Kind of Being Dragged Kicking and Screaming Toward Offering Physical Products

Joe's Exploding Zoo has been selling digital albums for a few months now (at the time of this writing) and there is one thing that gets clearer and clearer to yours truly, it's that in all likelihood that if I dissolved into a puff of steam overnight and was never heard from again none of this music would be found online after about 10 years, maybe less.

That, in my mind, is due to the massively ephemeral nature of websites and online content platforms in general.

An artist dies, their work stops getting updated, and one by one the platforms that sold the artist's music go away, go out of business, mutate, or otherwise stop offering the artist's work.

Physical Product As Anthropological Curiosity

Physical media, especially made by the rare and weird musicians out there who never even bothered to care where their records wind up after they croak, is basically a form of cultural preservation that can be stored and referenced in an academic sense, but also for the sheer pleasure of maintaining these cultural contributions and their place in the continuum.

So I Started Wondering About Vinyl, Cassette Tapes, And Compact Discs (Really)

I would love for the music created by and for Joe's Exploding Zoo to live on after its digital presence is no longer an option, and the best way to do that is to commit music to vinyl, tape, and disc.

And as long as I am toying with physically releasing titles on vinyl, the notion occurs that offering vinyl-adjascent materal (books, DVDs, zines) is likely ALSO a good idea.

So after contemplating all that, I decided to begin work on the very first JoesExplodingZoo vinyl album release, which is being planned now. It's a slippery slope and as much as i would really rather not bother with all the packaging, mailing, and all the other fun chores associated with physical sales online, it feels like the right thing to do.

So stay tuned, kids...there is some vinyl weirdness getting ready to happen and some cassette tape weirdness also.