As the death throes of the music industry get progressively more spasmodic, it's interesting to observe the panoply of half-baked schemes that get trotted out in the interest of its salvation via new modes and models. It's all a bit reminiscent of the '90s web boom's glory days, when every greedy lamestain with an html handbook and a single-syllable domain name tried to P.T. Barnum their way to mini-moguldom. One of the most amusing of these schemes is the "collector's" flash drive. Several enterprising labels have trotted these out in a desperate attempt at creating "digital innovations" and swimming upstream in a withering market. USB drives containing digital album files housed with the appropriate band-branded graphic (sometimes offered on a convenient bracelet for safekeeping) have been made available by everyone from Ringo Starr (you still can't buy digital downloads of the Beatles catalog, but oh well) to Barenaked Ladies. Even Radiohead, whose unique approach to releasing In Rainbows saw them universally hailed as digital-distribution visionaries, is engaging in these questionable practices. Check it out: you can go to the Radiohead Store (screw you, I'm not putting in a link) and buy the "Limited Edition USB Stick" that contains the band's previous seven EMI albums, as recently released on old-school box set, for 80 pounds. Now, they also give you the option to simply purchase the same tracks as regular downloads without the USB drive for 35 pounds, but then you'd be missing out on, um, let's see here...oh yeah, the USB drive! But hey, it comes "shaped in Radiohead's iconic 'bear' image and housed in a bespoke (what is it, a three-piece suit?) deluxe box." In case you were wondering, the actual box set is only going for 40 pounds anyway, but that iconic bear image may just be too seductive to resist. Oh good, here comes the orderly now with our meds...
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