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Play Button: a wearable, uneditable album

playbutton.co

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Re: Play Button: a wearable, uneditable album

#3

Post by tdrgabi »

joss82 wrote: post #2

A low price would be crucial for the play button to really take off and become something bigger, badder than an interesting artistic experiment. $5 for a fully autonomous album anyone?

It's an interesting experiment.

But aren't we already spoiled with mp3 players that can play gigs of music? Having to carry tens of "badges" and swap them every time you want to change the album will become a nuisance, when the novelty wears out.

Re: Play Button: a wearable, uneditable album

#5

Post by sp332 »

joss82 wrote: post #2

A low price would be crucial for the play button to really take off and become something bigger, badder than an interesting artistic experiment. $5 for a fully autonomous album anyone?

I think it could be worth more than $5, if the music is composed with this concept in mind. I agree that listening to a pop album this way would not be worth very much. But maybe a symphony would make more sense. Something ambient would be worth about as much either way.

If you can compose music that has "in-jokes" based on something you can guarantee the listener has heard earlier in the "album", that would be very useful from a composer's point of view.

Re: Play Button: a wearable, uneditable album

#6

Post by ForrestN »

This will only work if they can cultivate collectors, either for their products specifically, or from the artists they work with. Because they take up so much space, they have to be something you'd want to show off. In other words, because they are obviously functionally deficient, there has to be some other mechanism to make them desirable. Obviously I can listen to an album all the way through on a small iPod, or better yet on the phone I'm already carrying.

They could also achieve this via exclusivity: get small acts to release a new album only via this format for the first week, so people have to experience the album in order before it's on iTunes and everyone just buys the popular song.

Re: Play Button: a wearable, uneditable album

#9

Post by helipad »

joss82 wrote: post #2

A low price would be crucial for the play button to really take off and become something bigger, badder than an interesting artistic experiment. $5 for a fully autonomous album anyone?

I wouldn't expect people to buy these in their thousands in shops. They're more about:

1) Sharing - giving them to other fans who will listen and pass them on.

2) Signifying - showing who you are listening to.

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