Any of you selling albums on USB thumb drives?

[MrKnobs]

I think that's our next experiment.

 

256kbps (or maybe 320 kbps) MP3s of BOTH albums PLUS some short vids, album cover/insert, still pics, and lyrics, maybe a story about how and why some of the key songs were written, all for $20 and ready to plug into your (recently made) car stereo.

 

I can get 1-2 GB thumb drives with customized logo print for about $5 each. That's not too bad compared to the labor and materials to duplicate a CDR and print the case material.

 

Anyone try that? Anyone find a better price on 1 GB thumb drives?

 

Terry D.

 

P.S. Another option is to sell HD versions of the songs (i. e. 96 kHz, 24 bit wav files) but then there'd be the cost of remastering.

[BuckshotJenkins]

I thought the same thing as another way to hand out press kits to folks that are on the computer more than the cd player.

 

Could fit the whole thing on there with lots of goodies and the recipient can fit it...anywhere? Seems the easiest way to accommodate an interested person.

 

Selling is the most appealing idea though.

[richardmac]

I think that's our next experiment. 256kbps (or maybe 320 kbps) MP3s of BOTH albums PLUS some short vids, album cover/insert, still pics, and lyrics, maybe a story about how and why some of the key songs were written, all for $20 and ready to plug into your (recently made) car stereo. I can get 1-2 GB thumb drives with customized logo print for about $5 each. That's not too bad compared to the labor and materials to duplicate a CDR and print the case material. Anyone try that? Anyone find a better price on 1 GB thumb drives? Terry D. P.S. Another option is to sell HD versions of the songs (i. e. 96 kHz, 24 bit wav files) but then there'd be the cost of remastering.

 

I haven't seen anyone do this successfully, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. It's got some things going against it, though... 95% of the cars on the road today can't read a usb stick, so the idea of listening to the CD you bought at the show (which I think we've all done) is out the window. Cost wise it's more expensive to make than a CD... you can have 1,000 CD's made for less than a buck each. You can have 100 CD's made for a little over 2 bucks each. There's also a problem with perception... A little usb stick "feels" like you're getting less than, say 2 shrink wrapped CD's. There's no cover art (for the packaging,) no songs listed on the back. Granted, you can include way more stuff on a stick, but we're talking about perception here.

 

Regarding the additional content - videos, artwork, pictures, lyrics - those are things that fans expect to find online for free on the band's web site. I don't see any of those things as being premium content or stuff that I would think I'd get when I buy something.

 

I kind of like the 24 bit idea, though. It would be a very small percentage of people who give a shit, but it would be cool for them.

 

To me it almost feels like "We're tossing in a lot of stuff - this is all worth twenty bucks, right?"

 

I like the idea as a press kit. But if I'm a fan of a band or artist, here's what I'd rather see: CD's, $10, or buy both CD's for $15.

 

But talking about it on a forum won't answer the question. I'd do both - have CD's made up, and have a few USB sticks made up. Then see which one sells and which one doesn't. Simple enough.

[daddymack]

Knobs, how many units do you need to buy to get the $5 per price?

That seems to present a price point issue, as Richard mentioned, about perception...little flash drives, even with a logo on them don't 'feel' substantial, despite the content volume...what would you sell these at?

Also, are they reusable? I don't know about you, but when I need one, I just grab one and overwrite it... (I have a drawer full )

I'd say get lower end (512M) flash drives with the logo as 'giveaways' minus the content to get your name/logo out.

[MrKnobs]

Knobs, how many units do you need to buy to get the $5 per price? That seems to present a price point issue, as Richard mentioned, about perception...little flash drives, even with a logo on them don't 'feel' substantial, despite the content volume...what would you sell these at? Also, are they reusable? I don't know about you, but when I need one, I just grab one and overwrite it... (I have a drawer full ) I'd say get lower end (512M) flash drives with the logo as 'giveaways' minus the content to get your name/logo out.

 

$5 is at min order of 25, at least what I've seen so far.

 

Yeah, they're reusable, so the person buying one at a minimum gets a $5 flash drive he can use after he s-cans your stuff..

 

As far as 512 vs 1GB or 2GB, there's little difference in price. So, selling a 2GB flash drive gives more value to the buyer in the scenerio I've described above....

 

And I figure if you're gonna have to sell a 2GB thumb drive, might as well put a few things on it.

 

We're thinking in the $15 -$20 range given there will be both albums on it (24 songs) plus maybe 5 unreleased songs and a video or three.

 

Of course we'd still have the two albums on CD as an option.

 

Terry D.

