Beck + you

I really respect Beck. I think that more than anyone, he's been quite thoughtful about the state of the music industry and how to combat piracy.  Instead of, say, suing fans and trying to control how people use music, he's taking the opposite approach: create more content, let people freely interact with it, and be... well, more interesting.

I just bought his new album, The Information, which came out last week to some fanfare.  It contains lots of extra stuff, like a companion DVD with home-made videos for each of the songs.  Best of all is that the album cover is blank, and comes with a book of stickers made by various underground artists - each album with a slightly different collection of stickers - so you can create your very own album cover.  As Interscope (his record company) says the album art is "either non-existent or infinite, depending on one's point of view."  Beck is basically saying that you could illegally download the songs, but you'd miss out on half the fun. Very cool - when was the last time you looked forward to buying a physical CD?

In a bizarre (and hugely backwards) twist, though, the company that manages the UK charting system has announced that the new album won't be eligible for the British charts because the customizable packaging gives it an "unfair advantage" over other albums.  Huh?  Now that is one of the stupider things I've heard.

There's a great interview with Beck in Wired last month where he discusses his philosophy on being interesting, letting people co-create with you, and other stuff. 

"There are so many dimensions to what a record can be these days. Artists can and should approach making an album as an opportunity to do a series of releases – one that's visual, one that has alternate versions, and one that's something the listener can participate in or arrange and change. It's time for the album to embrace the technology."

He could just as well be talking about advertising.  Substitute "brand communication" for "album" and "marketer" for "artist" in that and it makes good sense for our industry too.

For more, check out this good piece on music and letting fans co-create in the Design Observer (via NDG).

Beck album art photo courtesy the Design Observer.

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The design inlay compliments on that space age cd.