Playbutton

[machinefabriek]

Found this today: http://www.playbutton.co/
A label releasing buttons that have a build-in player with one album on it.
A bit gimmicky maybe, but I like it!

[Orphax]

Yeah, someone I know has one of these.
Looks like a lot of fun. Would love to make one myself 

[oootini]

hmm. not convinced. nice roster of artists, but just too much of a gimmick.

[taylordeupree]

i've been in touch with these guys for a bit.. it does border on gimmicky, but it has an appeal as well. unfortunately, they are prohibitively expensive .. with large minimum runs.

still, there's potential in there somewhere...

[haesslich]

do you know which codec this thingy uses? is it mp3?

[oootini]

this imagining of how music might be consumed in the future seems pretty interesting to me.

http://vimeo.com/16064308

i still think it's kind of strange though - if people really want to hold onto the physical in a music artefact, why not just keep it simple? why does everything have to be swept up into the "cloud"?

[Orphax]

I so much do not like that thing. It feels so unreal to me. Kind of fake...no just keep those slabs of black gold coming in that case...

[taylordeupree]

i think simply because people don't KNOW what they want right now. for some reason CDs are being painted as bad, as yesterday's technology (despite the clear audio quality advantage over MP3).

consumers are very confused... being force fed new formats and shiny new technologies, now the cloud (streaming will be the final nail in the small record label coffins).

there is a lot of innovation happening (playbutton, etc) but most of these things are speciality types of products, not a new mass format. i don't think we'll see any new mass physical formats in our lifetime. the CD was the last. (or optical disc/sacd, etc)

i still think it's kind of strange though - if people really want to hold onto the physical in a music artefact, why not just keep it simple? why does everything have to be swept up into the "cloud"?

[runningonair]

Serious music listing has always been a niche interest.  I don't believe things have changed that much really.  As regards CDs, people will be able to rediscover them in the 2020s.  After 10 years of listening to cassettes and vinyl they'll be as fresh as when they came out in the 1980s! 

[Le Berger]

Yeah, we probably won't see another mass physical format, that much is true. And when we're speaking of novelty products, it sticks and caters to the few in the know or at best it's a trend for a little while.

But these niches and fads can very much pop up and thrive for a bit before fading out, and whoever taps into them may see a little spike in revenues for a while. Not sure I'd like to be the one backing up the R&D for those however, it's very much a gamble and the demand for it is not intuitive, you best pray that your marketing targets the right folks or hipsters fall in love with it...

I think there are other ways to be imaginative with your product offer without getting that gimmicky.