I think it’s a nice idea, but it falls short in many ways. In a way it’s a cosmetic novelty. Something new to get people to buy a product, not something with any actual ‘new’ inherent qualities that make it desirable. In fact, you might as well be packaging releases up as DVD’s, it’s not like the plastic case size is any smaller than a DVD. And you’d get 4GB to play with then.
And anyway, apart from media players with a usb port (which is becoming more common these days) this format basically says “you must have a computer”, which is something CD doesn’t dictate. Compact Stick is for the ‘computer-gen’, but not everyone uses Ableton or Serato.
It would be much neater if the case was smaller, just a small plastic case, or maybe something the size of a small dvd or cd disc, like one of those camcorder discs. But I guess they are coming in from the artwork angle.
But to me this is still telling of the way almost the entire planet is still stuck in the idea of needing a ‘package’ to have artwork. Even the photos I looked at on a Vibrasphere compactstick were at some crumby low resolution. When will we embrace the screen as the artwork format that it really is? It’s about making a shift from files to code. thinner.cc really are leading in this regard (although they still stick with the cd case size thing).
It amazes me that digital releases often contain an artwork pic the same size as a plastic cd case. We let media players run the show importing ‘mp3′s and letting their own visualizers dictate things, when artists should be creating applications, their own visualizers. Albums don’t have to be a collection of files anymore. They can be websites, programs, and they can all be connected – home, mobile, online. Artwork can be in the palm of your hand, anywhere.
It’s still the same struggle, trying to find a cool way to package something that is intrinsically shareable instead of facing the stark truth that stealing and sharing are something built into this medium now. Data is by it’s very nature, open. But I still think sharing offline with physical things is important – not everyone is that internet savvy, but i don’t see why nicking down to officeworks and grabbing a few cheapy usb sticks and sticky-taping up a nice little label for it with texta’s would be much different (let alone heaps cheaper) than it does to have CompactStick put it together for you. Heck, you could hand paint those little puppies.
So, in the end, I’m unconvinced. I think it’s a step in the wrong direction – albeit an attractive and good-looking one (in need of a few changes – case size, for one). Seems like this is one for the big boys – artists with cash to spend. Maybe it’s about pushing the limits. These artists are pushing the limits of a new, dynamic format. But are they? Is CompactStick the first real succesor to the CD?
postscript**
talking with a friend tonite about this. Compact Stick is probably a lot more durable than a cd. I don’t know about the difference between how long a USB stick versus a CD’s life space is, but at least the Compackt stick is much more resiliant to ‘scratches’. Though, would they run into problems with corruption? At the end of the day a Compakt stick is data, and a CD contains audio – which can be ripped. Maybe we’ll have a whole collection of these one day and we’ll have usb ports for car stereo’s (already happening). But I can’t shake the feeling wireless is going to win out in the end. Information used to want to be free, now it just wants to be immaterial.
Data is weightless.
postscript 2***
My earlier view on compact stick was that it was a naff medium. But my opinion in some ways is starting to change. To me, selling a USB stick from an online website does not make sense. You sell files online, the point of online is it’s virtuality, and it’s immediacy.
But if you are walking around on the street, you still need a physical object. Maybe I could email you a link from Phone to Phone, but its clumsy, especially when you consider different experience levels between computer levels. Maybe in a few years our Phones will make sex and swap albums, but for now, they don’t. People know computers, but in some ways they can’t be fucked with online/web. They don’t wait for files to download and they don’t ‘save as source’ and ‘unpack zips’ and organize them into folders.
So I think USB may hold it’s weight as an offline, street format. And even then, it’s ideology should still be sharing. It is not about collecting the USB sticks, it’s about the transference in offline reality. If I give you my album, there’s no reason to keep that USB, you should pass it on. That should be the tenet, USB as a pass-on tech. Because once it’s on your HD, it’s stored, you have no need for the physical format – it reached it’s destination. The computer is replacing the ‘home stereo’ as a principal method of domestic audio enjoyment. So that’s your target now. You could give people a CD, but I think the general vibe these days is: no-one wants a burnt cd.