[daddymack]

The main drawback I see here is economics. With the recession dragging on another year or two at least, less and less people are coming out to shows, and they are less inclined to spend money on ancillaries. We have watched our CD sales to 'captive audiences' dwindling..where five years ago we would sell 5-10 CDs per show, now we are lucky to sell one.

Don't take this the wrong way, either, I think in many ways the flash drive approach is pretty cool. We are toying with a DVD instead of a CD for our next release, where we would have live performance footage, interviews with the band, etc...plus the all the audio, including out-takes and material we left off previous discs...bonus tracks if you will. Obviously, this, too, restricts it being 'played in the car on the way home'...one would think by now some smart automobile media players would be on the market that could handle USB and DVD...

[richardmac]

Some of the new car stereos can. But it's more likely that a modern car stereo will accommodate an iPod than a USB stick.

[michael_B]

CD's are less important than ever and I'm not sure that being able to "play it on the way home" is really that important anymore. What is important is people being able to quickly get the files on their mp3 players, an area where CD's are a detriment.

[fatusstratus]

I cant recall really ever playing a CD from a show I just went to on the ay home...I probably have at some point, but not that I really recall -- it's not really a big driver for me (or those I hang out with I suppose b/c I can,t really say that's something that gets done regularly around me).

 

for me and my ilk, i think it may be more common to play a recording of the artist on the way TO a show as a warm up..still, that's not all that common for me.

 

for me after show..well i've just been immersed in that music, so I dontreally hunger fora redux just then.

 

eh, just a different perspective on that..that "soft" stuff is a lot harder to nail down that stuff like the "hard" cost analysis stuff and I thik the soft stuff is really open to interpretation and bias from our own preferences, etc

 

 

I've seen various thumb drive releases , but it..so far at least strikes me as more an attention getter than a really superior release format in term of price and features and whatnot

[richardmac]

 

I cant recall really ever playing a CD from a show I just went to on the ay home...I probably have at some point, but not that I really recall -- it's not really a big driver for me (or those I hang out with I suppose b/c I can,t really say that's something that gets done regularly around me). for me and my ilk, i think it may be more common to play a recording of the artist on the way TO a show as a warm up..still, that's not all that common for me. for me after show..well i've just been immersed in that music, so I dontreally hunger fora redux just then. eh, just a different perspective on that..that "soft" stuff is a lot harder to nail down that stuff like the "hard" cost analysis stuff and I thik the soft stuff is really open to interpretation and bias from our own preferences, etc I've seen various thumb drive releases , but it..so far at least strikes me as more an attention getter than a really superior release format in term of price and features and whatnot

 

 

Good point. We all look at ourselves and our friends and use that as a basis for determining what reality is... and in some cases we're right and in some cases we're dead wrong! And we don't really know. There is a mindset that supports the idea of buying music at a gig, though... if people have a great time at a show, purchasing a t-shirt or CD or whatever is a way of taking that memory home with them. Having something to remind them of the great time they had. If true, this would explain why you are more likely to purchase something from a great show than from a good show or a bad show.

 

Everyone constantly wants to write the CD off, but it's still cheaper than going the USB stick route. For now. If the USB sticks ever get to the point where you can buy 5 for a dollar, then that will be a different story. And there's no reason that might not happen in the future. Personally I'm not a big fan of them because they are SO damn easy to lose.

[fatusstratus]

 

There is a mindset that supports the idea of buying music at a gig, though... if people have a great time at a show, purchasing a t-shirt or CD or whatever is a way of taking that memory home with them.

 

 

yeah, that's a little bit of a different issue I suppose, because in that case "play it on the way home" isn;t the factor that's going to drive specific media selection.

 

but the overall packaging stuff you were talking about would still apply. though I don't know if that matters equally to everyone...esp to the "gen-i" people

 

 

 

 

Personally I'm not a big fan of them because they are SO damn easy to lose.

 

 

hmm, that brings up something I hadn't really thought about in the show context, but has come up at industrial events...I suppose the other side of that coin is they are easy to pocket (though for ladies with larger purses this could be a non-issue).

I don't know if it would be an issue and it might be different for different demographic segments...just throwing that out there

 

Just throwing out some thoughts - it's not really meant as a justification for "Yes USB" I'm pretty ambivalent on the issue from a strictly personal standpoint (it's not really been a big practical issue as of yet...I think mainly, as you've mentioned b/c of the hard numbers).

 

But I think the issue of what's next as far as medium is raising its head and people are maybe trying to get ahead of the curve on this one.

 

On a slightly related note - what about non redbook CD/DVD? or redbook CD with DVD data (in the V="versatile" as opposed to "video" sense)