At the dawn of the CD age, getting information about which of your favorite LPs was being reissued on CD when wasn’t that easy. Record stores (as we called them back then) had their CDs either behind the counter or in a single rack somewhere in the store.
As a result, many CD-only stores popped up, and most of them were great. My favorite was Chicago Compact Disc in Evanston, who had a huge selection of domestic, import, and bootleg CDs. We also used to get a bunch of people together to place orders from a company out of Oregon called Noteworthy Music, who published several catalogs a year and carried some really cool, really rare CDs.
In order to keep up with what was coming down the CD pipeline, some publications started up as well. The best of these was a four-page newsletter which was xeroxed on yellow paper called “International CD Exchange.” I picked up my first copy at Chicago Compact Disc in August of 1987. I was so impressed that I immediately subscribed: and it turns out I was one of the first to do so.
ICE was primarily a listing of upcoming releases from the record companies, but over the years it grew to include articles about artists and recordings, concerts, and digital media. It also progressed from the photocopied sheet to a 24-page full color magazine.
19 years later, ICE has closed its doors.
Subscribers received a letter from publisher Pete Howard explaining his decision to close down the magazine (the letter is on the site in the link above).
I emailed Pete to let him know how sorry I was to see his magazine go. Along with ICE, over the years I also subscribed to Musician, Rolling Stone, Goldmine, and CD Review as a part of my music-listening hobby. As I told Pete, ICE was the only magazine subscription that survived 19 years, at least seven address changes, and some major life events on my end.
ICE always stuck to what it did best, and they adapted to the new technologies as they arrived: when email and web sites became prevalent in the mid-90s, they were a part of it. And when the Diamond Rio, Napster, and MP3s came around they reported on it. And then, when the little white box with the wheel appeared… you know the rest.
It’s impressive to think of a publication that made it through all the changes in the way we communicate and we’re entertained.
Pete wrote back to tell me he appreciated my sentiments, and that he was going to share my email with his parents. Now there’s an endorsement..
R.I.P. ICE. We’ll miss you.