Buffalo announced a new line of portable SSDs at the end of last year. Well, I have been sent a 240GB version of the SSD-PUSU3 to have a look at.

Having some handy portable storage is always useful. If you cast your mind back you may recall me reviewing the MiniStation Slim by Buffalo not so long ago. That certainly had the storage and size sorted, but not great for you data speed freaks.

Enter this compact drive. Not only are dealing with SSD but also USB 3.1. The SSD-PUSU3 should tick all the boxes then. But, does it?

MiniStation SSD Velocity design

The MiniStation SSD Velocity actually comes in three different storage capacities: 240GB, 480GB and 960GB.

These compact portable SSDs are built with a durable anodized aluminium casing and are available in black and silver finishes. The one I have here is the silver flavour. Actually, it looks a lot like the MiniStation Slim. Here they are together, side-by-side.

I don’t think that I would be out of line by suggesting that Buffalo has reused the MiniStation Slim case for the SSD Velocity.

The portable SSD tips the scales at 100 grams and, like the MiniStation, is just 8.8mm thick. The case is sturdy and looks good. It is definitely of a size that you could easily pocket or drop in a bag.

The drive comes with a micro-USB 3.1 (Gen2) connection interface (A to micro B cable & C to micro B cable included).

MiniStation SSD Velocity performance

According to the literature the portable SSD can deliver maximum read/write speeds of up to 500MB/s and 480MB/s.

I naturally took this to task and, after watching five Radiohead albums ping across in about 2 seconds, decided to use something more scientific.

Enter the trusty CrystalDiskMark application.

This indeed confirmed Buffalo’s brags.

This portable drive is really no slouch.

Boost your phone storage

As it came with a USB C cable I just had to try it with my phone, just in case.

I am so glad I did. My Nexus 6P comes with 32GB of storage. I’m hooked up with Google Drive so my photos get sent over there after a few days. But music storage is an issue.

Well, I plugged in the SSD Velocity drive and waddaya know.

This enticing little screen popped up.

Before I knew it I was formatting the little thing to work with my phone.

You know when people say that they couldn’t possibly ditch their iPod Classic because of all the space it has…?

Check out my Nexus 6P now

OK, so having your phone attached to a portable drive isn’t ideal but if you need to store large files or simply carry a chunk of your digital music library with you as you travel, this is an awesome thing.

Yeah, the USB C also means it will play nice with Macs but, meh. I’m taking a bunch of tunes and box sets with me to work tomorrow!

Back up

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The Kaos pad has been used by people such as Radiohead to manipulate live samples and generally mess around with sounds.

It’s a groovy tool/instrument but is a tad on the expensive side if you just wanted to have a play-thing.

But now you can get your hands on a Korg Kaossilator portable synth for about £70-80 less.

With this pocket synth nowhere will be safe when you get that flash of inspiration!

The Kaossilator is a practically a mini-music studio, requiring no previous experience and essentially next to no skill.

Marvellous!

It comes filled with samples covering every instrument imaginable, all you need to do is choose the ones you want – then by using the touchscreen to control the pace and pitch of your new groove you are away!

You can also chuck in a handful of effects just to twist it a bit more.

You can listen to the creation on your cans or whack it through the PA rig

Battery or mains powered and small enough to fit into your pocket, you can pick up the Korg Kaossilator now for £149.95 from Firebox or Amazon.

I’ve slung this one in my Wants list for sure!

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When the major record label was taken over by private equity the promise to “take a new approach”

They were even pointing to examples like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails as the way to go if I remember correctly.

It all looked promising when they were threatening to leave the RIAA and the IFPI and they got in some new techy talent.

Unfortunately the latest news is that EMI has sued both Hi5 and VideoEgg over user-uploaded videos that includes some EMI music.

Ok, under the DMCA, these sites are not responsible for any infringement from its users – and if EMI has a legal beef with anyone, it would be those who uploaded the content.

But, of course, it sues the people that might actually have money.

Hmmmmm, you know, that “new approach” to the industry is looking quite a bit like the old approach now isn’t it?

Hunting down and threatening your fans and the websites that actually help ‘promote’ your acts for free isn’t going to go down too well is it?

What do you reckon the results are going to be?

Do you agree with EMI’s approach?

Techdirt

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I love pretty much everything that Trent Reznor has done.

So this is quite exciting for me and other Industrial fans; hopefully this will pave the way for other bands and musicians.

Nine Inch Nails has released its new album, Ghosts I-IV, online but in a slightly different way. 

If you cast your minds back to when Radiohead released In Rainbows I remarked about Trent Reznors plans to take this idea and in a NIN way – twist it slightly.

Here are the ways you can get it:

• $0 – get Ghosts Vol. I which is 9 high-quality DRM-free MP3 files and the PDF of the album notes. This can be downloaded from both the albumâ€s site as well as via BitTorrent sites.

• $5 – get all 36 tracks of Ghosts I-IV and a 40-page PDF booklet. These tracks are available in a number of formats.

