

Play Button: a wearable, uneditable album - mrspeaker
http://www.playbutton.co/

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egypturnash
This is so close to being awesome. I threw this link to a musician friend of
mine when it showed up on Metafilter a while back, and we felt like it was so
ALMOST there.

We felt like it wants to be cheaper, and wants to have a USB port so you can
put the album you just paid $20 for into all your other devices. (Or a one-
time use code to download it.) Then you can stick it on your backpack like any
other button, maybe loan it to a friend you want to expose to the act.

Either that or load them with a copy of the concert you just saw. $20 for an
item only available at the merch table for a single tour isn't very different
from t-shirts; having a physical record of the whole show would be pretty
cool.

But as something sold over the Internet for $20+shipping? It's cool but that's
like twice the cost of a normal album. The form factor just feels like it
wants to be an impulse buy, with impulse pricing.

(And on the other hand... I just paid $3 for a digital download of the new
Glitch Mob EP. But I could have spent up to $55 on it to acquire a poster, a
T-shirt, and a vinyl copy along with my download. I could see a Deluxe Package
that included a Playbutton. As a cool bauble for the True Fans with a really
good cashflow, it's not so bad.)

(There is a good chance that they're also so damn expensive because they're
made in limited quantities, possibly by the same people who run the site. I
drew a Tarot deck a couple years ago; you can get it now for $20 because I
found a publisher who got it printed in China, but when I was making the
things myself I charged $150 for them.)

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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.

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ignifero
Also it has to be un-rippable, which i don't think is even possible.

~~~
ForrestN
I don't think so, the point wouldn't be to completely lock it down or
something. The music would probably get on the internet, which is fine (to me,
at least). But for most consumers who choose to buy music, they would have to
choose between buying the "collectors edition" or waiting a week to get it on
iTunes.

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RodgerTheGreat
Immediately reminded me of '1-bit Symphony': <http://www.1bitsymphony.com/>

~~~
eru
Which seems much more awesome.

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helipad
Would be superb for:

\- Museums \- Galleries \- Silent discos \- Selling on trains \- Sharing \-
Free samples \- DJ mixes \- Children's stories

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joss82
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?

~~~
tdrgabi
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.

~~~
antihero
I think there's something to be said for rebelling against efficiency.

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athst
Seems like Urban Outfitters would be an obvious retailer to go approach with
something like this. But I agree with others that the price is a little too
high - I imagine that you'd want to collect these like some people collect
vinyl, but since it's more of a novelty, something like $10 would be perfect.

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ghotli
Well I just think that website design is great

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rgbrgb
I really like this idea and it looks like they're getting cool artists. My
problem with this is that it creates unnecessary trash but I suppose the same
can be said for any band shwag. Anyone saying that this is too expensive to
sell should see those books that Mt Eerie was selling for like 200$. I think
they're probably sold out. Anyway, my point is that with a captive audience,
something a bit more expensive and off the wall like this could work. Bands
sell tshirts and vinyl for 20$ all the time. 8$ extra for something completely
novel? Sure.

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antihero
I really like this idea, but $25? Ouch. Out of my price range. I think having
a bunch of these clipped to your jacket would also be a nifty way to show off
your music taste, too.

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ZeroGravitas
What does the power supply look like? I would have thought a standard micro-
usb power input would make these better for distributing to others.

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mootothemax
I think this could be _huge_ after concerts, especially if combined with a
recording of the performance the fans have just listened to.

~~~
jgroome
My thoughts exactly.

I can't see this being a big hit with retail music. The main use in my mind
would be as PR tools, either sending promotional badges to journalists etc or
as novelty items containing already released music to be sold at events. It's
hard to think how else people would be willing to put down $15-$25 for
something so unnecessary.

Recording live concerts for release after the show, however, is something I've
been interested in a long time. Given that track skipping isn't possible on a
Play Button, you wouldn't have to slice the recording into tracks before
release. I'd even be so bold as to say you could get these out on sale within
half an hour of the concert finishing.

For bigger concerts these would make a great souvenir and a decent source of
income for artists.

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exDM69
I hope that the music industry does not think that this is a cure for their
problems with digital distribution. Having a separate optical medium for each
album of music is wasteful enough (compared to storing the content digitally
in your hard drive), but having a ROM chip, a DA converter, a headphone
amplifier and a battery per album is insane waste of resources.

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jellicle
Cute. I think the main market is for promotional items - freebies, giveaways.

Have to bring the price down as low as possible for that to take off. A
regular button costs maybe 10-25 cents.

~~~
tmcw
Why? What they're selling is not just the novelty, but the scarcity of an
object. Treating these like talking greeting cards is like treating art as
paper and ink.

~~~
jellicle
It is novel. So novel, perhaps, that people won't be willing to pay a lot of
money for it. Coin cell batteries won't last long playing albums, and are
expensive to replace. The value proposition just isn't there for the end-user
except for very limited novelty purposes.

However, it might be there for people who essentially want to advertise their
real product (perhaps a CD release, perhaps something else). Sell these at
cost or give them away to promote your event or new album? I can see that.

Oh, I see one of the news articles says rechargeable lithium battery. That's
good for short-term usability, bad for cost. And it puts an absolute limit on
the life of the item at about three years, when all lithium batteries die
permanently and it won't be replaceable.

"Hey kids, look what I found in the attic! This cool album from the 'teens,
it's built right into a button! Let's see.... oh, darn, the battery is
permanently dead and can't be replaced." {tosses into the trash}

~~~
jhuckestein
The battery is rechargeable through the headphone jack. Quite ingenious
actually.

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DuqE
Not read all comments, but a spelling mistake is obvious on the details
images, that explains the button. It says it will turn on and of respectively.
This should be off. That is all. Good product all the same.

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rnernento
I don't know that I see the point. Sure, buttons are cool but why not just
carry buttons and the iphone/smartphone that already has all your music
anyways...

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matmann2001
Play Button: a despicable, unusable website

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alexsherrick
Damn these are pretty awesome... only problem is The Pains of Being Pure at
Heart costs $24. A little much!

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tcarnell
That is a BRILLIANT IDEA! Such a great way to swap/share music with people
too. I hope it takes off.

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tcarnell
It would be really great if the buttons had two headphone jacks for sharing
with somebody...

~~~
noahlt
"You’re much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear.
Then you’re connected with about two feet of headphone cable."

\- Steve Jobs ([http://37signals.com/svn/posts/52-steve-jobs-just-put-it-
in-...](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/52-steve-jobs-just-put-it-in-her-ear))

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dplakon
really love this idea.

