single on a stick
Its not surprising that Universal have announced the release of some upcoming singles on USB memory sticks, or that its been done before. Its just funny cos I’ve been investigating an idea for distribution of escape act’s music using a cheap alternative to the CD. The USB memory stick just doesn’t fit the bill however. For small time operator like me, its too expensive, as it can’t be bought with a low enough capacity to make sense, and creating a reusable drive is teeming with pitfalls.
This is still a digital file we’re buying here. As a punter, why would i pay the £5 proposed by Universal for something i can get for a fraction of that cost, or for nothing, online? Even with a bunch of extra multimedia content and the storage itself there’s no real added value in the memory stick itself, at least after the first purchase, and even so, do they expect customers to reuse it?
When i plug it into my PC will it take over and install some crap I don’t want? Will it even work on my Mac? If I already have a memory stick can I just walk into the shop and load it up? Or what, in this carbon conscious world, should I just throw it away?!? Sounds like a lot of hassle to me. If i’m going to the bother of going to a shop to buy a single, i want my CD and my artwork! If i want it on my iPod, i can rip it if I want to!
It will be interesting to see how successful this experiment is, and if people are open to receiving music in other forms however this smells like the mangled interpretation of focus group feedback (with a little Apple-avoidance thrown in for good measure). Universal have deep enough pockets to try it out though.
Categorized as music industry