The Value of Scarcity

Why we make CDs — and why only 500 copies

First up: John Fordham has written a really nice review of Anthony Braxton’s Quartet (England) 1985 in the Guardian today. “Salvaged by state-of-the-art tech methods from former Wire magazine writer and Braxton chronicler Graham Lock’s original lo-fi cassette recordings, the set celebrates Braxton’s conviction that triggering loose improv through tightly challenging compositions can mirror the everyday flux of living. On the Sheffield gig, Braxton’s alto sax (the constructions of Charlie Parker, Warne Marsh, John Coltrane and many more fly by) over jostling four-note patterns takes off into flying avant-bebop. Leicester’s show similarly launches on stop-start bop-reminiscent figures that stretch into free-collective passages powered by bassist Mark Dresser’s pizzicato and bowing skills, drummer Gerry Hemingway’s muscularity and mercurial pianist Marilyn Crispell’s cauldron of delicacy and Cecil Taylor-esque intensity. The Bristol takes emphasise that the audio quality of quieter subgroups survives better than the band’s full-on jams, but the brief soundchecks on standard songs are enchanting, and Lock’s notes on Braxton’s methods are essential reading.” (Buy the set here.)

In Nate Chinen’s fantastic review of the Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley album Flashing Spirits, he writes, “Flashing Spirits is available on Bandcamp, but I bought a copy on CD and can attest that it’s well worth the $15. Its stylish cover art is by Phil’s wife, I.A. Freeman, and the package features a textured card-stock gatefold with an LP-style insert sleeve. (Phil says it’s being released in a limited edition of 500, so act accordingly.)”

Every Burning Ambulance Music CD is a limited edition of 500 copies. When our first two releases, Senyawa’s Alkisah and Ivo Perelman and Nate Wooley’s Polarity, came out, I told Grayson Currin, who was writing about Senyawa for the New York Times, “There may only be 500 people who are interested in the record I am putting out, but I am trying to find all 500.”

True confession time: I have not yet been able to find all 500 people interested in any of our releases. I have a storage unit full of unsold copies of every one. Flashing Spirits and our other new title, the Ava Mendoza/gabby fluke-mogul/Carolina Pérez album Mama Killa, are selling well at the moment, but if you want a copy of any of our records, I’ve got you covered.

The good news, for listeners in the EU, is that I’ve started working with a European distributor, Distrijazz, so you can get many of our releases through sites like Jazz Messengers and Grooves-Land, as well as No Man’s Land in Germany and, soon, Soundohm in Italy. I’m also working on placing CDs with Ray’s Jazz, a store in London, and possibly Café OTO as well. More on that as it develops (or doesn’t).

I’m a big fan of limited print runs. Burning Ambulance’s unofficial motto is “Not Everything Is For Everyone,” and that informs the kind of work we cover in this newsletter and on the website; the kind of records we release; and the approach we take to all of it.

I don’t write for a mass audience looking to have its pleasure centers rubbed — I write for an audience that wants to be informed about something new and interesting. And I don’t put out records I think will sell a million copies; I put out records I think absolutely need to exist for weirdos like me. As a result, I have a catalog of (as of this writing) 14 releases, each of which I’m proud to have helped put out into the world, and many of which would likely not have found a home elsewhere.

The same thing goes for the CDs I buy from other labels. My collection is full of wild shit released in limited runs by obsessed maniacs. Like a 2CD set of noise sorcerer Keiji Haino collaborating with an orchestra consisting of 20 sitar players. Or the Sony MasterSound editions of Miles Davis’s Agharta and Pangaea, which feature not just a completely different mix from the versions available in the US, but more music than any other edition. (Why this hasn’t become the standard edition I’ll never understand.) Or a special 3CD compilation of Einstürzende Neubauten’s Strategies Against Architecture I and II that’s so rare it’s not even listed on Discogs. Even when a (relatively) mainstream rock band releases a new album, I’m more likely to buy the limited first edition that comes with a bonus live CD than the regular retail version. It’s just how I’m wired.

The truth is, of course, that in 2025 everything is a limited edition, because there just aren’t enough people buying CDs anymore to justify manufacturing millions of copies of them. When I worked for Roadrunner Records, more than a decade ago now, it was possible to earn a spot on the lower rungs of the Billboard 200 albums chart by selling a thousand copies of your album in a single week. I’m sure there are people now who chart with sales of hundreds of copies. If you’re buying CDs at all, you are a distinct minority within the overall world of music fans. So we go out of our way to give you something special.

As I’ve said many times before, every one of our limited edition releases comes in an absolutely beautiful gatefold mini-LP sleeve printed on textured paper. It looks gorgeous standing up on top of your CD player, and it feels amazing in your hand, all thanks to our designer, I.A. Freeman, who as I have also said many times before, is available to design album art for you, too, at very reasonable rates.

Our entire catalog is visible here. Go have a look. Buy a CD or two. You’ll be glad you did.

That’s it for today — unless you’re a paying subscriber, in which case there are articles about sexuality in literature, anthropomorphism in science, “butt rock”, and Ozzy Osbourne after the paywall. And on Tuesday, we’ll be talking about James Brown.