium that can only really be experienced live.  More and more the parent organizations are putting it on the individual participating units to comply with copyright and any associated distribution logistics and requirements for any long-term recordings.  Considering how those issues almost completely undid the activity a decade ago, I can't really say I blame them.  But again, now I have no access to obtain and preserve the recordings of performances I've come to love.  What surprised me last year when they did away with the CD's was that they also changed the Digital Downloads database without warning, where it went from having everything from 2014 to the present to just having 2022-2024.  A little better heads-=up on that one would have been appreciated because there were some shows I hadn't gotten around to purchasing from the 2014-2021 timeframe.  I'm still scouring the internet for recordings of DCI Finals from 2010 and 2011 on CD, among others.  Oh well.

 

BOA has an on demand video streaming service thru the Spin Network…Video, not audio, but it is still something.  Not many people know about it.  It costs $50 a year, and you get LOTS of BOA performance videos on demand from various seasons.  It’s basically a BOA Fan Network like DCI used to have before 2015 hit.  

I don’t understand why DCI doesn’t try to work out something like the Spin Network, especially since that network is owned by Tresona…

Also, why not try a streaming DCI audio service? They charge a monthly fee just like any other streaming service, and you can stream audio of any DCI performance from various years.  It would not be download friendly, just stream friendly.  I know FLO has their FLO marching radio stream, but you can’t choose what to listen to.  
 

I’m sure there are reasons for their decisions that we will never be aware of, but for a fan of drum corps audio and video and a collector since my high school days back in the mid 80s, it’s just another sad chapter for me in the DCI audio/video historical saga. I’m bummed like everyone else…

[chaddyt]

52 minutes ago, perc2100 said:

Yeah, I know I'm almost 50 which is "really old dinosaur" in DCI vernacular, but nearly everyone of my generation discovered the activity though commercially produced/sold videos or audio recordings.  I first discovered it via official VHS tapes, and 'deep dove' into the activity with an instructor's record collection he dubbed for me.  I spent so much money of DCI CD's, not just the annual Championships CD's but SCV/BD/Cadets various 'through the years' CD's.  I later bought DVDs, and some classic Blu-rays DCI produced for a hot minute (that 3-volume 'greatest hits' collections of shows on Blu-ray were outstanding!!).
It's been a bummer 'only' being able to watch DCI in the off season via illegal youtube vids, but that's all DCI provides so what else can we do

I, too, am pushing the five-oh and got introduced to DCI when they actually aired the finals broadcast on PBS (think it was around the Thanksgiving time-frame).  

A little '93 Cadets and I was hooked.  

Now, unless you watch FloMarching live (or maybe the day after), your only other option will be to travel to one of the dwindling locations that hosts a show, pray it doesn't rain, and commit it to memory.

I get that there are similarities to BOA and WGI, but as you said... they have the scholastic source as a feeder.  I can't help but feel like this will end up hurting the activity in the long run.
 

[Jeff Ream]

2 hours ago, pags said:

I'm extremely disappointed, but not shocked.  This is in line with what WGI and BOA are/aren't doing (as far as offering CD's or audio performance downloads), and both those activities are doing just fine with a medium that can only really be experienced live.  More and more the parent organizations are putting it on the individual participating units to comply with copyright and any associated distribution logistics and requirements for any long-term recordings.  Considering how those issues almost completely undid the activity a decade ago, I can't really say I blame them.  But again, now I have no access to obtain and preserve the recordings of performances I've come to love.  What surprised me last year when they did away with the CD's was that they also changed the Digital Downloads database without warning, where it went from having everything from 2014 to the present to just having 2022-2024.  A little better heads-=up on that one would have been appreciated because there were some shows I hadn't gotten around to purchasing from the 2014-2021 timeframe.  I'm still scouring the internet for recordings of DCI Finals from 2010 and 2011 on CD, among others.  Oh well.

 

people have figured out how to record off of Flo/Box5. i haven't, but i know people that have.

 

the licensing costs are more than many think, and DCi doesn't sell enough to make up for it ( same with every other marching circuit). and to make up for the costs, prices would skyrocket.