Numero Group - Dropping CDs & Huge CD sale

I started a thread (now closed) a few years back with rumblings that the excellent Numero Group would no longer be manufacturing CDs. As it turns out, this is now officially true. From their website:

Sixteen years ago we set out on a journey to compile lost and forgotten recordings on silver discs, packaged in stylish slipcases with overstuffed booklets. In that time we pressed nearly a million CDs, wallpapering many a music cave with our colorful spines. We set a new standard for the format, won a few awards, and somehow managed to squeeze out deluxe 11 and 16 disc sets when the rest of the industry was slimming their entire catalogs down for the truck stop market. It was a great ride, but today we announce that our time in the compact disc trench is largely over. In 2019 we’ve pressed exactly two titles on CD, and there are no plans in the foreseeable future to make any more.

But our loss is your gain! For the next seven days, the bulk of the Numero CD catalog is on sale for a mere $6 per disc. That 11 CD Unwound box? Now just $66. Spirit Free: Plays Starship CD? Sadly, still $6. This is a great opportunity to fill out your Numero library at a price rarely seen. Many of these titles will be going out of print with this sale, never to be seen in their original shrink wrap again.

Which is a shame, but I guess the silver lining is a nice sale.

 

When you are selling niche albums, it is obviously going to make sense to try and force people to buy it on vinyl instead of CD because the profit margin is huge in comparison. Which is a shame. Vinyl fetishism has a lot to answer for.

 

I agree with this. I think it also stinks because the CD format is really great for big, archival sets - like the Unwound one they put out. Especially when the price difference between a 6xCD box and a 10xLP box is what it is right now. It's just painful to watch your lifelong hobby start to slip away.

 

...and a couple of folks have complained of defective Numero pressings elsewhere on this forum.

So, it now looks like the only ways to obtain/consume Numero releases are via downloads, vinyl of dubious quality, and - big YAY ! - streaming. I have been a BIG fan of Numero's work up to this point, but they just lost a customer.

Keep chasing those streaming pennies, labels.

 

Their vinyl is very well mastered, but the manufacturing quality is hit or miss, usually miss. I wish they would find another pressing plant - I'd be ok paying a bit more for better quality.

As for the $6 sale, I could only find 20 CDs that I wanted.

 

Get the Bedhead ($24.00)and ORK($12.00) boxes if you don't have them.

 

And so it begins. A niche label like Numero cuts the cord with CDs: which major label or major legacy artist such as McCartney or the Stones will be the first to follow? I think there are already major hip hop albums that have only received streaming releases: will rock albums be next?

 

The new Tyler The Creator, Beyoncé's live album and the new Blood Orange are all streaming only.

 

If you don't think vinyl will be the next on the chopping block, maybe not soon but sooner than we all think, you're likely to be very surprised. Once these labels can realize they can maximize even more profits without manufacturing ANY physical product, it'll be out the door too.

 

The Ork set is definitely recommended— and it’s actually only $12!

I’m glad they leave the door ever so open for future CD releases, even if there are no short term plans for any. For instance, I’d really hope if there’s a follow-up Husker Du set that there would be a a CD option.

 

Thing is, something like The Duster box is already unavailable on cd, and it just came out this year.
That Ork box is worth the 12 bucks for the book alone.

 

Yup, really glad I grabbed that Duster set when I did. It's a shame to see a well-deserved reissue like that disappear again within well under a year.

 

It’s a shame that they’re getting out of CDs but I guess they know their business and what sells so they must see sense in this.

The vinyl sets they release are nice...but they stopped doing download codes. You can get a download if you order direct but the shipping cost makes that unappealing for me.

 

Just bought it! Thanks

 

Sad to see this happen. But based on my limited experience with Numero Group, they were always all about records, CDs were just an afterthought. They were really marketing to the LP crowd. That's not to disparage the work they did, or suggest that the CDs weren't of good quality ('cause they were - at least, the few that I have). But that's just how they struck me.

Incidentally, the one CD I'm specifically looking for from them - the Husker Du Savage Young Du set - is not discounted. Neither is the Extra Circus card sleeve CD which I already have. And due to their annoying website design, I can't even get more than two "pages" to load (and by "pages", I mean "load more" and extend the same webpage, making the navigation sluggish) so I don't even know what else they have to offer! I was going to look for some deals but I'm just going to sit this one out due to their web design (and, if all CDs are $6 per disc, charging $24 for a liner notes book).

 

They teased a second collection of Husker Du, I would hate for that to not to get a CD release.

 

I paid full price for the Ork box when it came out, and it was worth it. For $12, it’s a steal.

I checked out the discount list, but I already bought all the titles I wanted the last time Numero had a CD blowout sale. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these deleted CDs eventually become collector’s items and go for 20 bucks or more on eBay.

 

The Bedhead box is 4cds plus a thick booklet. The Ork set is a hardbound book with the cds in the cover. It comes in a slipcase and the photos and liner notes are some of the best things I've seen from that era, a history of NY rock at that time. The sound is also the best I've heard for those singles.

 

The Duster cd's are already going for big bucks.

 

Grabbing Ork based on everyone's recommendations. A lot of Numero's stuff is a bit out of my wheelhouse, but the 16 CD (out of print) Scharpling and Wurster box set they did is absolutely incredible.

 

The Eccentric Soul CDs are some of the best, most thorough soul compilations in my collection. I appreciated the amount of care and research that obviously went into producing them; the liner notes that accompanied each release read like full-fledged published biographies. It is absolutely devastating to know that future installments of this series will be vinyl/dl/streaming only.

 

Geez, created an extensive order; submitted CC info and submitted. Next screen goes blank. No confirmation.

Sent an E-Mail to them to see if they received the order. Anyone else have had this happen?

 

I found my mistake; I signed in "After" the cart order. Were good now, phew didn't want to miss this sale. Fantastic stuff.

 

Tyler’s album is coming out on CD in a couple of weeks and vinyl about a month later