Physical vs. Digital: Should Experimental Artists Still Press CDs in 2026?

 By: The Guys Who Run RZRecords (yes, we're still here)

So, you’ve spent the last six months hunched over a modular synth, a four-track, and a broken MP3 player sending signals through some pedals. You’ve captured the sound of a dying fluorescent light bulb, layered it with a field recording of a construction site, and set it to a rhythm only you and maybe your cat can understand. Congratulations. You’ve made exclusive art.

Now comes the existential question that keeps us up at night here at RZRecords headquarters (which for some of us is a spare room with a lot of boxes, and for others a laptop): What format do you release it on?

It’s 2026. We have streaming. Everyone's streaming away. We have high-resolution hid-def downloads. We have the infinite, intangible cloud. And yet, we’re here, seriously debating the merits of the Compact Disc. That shiny, 80s-era frisbee that everyone loves to mock.

As a label that’s been “ruining the world of noise and jazz since the early 00s,” we’ve pressed it all: cassettes that warp and tear beautifully, vinyl that costs a mortgage payment, and yes, CDs and CDRs that sit in boxes for five years before finding a home in Japan. We’ve also released albums recorded on answering machine tapes (that tiny cassette) and watched them get streamed in Ethiopia, Ukraine, the Philippines, and Serbia.

So, in 2026, is pressing a CD a brilliant act of anti-corporate defiance, or just a way to create expensive coasters? Let’s break it down, RZRecords style. Here are 5 "hilarious" pros and 5 brutal cons.

This could be your photocopied cover, but it's not, it's Yasuyuki Uesugi & gaop

The Pros: Why You Might Be a Genius for Pressing Plastic

1. The Anti-Streaming "F You" Statement
In a world where music is liquefied into a subscription service that pays artists in fractions of a penny, a CD is a beautiful, physical middle finger. It’s a finite object. You can’t accidentally delete it. You can’t lose it because your ex changed the Spotify password, or someone got mad at the streaming service or the country you live in. When you mail a CD to a collaborator in the Canary Islands or a fan in Russia, you are sending a piece of your physical reality. It’s a tiny, shiny monument to the idea that your harsh noise wall is more than just data. It’s a thing.

2. The Artifact Factor: Liner Notes and Dank Memes
Forget jewel cases. We’re talking about the weird, tri-fold cardstock sleeves. We’re talking about including a lyric sheet that’s just a photocopy of your to-do list. For our recent UIUIUI, Haggari Nakashe & gaop split (which is pure chaotic gold, by the way), we’re soon doing a CD version because the album art demands a physical medium. You can’t hold a JPEG. You can’t find a hidden message under the disc tray in a streaming window. For experimental music, the packaging is often the map to the madness. Plus, you can hide weird things in the CD case, for example: stickers, a lock of hair, a tiny review of a restaurant you hate.
Fun story: decades ago, GX Jupitter-Larsen sent us a bunch of his releases, including one that came with a bunch of metal shavings (in a ziploc iirc), and the other with forest leaves and branches and dirt in a handmade wooden box. Now that's what I call unforgettable!

3. The "Lost Format" Sound
Audiophiles will argue about vinyl’s "warmth." We argue about the CD’s "clinical brutality." For genres like Harsh Noise Wall or electroacoustic improvisation, the crystal-clear, unforgiving nature of a CD is perfect. It delivers the full frequency assault exactly as you intended, with no tape hiss (unless you wanted tape hiss, in which case you probably used a cassette). It’s the sound of precision meeting chaos. You get what the artist wanted you to get.

4. The Unboxing Video Economy
Believe it or not, there are weirdos (and we say that with love) who love watching other weirdos unbox limited-run experimental music. It’s a thing. YouTubers and TikTokers with esoteric tastes love showcasing physical objects that look cool on camera. A professionally pressed CD with wild artwork from a label like RZRecords (or your label, or just a self release) is infinitely more interesting to film than a screenshot of a Bandcamp page. It’s free marketing to a tiny, dedicated niche.

