Is USB music distribution a good idea?
On December 8th, 2009, The Beatles’ music will be available for purchase in the form of a green apple-shaped 16GB USB drive. This ripe USB drive will house The Beatles’ full stereo box set in high quality, DRM-free goodness. It will also include various documentaries and a collection of Beatles artwork and photo galleries. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, don’t you think? Alright, that was the last of the bad apple jokes, I promise. Mind you, The Beatles’ catalogue was re-mastered and released in mono and stereo box sets, on CD, on September 9th, 2009; and is still not available at any online music store.
To say that this release will mean little for the future of the USB music market would be a very narrow-minded statement. Artists have been attempting to sell their music this way for some time, but still wind up selling more music online or in the store. The success of this release will give everyone else in the industry something to consider. Truthfully, buying a USB drive with music crammed onto it just isn’t a novel idea to the typical music listener. Sure, the music is more than likely going to be dropped onto a computer and / or portable device – and not played as often in a CD player; but does that mean we should drop CDs from the market entirely? Bear in mind that this could be ideal for someone who doesn’t use an online music store for their listening pleasure. Also, many car stereos are supporting USB disk play these days. All of this being in place, is this a good next step for the music industry?
The USB drives will do the exact same thing that cds do. Take up room…the only pro to having it on USB is it takes up less room. I do love the artwork that goes into cds though.
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I think the consumer is gaining more freedom by being able to pick and choose which songs to DL, but at the same time is losing the nuances of an album: the artwork that sets the tone/mood (granted you can still have this on MP3 and iPod displays), the tracklisting and flow of the album, and the B-sides.
For people who still want that, they can make it happen with MP3s, but for the rest, it’s an art form and mystique they’d rather not bother with.
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I personally feel like sometimes I’m the only person who still likes buying cd’s. I mean i like the idea of them releasing on the USB and all but i agree with andrew i’m fond of the artwork that comes with an album i like collecting that stuff and you loose that with the USB.
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