It's been announced that around 1000 copies of Keane's new single are going to be released on USB, (one of those memory stick type things).

Is there anybody who thinks this is a good way to release music, (what with the changes into digital) or is there anybody who doesn't think it will last?

It's a cute idea, but not practical. The cost of a USB flash drive, even a small capacity one, is quite a bit more than a CD or DVD. I'd imagine the cost of an album would be significantly more.

Plus, It would be so inconvenient to store. Imagine having to store and sort through 1000+ flash drives to find an album you want to listen to.

I hadn't considered storage and I guess that could be key whether they hang them on hooks or put them in little boxes like cassete tapes.

Also the price £3.99 (about $9 I figure) is very expensive for a single.

quote:

Originally posted by Eccles:
Also the price £3.99 (about $9 I figure) is very expensive for a single.

Ouch. That is quite pricey. That's 10 songs from iTunes.

They're not the first to do this. Barenaked Ladies were selling "Barenaked on a Stick" through their website for a while. It wasn't a bad deal: it was around $20 for a 256 MB stick with all of their albums and some unreleased tracks (to lure the completists). Once you put the music files on your computer, you can delete the files and you've got a perfectly good (empty)flash drive. You can probably get a 256 MB flash drive for under $10 now, but when I first heard about the BNL version, they were around $20.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: philosopherEric,

well that Barenaked idea is certainly a good one. But Keane releasing a single (is never a good idea) on USB is just silly, a PR gimmick.

If it were to hold the complete recordings of a band, it might not be such a bad idea, depending on the price.

Well, other than the fact that I think that death is probably too good for each and every member of Keane, (ugh, ugh, YUCK, Keane... *spits*) it's a lame idea. How about releasing the CD single without 10 layers of compromisingly intrusive copy-protection? Just about everybody knows how to rip and those that don't can obviously learn. It's not a bad idea per se, just a pretty useless one.