Dubspot

[Matthew Dear's Black City totem | Matthew Dear - Little People]

The attachment to vinyl in a world where it’s not needed in order to listen to music is about a lot more than arguments over their superior sound quality. They’re also beautiful objects – pieces of art in themselves that root sound’s ephemeral nature in a physical object. But when music can be placed in an object smaller than a dime, why limit those art pieces to large discs? The question has been answered by a number of artists recently with inventive results.

Music rarely exists in a creative vacuum, and the art forms surrounding it build a more complete cultural experience. Whether it be dance moves, audiovisual installations, flyer and poster art, or the fashion attached to it; music frequently acts as a center of gravity that attracts talent from other areas to its orbit.

[Max Tundra's album in a can of Kosher chicken soup | Max Tundra - "Which Song"]

The physical object that music was attached to had its own special qualities. There was the cover art, the liner notes, and a tactility that created a sense of permanence lost with digital files. Those attributes also created a reason for someone to give a record they hadn’t heard a chance when browsing a sea of choices. And sales of those objects was the most direct route for artists to get paid for their studio efforts.

The most recent attempts at replacing the CD and cassette tape with new creative types of physical formats are all pretty different from one another.

Matthew Dear made probably the boldest move in creating a new object in which to sell his album Black City. Ghostly International mass produced a small totem that resembled the aesthetics which the release strove for. It was dark, scuffed, futuristic and urban. It looked similar to a skyscraper blended with some type of key.

[Clown & Sunset's Inès necklace | Soul Keita + Nicolas Jaar - Goin' Bad]

More formally attaching music to fashion is how Nicolas Jarr approached the quandary with a recent release on his Clown & Sunset imprint. When the Inès compilation dropped, people could buy a tiny USB stick in the form of a necklace with the label’s logo printed on it. And Playbutton makes pins containing OGG music files. They feature album artwork on them, and fans plug headphones into them to listen to the artist’s music. But the most common route in this fashion crossover is for artists to attach their music to tee shirts, most notably Mos Def’s attempt at it.

Selling music hand to hand as a means of discovery takes a lot more than simply hustling CDs in Times Square. But it pays off for some, including Hype Williams. In an interview with Dummy Mag, they claimed to have sold USB sticks stuck into apples at the market, one of which Kode 9 may have purchased before signing them to his Hyperdub label. Then again, Hype Williams is known for warping reality to suit their own purposes, and the mystery behind their persona is a large part of their appeal.

[The xx album on the Playbutton pin | The xx - "Shelter"]

In fact, attaching music to food seems to be a relatively popular means of selling music. Another pseudo-identity, the Japanese hologram Hatsune Miku, also toyed around with selling music with food. According to Venus X, a DJ who recently performed with ‘her’, Hatsune has cookies that you can download music off of. And Max Tundra made his album Parallax Error Beheads You available through Domino Records for purchase as a can of Kosher chicken soup. Then there’s this guy, who made playable records out of chocolate.

The challenge of new physical music has also led to a revival of outdated technologies like the sale of cassettes tapes, and even music boxes and other long outdated formats. But these are lower quality formats that don’t take advantage of the benefits of new technology such as instant access and portability. And of course forward thinking packaging of vinyl and CDs are still competitive forms of creativity. But these are entire articles in themselves.

[Mayer Hawthorne's "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" vinyl single.]

Vinyl still holds its own in terms of creative forms to be offered in. The discs frequently come in a variety of beautiful colors with different textures, like releases by Darkestral Records. And art is printed directly onto the vinyl as well, such as the Creep single “Days“, which dropped on Young Turks. (Eastenburia featured art directly on the disc over ten years ago.) Even the shape of the record has been experimented with. Mayer Hawthorne’s “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” single, for example, was pressed on a red heart shaped vinyl through Stones Throw.

Even with all the creative possibilities offered by these new types of objects, we may never recover the same connectivity offered by the hub that was the local record store. But hopefully they will help to rebuild in new ways some of what was lost during this age of technological upheaval. - MS