Would High street music sales be boosted if it were sold in USB format?

Reality|Bites · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:41

I mean if the music companies and electronics giants banded together and created a player which only took USB flash drives, The players could take up to 8 flash drives at any one time. You could fit more/higher quality recordings onto the drives etc....

You work out the fine details, The idea just came to me while taking a dump

Strife212 · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:42

Costs 100x more to make a flash memory stick than a CD

Sone · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:42

belongs where it came from imho, the toilet

Dr.EM · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:44

If your talking about removeable, re-useable, high speed compact media

eek

then SD cards make somewhat more sense than USB sticks. Either way, CD suits me fine

. I can easily move the music from a CD onto such media if I desire (for a portable player, car. etc where it has advantages).

Reality|Bites · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:46

You can buy a 4GB stick from here for £5.

Think about the mark up on that. It probably only cost £1 to manufacture. Yes they would make less money compared to CD's, but how many sales are they losing at the moment?

gareth.e · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:46

Sone said:
belongs where it came from imho, the toilet

J.B · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:48

Reality|Bites said:
The idea just came to me while taking a dump

Just like the flux capacitor, that was a bit dodgy too.

Also, why would I use this device, Id rather just stay at home and download the track and only pay for the bandwidth it and the small amount for the song, rather than the media it comes on. basicly buying music on physical media is never going to regain popularity.

So...Im out.

Dr.EM · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:50

I don't see why you feel it'd boost sales? MP3 downloads are already "ahead" of this in terms of quick and convenient and with a wide choice/large storage options (thats what the "kids" want right?

) and the CDs are still there as the higher quality option for those who want to listen to a whole album and appreciate the music as a whole. Selling USB sticks would be filling a market niche which never existed and would only accumulate sales for a brief period for novelty factor imo.

BlackDragon · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:52

So how would the music be different on the USB and CD? I don't see the point of it being any higher quality because to the average person, they aren't going to notice it. I can't see them putting more tracks on them, because you can do the same on the CD...I'm pretty sure your average album of 12 tracks does not use up all 650MB!

What would be better if they had machines in shops that allowed you to compile your own CDs/collections, purchase them, and download them onto USB or it'll burn them onto a disc for you.

Reality|Bites · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:53

maybe HD quality sound?

I find most CD recordings lacking in quality myself. Only CD's made by SONY sound good to me.

J.B · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:54

BlackDragon said:
What would be better if they had machines in shops that allowed you to compile your own CDs/collections, purchase them, and download them onto USB or it'll burn them onto a disc for you.

Thats is about 1000x better than the original idea.

mjt · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:54

why on earth would you want an mp3 player that has a whole bunch of usb dongles hanging off it?

anyway, how can music be sold in "usb format"? it's a data transfer system :confused:

BlackDragon said:
What would be better if they had machines in shops that allowed you to compile your own CDs/collections, purchase them, and download them onto USB or it'll burn them onto a disc for you.

OMG that sounds incredible! i suggest you call it the komputor. as i'm sure you will agree, it's amazing no one has thought of this before?!

Dr.EM · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:55

BlackDragon said:
What would be better if they had machines in shops that allowed you to compile your own CDs/collections, purchase them, and download them onto USB or it'll burn them onto a disc for you.

Now theres a better idea! There are some artists where I like select works and they may be spread accross many not-so-consistent albums which I don't wish to purchase. Something like this would be nifty and for me, preferable to downloading and burning them myself, especially if it was pure WAV or uncompressed source.

Spyhop · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:56

Albums sold on USB flash drives?

That sounds pretty wasteful and inconvenient.

Reality|Bites · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:57

mjt said:
why on earth would you want an mp3 player that has a whole bunch of usb dongles hanging off it?

anyway, how can music be sold in "usb format"? it's a data transfer system

huh?

You can't slot a CD into your MP3 player can you?

How about those cheap MP3 players for Logix and the like, those are just USB drives with a chip to play the content. So you could have a little square player where you plug in the individual drives.

Before you say that it would be an awful hassle. Don't portable games consoles have the same draw back.

Dr.EM · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:58

Reality|Bites said:
I find most CD recordings lacking in quality myself. Only CD's made by SONY sound good to me.

Out of interest, what are you playing your CD's on? Many "new bands" have terrible production too which may be your complaint, rather than the CD media itself. Search "loudness war" for more info. CD isn't perfect but is still going to be difficult to flaw on most domestic setups.

J.B · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:58

Are you related to dvdbunny?

mjt · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:59

Dr.EM said:
Out of interest, what are you playing your CD's on? Many "new bands" have terrible production too which may be your complaint, rather than the CD media itself. Search "loudness war" for more info. CD isn't perfect but is still going to be difficult to flaw on most domestic setups.

lol?

alex24 · 11 Jan 2009 at 01:00

It's all got to go digital download. It's environmentally friendly so i'm game.

Soon there'll be no need to even get off your bum, except maybe to go to the loo.

2bit · 11 Jan 2009 at 01:00

Dr.EM said:
Out of interest, what are you playing your CD's on? Many "new bands" have terrible production too which may be your complaint, rather than the CD media itself. Search "loudness war" for more info. CD isn't perfect but is still going to be difficult to flaw on most domestic setups.

He's 'havin' a 'laff'. Don't take it too seriously!