I started this project in 2018 to archive self-released and self-produced CDs. It began on instagram, and the cataloguing continues there alongside this site: https://www.instagram.com/citizendisc/ No music from the CDs is being hosted or distributed on here, but I am linking to where you can listen online and to the current work the artists are doing. Have a look at my more in depth explainer about [[the cataloguing process]] for more details. ### what is a Citizen Disc? Once upon a time, before the dawn of streaming and perhaps even the mp3 file, we could only share music as physical media. Some of us took advantage of increasingly cheap CD duplication services or bulk buy CD-Rs to press our own demos, albums or media. We were songwriters, sonic experimenters, rock bands, DJs, poets, hip-hop artists, film composers and even yoga teachers. Yes, I am one of these people - and my work is also archived in here. The thing about these CDs is that they hung around, long after we moved on to other ways of distributing music. The very valuable indie and before-they-were-famous releases found their way onto [Discogs](https://www.discogs.com/?utm_term=discogs&utm_campaign=Branded&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=2511070236&hsa_cam=1446880277&hsa_grp=61871745812&hsa_ad=285291938553&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-88831663&hsa_kw=discogs&hsa_mt=b&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=1446880277&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIid7Sso_ljgMVIZtQBh1W4ATAEAAYASAAEgIMg_D_BwE) for collectors. The rest ended up in charity shops, in storage boxes in local radio stations, in personal collections, and in discarded bundles of promos. These are the Citizen Discs *(C.D. - get it?)* - the remnants of the media we so carefully created and/or released by ourselves, without the help of major record labels or international distributors. I wanted to archive these because I see them as the product of a lot of care and labour that was usually unpaid, as wishes made when they got posted out in search of distribution deals or radio play or gigs, and as artefacts that preserve an history of the early internet and all its promise. I have many more thoughts about all these things, and will be writing about the archive and what emerges from it on here. This looking so closely at a recent history was inspired by [Walter Benjamin's](https://www.adk.de/en/archives/archives-departments/walter-benjamin-archiv/index.htm) work and in particular his [*Das Passagen-Werk* or Arcades Project](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcades_Project), as well as [Michael Thompson's *Rubbish Theory*](https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745399782/rubbish-theory/), both of which I hope to bring into my writing here. ### support this site! If you want to support this site, please just have a look around and find a link to follow and go listen to someone's music online. There are great things to listen to in this archive - I know because I've listened to all of it. ### links Besides this website, Citizen Disc lives [on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/citizendisc/), [on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/user/317mufs5rxc6milkm2ld2622thrm) and [on Soundcloud](https://soundcloud.com/citizendisc). ### contact If you want to send me tips for sourcing these CDs, have one you'd like to archive, or anything else (including any missing links or info on here!) - email Fiona at citizendisc(at)gmail.com ### to do list - September 2025 This site is set up as a digital garden and is built using [Obsidian Publish](https://obsidian.md/publish). It is a work in progress. I am currently working on: - [x] Publishing the full catalogue to date on here, complete with tags and links - [x] Adding an explainer for the tags and descriptions (the method, basically) - [ ] Adding a page about the digital garden method - [ ] Porting notes and research to the public site to start writing on here - [ ] Continuing the archive work by adding more CDs on here