AfterDawn: Tech news

Bob Marley album sold on USB drive

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Jun 2007 7:42 User comments (24)

Bob Marley album sold on USB drive The late singer Bob Marley realeased his excellent "Exodus" album in 1977 as vinyl record but now the record label has decided to re-release the album, not on vinyl, not on CD, but on a USB flash drive.
Island Records, a subsidiary of the Universal Music Group, produced 4000 of the drives for the re-release and loaded them with the original 10 songs plus additional tracks and exclusive concert footage of the singer. The drives will cost a hefty $44.99 USD.

The label says the high price relfects not only the extra content but the fact that the drive can be formatted and reused after the songs are taken off and put on your PC.

Last year, the Barenaked Ladies released their album on USB sticks as well as CDs and the drives have sold almost 1000 copies at $25 USD a piece.

“Once you upload the music to your computer, you have a piece of hardware,”
says Adam Smith, who manages artists at the Nettwerk Music Group, “If you’re buying a U.S.B. stick, the cost is not so much different to buy it loaded with music from your favorite band.”



Source:
NYTimes

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24 user comments

15.6.2007 20:24
jinggoy
Inactive

Hm... will i expect a usb drive player in the future?

25.6.2007 21:15

Interesting. A marketing gimmick, but still interesting.

35.6.2007 21:51

The ability to reformat and reuse. Wow does this not happen with all existing USB flash Drives. My question is what is the capacity of these over priced flash drives.

45.6.2007 22:01

Originally posted by borhan9:
The ability to reformat and reuse. Wow does this not happen with all existing USB flash Drives. My question is what is the capacity of these over priced flash drives.
32mb

55.6.2007 22:06

It seems only logical, CD's and DVD's are horribly unreliable.

If Music and Movies came on USB drives, I'd be more willing to shell out money for them, not $45 though.

65.6.2007 22:26

32MB is nothing i cant even store a piece of software for that much space on that flash drive. I was expecting 1 to 2 gig at least.

75.6.2007 22:37

Hummm... ??? i have a problem with 32 bm buyt i doubt it is that small. That would have to be a shitty rip of the songs to be that small & fit other media on it too.. i would expect 512-1gb keys! you can get a 1gb for 10-15$ now days & yes they have use audio players a lot of newer car stereos have a usb plug to directly plug in your ipod and/or a usb key full of mp3's!

85.6.2007 22:57

Originally posted by ripxrush:
Hummm... ??? i have a problem with 32 bm buyt i doubt it is that small. That would have to be a shitty rip of the songs to be that small & fit other media on it too.. i would expect 512-1gb keys! you can get a 1gb for 10-15$ now days & yes they have use audio players a lot of newer car stereos have a usb plug to directly plug in your ipod and/or a usb key full of mp3's!
nah i was kidding.


32mb would be a disgrace.

theyre at least 512mb.

but i cant be sure.

105.6.2007 23:52

The answer to the first question is, they have already got "usb flash drive players" on some stereos, especially incar, take a look: http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product.asp?product=22720 .

116.6.2007 00:56
scott2k7
Inactive

what does bob marley put in his donuts
wid jammin! lol

126.6.2007 02:21

It's a pretty cool looking stick that he has there.

136.6.2007 02:58

bob marley had 15 different species of head lice in his hair.

thats a fact.

the size of the usb flash drive is however still unknown.

146.6.2007 03:01
scott2k7
Inactive

15 wtf! seriously?

156.6.2007 03:05

haha yeah man, im talking SPECIES not like... 15 bugs ya know.
thats a lot.

haha

166.6.2007 03:06
scott2k7
Inactive

did he ever wash his hair lol

176.6.2007 03:52

i think if people still want to go to shops to buy music you might take your own flash disk down and plug it in at the store and pay for the music that way

186.6.2007 03:55
scott2k7
Inactive

yeh thats a good idea if you dont have internet but i get my music for free on a site which has no viruses

197.6.2007 14:35

Originally posted by scott2k7:
yeh thats a good idea if you dont have internet but i get my music for free on a site which has no viruses
pffft.

viruses.

they dont exist in my world.

iMac FTW =]

208.6.2007 17:05

What I'd like to know is what file format are they using for the songs? We (IndepenDisc) just released a 1 gig Flashdrive Album from the independent band: Jellyshirts. It has a browser format that displays the Cover, with pages for Playlists, Liner Notes, a photo booklet, live web links, and an 8 minute video of the recording of the album. There are 16 songs in .wav file format (an .ogg for transfer onto .mp3 players). The amazing thing about the .wav format is, that it gives a much better fidelity than a CD. No moving parts, no wobble and drift. You can actually hear the difference. Also, soon to come 24 bit!! Not only that, but they're priced at $17.98
Check it out: http://www.independisc.com/jellyshirts.htm

2123.7.2007 13:58

Man. I just paid $30 for a 4G flash drive. With a little effort on the Internet, I can fit the entire Marley family's studio output on the 1 drive.

2215.8.2007 20:04

Originally posted by RIPKDC:
bob marley had 15 different species of head lice in his hair.

thats a fact.

the size of the usb flash drive is however still unknown.
Does that mean the moon is also made of cheese?

2313.11.2009 15:35
goldenchu
Inactive

It's a pretty novel idea and anyone with the will to try can do this whether they make music or distribute any other form of data. You can even get the drive custom printed to make the best possible impression. Learn more about custom printed flash drives.
SPAM removed

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 14 Nov 2009 @ 6:57

2414.11.2009 01:01

in theory its a good idea as you could get a USB drive and load it with an artist full list of songs but considering its only got 10 tracks it doesn't seem that good.The other problem is people can just download the tracks on put them on a usb drive and you will have all the songs anyway and it would be cheaper.they could even use some acrylic paint and paint a picture of bob marley on the usb drive.

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