After deciding not to release the recordings, the Teen Idles continued to tour locally. However, by October 1980, they had decided to break up, mostly because of Grindle's disillusionment with the band. In their year of touring, they had earned a total of $600. The members gave themselves two options; either divide the money between each member, or press the Inner Ear recordings. MacKaye later recalled, "We just said, 'Let's document overselves'. We figured that having a record would be pretty cool". Nelson added: "I don't remember thinking it was going to be anything more than just one record". Choosing the latter, MacKaye and Nelson founded Dischord Records with Groff's help to release the recordings.