Jumat, 07 November 2008

USB Flash Drives in the Music Industry

Record companies are starting to release singles on USB flash drives. Universal Music the world's largest music company have released music singles on USB sticks priced around £5. Although slightly more expensive than CDs which cost approximately £3 per single, the USB Flash Drives have extra storage capacity so more content can be pre-loaded on them. The pre-loaded content generally includes music videos, the making of features and interviews with the bands.

Sales of music on CDs are traditionally more profitable than music downloads, which effectively have to compete with piracy. This has made the music industry desperate to get people back to buying music in records stores rather than online. It is thought that the USB flash drives are likely to appeal to the younger generation that are more used to playing there music on their computers rather than on CD players and Hi-Fis.

Other companies have now followed Universals lead in this area and USB Flash Drive music sales now contribute to the Official Top 40 Singles Chart, thanks to an agreement between the music companies and the Official Chart Company. It has taken the large record companies a long time to adopt USB Flash Drives as a format for their music some smaller music companies got there ahead of them; for instance WIZO released an album on a USB Flash Drive in 2004, more recently Superfrothco released an album on USB on July 20, 2007.

Flash Drives are however still much more expensive than DVDs and CDs so it will be interesting if the music USB flash drive is just a flash in the pan or a sustainable method of music distribution. Over next few years the music industry like every other is going to look to reign in their costs.

Chris Proth takes a keen interest in the USB Flash Drive market and for USB Flash Drives recommends Flashbay Ltd.

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar