I just saw thisarticle, and although it is a couple of steps backwards from current MP3 technology and hardware, somehow it seems really cool.
So just curious, would you buy a Playbutton?
It seems it’s missing a cool market. If I’m out at a concert and hear a really good live show, I’d buy one of those buttons that had that show on it. Otherwise I’d have no interest.
If one of the artists I collect released their album on one, I would buy it. Otherwise, no, it seems silly.
No. I find MP3s to be far superior to the CDs the music is taken from, because they’re so much easier to store and search through. The playbutton seems like a massive step backwards.
Maybe if you can rip the music off of it after you get it home. It would at least give you a reason to go to a brick-and-mortar store to get music.
(from the article)
Yeah, Nick. It’s an MP3 player that can only play one ‘record’, and I suspect that you won’t be able to play that record on any other hardware.
I agree with Grumman, that’s not the way I want to listen to music, and it’s not really the point of MP3s IMHO.
Well, they have it for audio books - Playaways. They circulate like mad here at the library, which is one good use for them. I don’t see it for music, though.
Does anyone remember how they tried to introduce USB albums a few years ago? That didn’t do very well at all and this is even less convenient and more outdated than that.
I can see it being interesting as a novelty giveaway.
One or two songs, hard wired earbuds, no recharging.
Give it away to promote your new album.
As a standalone $15 product that IS your new album? No.
A ridiculous way for hippsters and teens to become marketing tools while still pretending to be cool.
Looks like another attempt to keep music physical and in non-copyable form. Cute gimmick, but that’s all it is.
As an after-concert-buy, from my favorite band? Maybe.
(Actually, a lot of bands pretty much do something like that - record the concert and sell it on USB stick afterwards for $15-20.)
I could imagine it would become tedious for multiple albums, though - the new iPod nano can do pretty much the same and holds 50+ times the number of albums. The playbutton seems a novelty item with very limited long-term appeal.
Not for $15, but if they were priced under 10 bucks I could envision these becoming trendy among teenagers… for a while.
It doesn’t really seem like a sustainable format, but as a fun gimmick it may have a bit of a shelf life.