Industry & Culture
Are Flash Drive Albums The Wave of The Future?
After Erykah Badu's announcement that her soon-to-be-released New AmErykah is only the first of three albums she'll be releasing this year with the other two, Return of The Ankh and New AmErykah II, being released via USB flash drive, it seems as though more artists are getting on the digital bandwagon. It was, therefore, very interesting to find an email in my inbox this morning announcing DJ J.Period's release of a limited edition USB Flash drive featuring six of his Best Of Collections, including one my favorites, his Best of Lauryn Hill which features tons of unreleased material. More research into this USB drive music phenomenon led me to discover that J.Lo had also released her last album Brave via a wooden mahogany USB drive that could also be worn as a necklace. Ahh, très chic...and only seventy dollars! With the record drop in album sales recently, the music industry may want to take notice of this trend. After the QTrax site that really never was, and the preponderance of consumers who already are familiar with digital music platforms, this may be a trend we will start to see more and more often.
J.Period Limitied Edition 1 GB Flash Drive & MP3 Boxset [JP]
"Flash Drive Albums (Pt. 3) - Erykah Badu Goes Digital" [TH]
Tags: erykah badu, j.lo, j.period, jennifer lopez, lauryn hill
Comments
I dont dig this, while technology has made the music more ready avalibale than ever, the sound of the music has been decreasin in my opinion. Music still sounds the best when it is played an actual record album.
BC Planning | February 8, 2008 7:41 PM | PermalinkUSB drives are definitely hip for the moment but they won't be the next dominant physical media format that takes the place of CD. Only us old heads still care about our music being an actual physical thing that you can hold and display.
How will promotional tunes be distributed (other than the tons of mp3's that I already get by email)? I bet it'll be something like punching a code into your cell phone at a concert to get a free exclusive tune right there on the spot.
DJStylus | February 7, 2008 6:00 PM | PermalinkMy concern with all this flash drive business is where the heck am I going to store all these blasted things? Are they going to make flash drive shelving units? Are they going to end up in the bottom of my desk drawer? Once you download the music and other goodies will you throw the flash drives away (or hopefully recycle them)? So many questions...
Butta | February 7, 2008 4:03 PM | PermalinkThis is a great marketing tool that has infiltrated the corporate world for a few years. It's nice to see it being worked in the creative realm as well!
Fave | February 7, 2008 3:31 PM | Permalink