• $10 – get Ghosts I-IV in a 2 CD set. This physical version will be available April 8th, but if you order via the site you can download all the tracks immediately.

• $75 – the deluxe edition package including the 2 CDs, 1 data DVD with all the tracks in various formats, and a Blu-ray disc filled with ultra high-quality audio.

• $300 – everything in the $75 package plus 4 LP real vinyl records and two limited edition Giclee prints. Limited to 2500 pieces, numbered and signed by Trent Reznor.

This method of release is only possible since the band is no longer controlled by a record label.  In fact, the band says in the torrent release notes:

Now that weâ€re no longer constrained by a record label, weâ€ve decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them.

See.  Just how cool is Mr Reznor?

Further more he acknowledges that he uses Torrent sites (like most musicians):

I steal music too, Iâ€m not gonna say I donâ€t.  But itâ€s tough not to resent people for doing it when youâ€re the guy making the music, that would like to reap a benefit from that.

Itâ€s interesting that NIN even admitted how difficult it will be to keep the full 4-volume set off of BitTorrent.  Further in the release notes for the torrent, the band says:

Undoubtedly youâ€ll be able to find the complete collection on the same torrent network you found this file, but if youâ€re interested in the release, we encourage you to check it out at ghosts.nin.com, where the complete Ghosts I-IV is available directly from us in a variety of DRM-free digital formats, including FLAC lossless, for only $5.

I think that there will be plenty of people going for the free and unauthorised versions (pretty much as people got In Rainbows for free) – but I’m hoping that fans and music lovers will find a few quid and buy. 

This could be paving a new way in which we get our tunes – I hope that the labels are watching!

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With the music industry having to contort itself to the whim of the buyer for the first time possibly in its’ entire history the marketing departments of various labels have been working hard to keep up with demand and keep the buyer interested.  Releasing things on YouTube, Myspace, etc just doesn’t cut it any more – as for just releasing a CD via a regular poster campaign, PAH! Here’s a top 10 of what I’ve liked over the past 12 months or so.

1. Batch Totem – retro floppy disk format release for “Trunkeret & Ikonisk”.. I love this – as everyone and their performing chimps are trying to find new and innovative ways to release music this band have released an album on the near-obselete floppy disk format, managing to cram 74 minutes of music into 1.44MB of space. “Trunkeret & Ikonisk” consists of 19 tracks, which are heavily compressed in the GSM 6.10 WAV format, at various bitrates. The album is on the Ristretto label, and could be bought online via PayPal but it has sold out. “The scope of the project is to use heavy compression as a feature that shapes the music, instead of a limitation that reduces sound quality.”, says Jonas Olesen (he is Batch Totem). The files require no extra codecs to be installed. It has been composed with the format in mind, in order to take advantage of the very limited quality of recordings at such a low bit rate.  “Another feature about the album is that, if you try to convert it into MP3 or another format, the timbre and structure will be drastically altered – a kind of radical ‘copy-protection’!” According to the band’s website, on certain tracks, the “amplitude and low bitrates produce ‘ghost’ frequencies according to the Nyquist theorem, and the algorithm of the audio codec meaning that very high frequencies and white noise can occur at very low bitrates.”  Bonkers and Brilliant!

2. NIN – Multimedia Scavenger Hunt (ARG – Alternative Reality Game) for “Year Zero”.  For Nine Inch Nails’ sixth studio release, Year Zero took and pushed the ‘concept album’ idea as far as it could. In advance of its release, URLs were hidden in tour t-shirts, music and image filled USB drives were ‘found’ at concerts and dozens of websites were packed with conspiracy stories that all involve the year 2022 or ‘Year Zero.’ “Each clue was a part of a cohesive whole, requiring the listener to follow an exhaustive web trail to grasp the entire tale.”  Trent is genius, nuff said.

3. Radiohead – Pay What You Want for “In Rainbows”.  The honesty Box payment idea by the Indie Rockers for their first album post-EMI which, apparently 3 out of 5 people are said to have opted not to pay anything for.  The success of the idea is still uncertain but the likes of Trent Reznor have stated an interest in a similar release idea.

4. Daft Punk – Social Network Widget for “Alive”.  The electronic duo decided to promote their new live album, Alive, with an embeddable widget which allows visitors to listen to previews of new tracks, buy the single, read their bio and newsletter, and see a photo gallery of the band – without helmets I’m guessing.

5. Beck – DIY album cover for “The Information”.  Actually released in Oct 2006 but I still love the idea of a practically blank cd cover and specially commissioned stickers so that you can design the sleeve.  I’m still waiting for the promised DIY album that he mused about a few years ago where the punter will get the seperate tracks (drums, vocals, bass, etc) and then you make the tune.

