Who knows what 12-24-year-olds want, better than major label record companies? Universal, Warner, and EMI are all banking on the concept that what folks in that demographic are really holding out for is a physical alternative to the passé compact disk.
The majors will begin rolling out USB drives loaded with albums in the UK, within the next few months, at around 10 USD, a pop. That price will include some extras available only via this format.
There is a certain validity to this, of course. Some of us do still prefer to own physical versions of our music, but in a lot of cases, we're also the sort of people who still have vinyl LPs taking up real estate in our bedrooms. This is generally for two reasons--first is for reasons of audio quality. If you're an audiophile, you know that there's a certain warm sound lacking in digital mediums, particularly compressed ones.
The second reason is artwork. When dealing with records, particularly those from the 60s and 70s, when album covers were elevated to an art form in and of themselves, there's no replacing a 12-inch vinyl cover.
While its doubtful that USB sticks will fill the desire for physical product in a big way, if there's any success in the medium at all, it will be interesting to see how artists use the form to express themselves. The sticks put out by The White Stripes on the release of Icky Thump are a perfect example.
My initial reaction is just to laugh the effort off as another boneheaded move on the part of the record industry, but, as long as there isn't too large a premium on this format, perhaps there's a niche market for these, after all.
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October 18, 2007 5:43 PM
I don't get it. USB drives can't be cheaper to produce than optical discs. Perhaps the RIAA wants to transition to thumbdrives so they can implement the encryption that they'll never be able to use on CDs.
Or maybe I'm wrong, and someday the kids will pull an old shoebox full of thumbdrives out from under the bed and get nostalgic about the days before holodiscs ruined music.