5. They Are Unhackable and Un-deplatformable
The internet is a fickle god. Bandcamp got bought and sold. SoundCloud might disappear tomorrow. Streaming services can remove your music for a "sample" you didn't even know you used. A Paxit track got a removal notice just for that, and get this, it wasn't a sample, it was a Casio preset sound that was used on another track, and some algo decided we're in violation. A CD, once pressed, is forever. Sort of, if you treat it right. It exists outside the control of Silicon Valley. You can sell it at a show in a basement in Poland. You can trade it for a beer in Serbia. It’s the ultimate DRM-free, apocalypse-proof format. When the grid goes down, the survivors will fight over canned goods and your limited-edition split EP.

The Cons: Why You Might Be an Idiot for Pressing Plastic

1. The Financial Black Hole
Let's not sugarcoat it: pressing CDs costs money. Money you could spend on a new pedal, or a lifetime supply of ramen. And unlike a digital file which costs you $0 to duplicate, you now have 100 identical pieces of polycarbonate sitting in your living room. If your mom buys one and your best friend buys one, you have 98 left. We at RZRecords have released albums on CD-R that remain unsold in basements, closets, under beds, in storage, you name it, we gave some of those away over time, no idea what's become of those. We know the feeling. It's like owning a pet rock that you have to feed with your own cash.

2. The Obsolete Hardware Problem
Let’s be real: most people under 25 do not own a CD player. They might have a PlayStation or an old laptop with a disc drive gathering dust, but the era of the dedicated stereo is over. You are creating a product that a significant portion of your potential audience literally cannot play. You might as well be pressing wax cylinders. It requires the listener to own a piece of retro tech, which is a pretty big ask for music that’s already challenging to the ear. Same goes for making CDRs, or ripping releases. CD drives just don't come as standard anymore.

3. Shipping Costs More Than the CD
You want to sell that CD to a fan in the Philippines? Great! The shipping will cost triple what you charged for the disc. International postage in 2026 is a nightmare of bureaucratic forms and shocking prices. That beautiful artifact you created now has a massive barrier to entry. Digital files, for all their soullessness, travel for free. They slip through borders like whispers. That's very poetic, but it's also harsh.

4. The Environmental Guilt
We’re an international, DIY-oriented collective. We care about the planet. And pressing a CD involves polycarbonate plastic, aluminum, lacquer, paper and ink. It’s not exactly eco-friendly. You can mitigate this with recycled materials and small runs, but at the end of the day, you are manufacturing physical waste. If your music is about the beauty of decay and the collapse of industry, this might be thematically on-brand. If not, it’s just guilt with a jewel case.

5. The Attention Span Problem
We live in the age of the scroll. A 45-minute Harsh Noise Wall track is a commitment. Asking someone to physically get up, find their obsolete CD player, put the disc in, and sit through your 20-minute field recording of a boiler room is a lot. Streaming allows for instant gratification (or instant confusion). A CD demands a ritual. And rituals are hard to sell.
Being a fanboy only goes so far. I bought the Dystopia vinyls to support the label and band, but I'm not a fan of playing 2 LPs, there's a lot of getting up involved, too much, some might say.

So, What’s the Verdict in 2026?

Here’s the RZRecords takeaway: Do it, but do it right.

Don't press a CD just to have a CD. Press it because the music demands an artifact. Press it because you have a vision for the physical packaging that tells half the story. Press it in tiny, numbered runs so it feels special. Use it as a tool for trade with other artists in our global community, from Japan to Canada to the US.

We’ll keep pressing them for the right projects, like the upcoming CD for the UIUIUI split or for compilations of artists who want to hold their work in their hands. We’ll keep shipping them to the weirdos who appreciate them. And we’ll keep laughing at the absurdity of it all while we do it.

Because that’s what we do at RZRecords. We ruin the world of noise and jazz and such, one unsold CD at a time.

Want to be part of the chaos? Hit us up for a collaboration, a spot on a split series, or just to chat about the best way to package the sound of a broken appliance. We’re always looking to expand our community.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go mail a CDR to someone in Ukraine. Wish me luck.