Size Zero Music in USB and SD Cards-Is It Here to Stay ?
Few days back i was watching a movie trailer show on a music channel,Suddenly my attention went to the trailer of ‘Blue’.The ad said music in size zero and a flashing pen drive and a Micro-SD card came flying.T-Series has launched music in pen drives (USB) and Micro-SD cards,a first in India.
The T Series currently has 3 movies in queue music of which would would be available in pen drives and memory cards.’Blue’,'All the Best’and ‘Main aur Mrs Khanna’ are the 3 movies whose USB’s are available in market.
A Pen Drive containing the music of the movie is priced at Rs 525.The capacity of the USB is 2 GB and it not only consists the songs of the movie but also many bonus tracks,movie themes,screen savers,mobile application etc.
The data is limited to 1 Gb and extra 1 GB space is empty for the customer.So after copying all the data,customer is left with a 2 GB pen drive.
The brand of pen drive is Transcend.The normal cost of a Transcend 2 GB pen drive is approx about Rs 350.For more details please visit the Blue pen drive details page.
The music is also available in a micro SD card at Rs 475.
Now this seems to be a very good prospect as far as music industry is concerned.People these days use pen drives and memory cards in abundance so it may give them a good reason to buy music USB.But how many times would people do that ? This is big question.
The format of the songs is 192 kbps MP3.The word Mp3 reminds me of a whole world of piracy which is lurking out in the open.Why would a person pay Rs 525 in lure of a pen drive when he can download the songs free from internet in the same or better formats e.g. 320 kbps MP3 ?
As far as an average music loving indian is concerned Rs 525 for music is a quite an amount even if it means he gets a pen drive worth Rs 350 with loads of data.He might buy it once if he needs a pen drive but not again and again.
The customers of original music would remain the same even if the mode of sale changes.These are the people who support original music and are against piracy.These are the same people who actually use to buy CDs and DVDs of the soundtracks.
The change was obvious.After audio cassettes, Cds came,then came DVDs then blu ray then Mp3 etc etc.But due to advent in technology,Piracy got a lot simpler and spread more easily.
With this new concept of chips and USB,no doubt companies are trying to adapt to rapidly changing customer tastes.I don’t remember when last i used a cassette to listen to a song.The customer has evolved and so have companies.
But how effective is this new concept ?
I will definitely not buy a pen drive every time i need to buy music.I will buy a DVD or a CD worth Rs 150 instead.
What T series could have tried was not to lure customer with
1) Bonus Tracks and Data
2) A free pen drive space
They could have kept the price to lowest possible.
8 Mp3 songs dont require much space.They could have done with 512 MB or even 256 MB chip in a use and throw format.They could have priced it at about Rs 100 odd.This could have given a lot of reasons to people to buy a USB for listening music.
Or they can start a USB service,A person can buy an authorized and digitally signed USB from T series and then can get it refilled with new songs whenever he wants to buy paying a nominal price.
But whatever the results,this is a welcome step in the world of music.I hope it stays.
What Say ?
UPDATE : Comment from T-Series
The concept is new and every new concept needs time to get consumer acceptance. As far as the price is concerned, the cost of the content is not more than Rs.1/song which is dirt cheap for original good quality music. The high cost is promarily due to high cost of micro SD &USB Flash drives which is in the range of Rs.280 – Rs.350. When CD came or even DVD came, people were not very comfortable with prices because they were use to cassette and VCD prices but with time, the raw materail cost came down and acceptability rose higher. Similarly when the market forces will bring down the price of technology, the retail prices will also come down. The Concept of Personalisedmusic in mobile phones is really a great idea.
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Size Zero Music in USB and SD Cards-Is It Here to Stay ?…
Few days back i was watching a movie trailer show on a music channel,Suddenly my attention went to the trailer of ‘Blue’.The ad said music in size zero and a flashing pen drive and a Micro-SD card came flying.T-Series has launched music in pen drives (…
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The concept is new and every new concept needs time to get consumer acceptance. As far as the price is concerned, the cost of the content is not more than Rs.1/song which is dirt cheap for original good quality music. The high cost is promarily due to high cost of micro SD & USB Flash drives which is in the range of Rs.280 – Rs.350. When CD came or even DVD came, people were not very comfortable with prices because they were use to cassette and VCD prices but with time, the raw materail cost came down and acceptability rose higher. Similarly when the market forces will bring down the price of technology, the retail prices will also come down. The Concept of Personalised music in mobile phones is really a great idea.
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I totally argee to you neeraj on this.I hope people accept the USB and SD’s as they did CD’s and DVD’s.
But their are issues and concerns results of which only time would tell
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