6. Laura Marling – song box release with gig “ticket” code.  Laura Marling has announced that her as-yet-untitled debut album, to be released on February 4, 2008, will be released in a special ‘song box’ format. The package will contain the CD album, entry to a gig in the form of a redeemable code, plus ‘momentos’ relating to each song on the album. The package will sell for £19.99 and can be pre-ordered from Marling’s official website.  I think that it would be kinda neat if the code was in the form of a bar-code that you could save onto your mobile – just like the Midlands Mainline sms barcode ticket.

7. Radiohead – Back catologue on Limited Edition USB.  So as not to be outdone by their ex-signees, Radiohead, EMI released a set of all of the band’s past studio albums and one live album in a number of formats, including uncompressed WAV files on a custom Radiohead Bear USB drive. The 4GB drive is loaded with the seven albums as well as digital artwork.  One for the collectors.

 

 8. Kylie’s social networking site “Kylie Konnect”.  The Pop Star launched her cross-platform social network, Kylie Konnect. Kylieâ€s record label, Parlophone, worked with New Visions Mobile, to create the application, which enables the singerâ€s fans to create their profile, upload images and blogs and connect with other Kylie fans across the globe via their mobile or web browser. “Whilst other social networking sites allow fans to create their own profiles online, sideloading images and video from their phones to the PC, OurTribe allows users to create and manage their pages directly from their mobile handset”.  Just an interactive fan-site then?

  

 9. Disney – CDVU+ format.  This is a “new technology” created by the Walt Disney Company. It is essentialy a revamped version of the Compact Disc, and will include multimedia “Extras” on the disc. New features such as “digital magazine extras” like band photos, interviews, lyrics, and exclusive photos will be accessed by inserting the disc into a computer.  Disney, in an attempt to promote CDVU+ is stated to develop unique content for the format and not just repackage already-available media. Basically an enhanced CD by the sounds of things to me.

  

10. Matchbox 20 – USB bracelet for “Exile on Mainstream”.   Available exclusively at Best Buy it includes all 17 songs from the album , the music video for “How Far We’ve Come”, another video with band interviews, a digital booklet with album art and other band items to customize your computer.   This was kinda half-hearted I feel.

 So?  Waddaya think?

 Well, there’s my list.  Have I missed something out?  Was there a brilliant marketing idea that I’m not aware of (can’t have been that good heh!)?  Would you have put these 10 in a different order?  Let me know.

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We’ve already seen more and more musicians telling the recording industry to drop DRM policies that hurt the consumer – how many of us have been introduced to a band via a home recorded mixtape/cd?  And, of course, we know that consumers prefer non-DRM’d music (which sorta goes without saying).  Now even music retailers (except Fopp now that they’ve gone) are wondering what the recording industry is thinking.  A group of UK retailers have banded together to urge the industry to drop DRM altogether in order to help boost sales over Christmas.  Of course, in the past, we’ve seen the recording industry insist DRM was needed to protect both the artists and the retailers — but it certainly looks like both are finally realizing what many have said all along: the only thing that DRM “protects”  is the obsolete business model of the record labels.

I think it will be a good few years of testing and trialing until the Industry stabilises.  It has been in control for many, many years and now it sees the consumer with more choice and more of a say how it wants the product delivered and at what price.  When there are established artists such as Radiohead and Trent Reznor offering “pay what you want” downloads it’s no surprise that there is going to be another shake-up

News grabbed from Techdirt

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Here’s another band getting in on the USB album marketing wagon.

But at least this one is:

• From a worthwhile band
• From a talented band
• A good design

This will be out next month as a limited edition (Dec 10th)

The 4Gb USB stick, which is shaped like the Radiohead bear will contain all seven Parlophone albums and artwork (including one live album) available as CD quality WAV audio files.

Available exclusively through radioheadstore.com but, unfortunately, unlike the last album where you could buy it for what you felt like, this has a fixed price of £79.99 – still worth it in my opinion.

USB Package includes:

Pablo Honey (1993)
The Bends (1995)
OK Computer (1997)
Kid A (2000)
Amnesiac (2001)
I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings (2001)
Hail To The Thief (2003)

Click here for tracklistings >>

More Radiohead News:

Data regarding the great Radiohead “pay your own price” experiment for In Rainbows is starting to trickle in, and according to a recent study by internet research firm comScore, only about 38% of those who downloaded the album actually paid. Of those that did pay, Americans averaged $8.05 while fans from other countries averaged only $6 with 17% paying only a penny to $4. Seems low, but it is important to keep in mind that Radiohead could have been earning only a few bucks from every CD sale under the old record label system.

Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor applauded Radiohead for their courage in going forward with the new business model, but he believes that that the low numbers could be partially due to problems with their execution. Problems he hopes to overcome by offering customers the option of paying nothing or $5 for Saul Williams’ new album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust, which he produced. If customers want the free version, they will have to settle for a 192kbps MP3 bitrate which might lure audiophiles to pony up some cash for the 320kbps MP3 or FLAC lossless version. So will a new approach help or are music fans just hopelessly cheap? Only time will tell. [Crave]

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