Felix Salmon tells us why the Wu-Tang's new release is "self-defeating," and in the process he gives us a pretty good overview of the music-selling landscape. The Wu Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is being released in a beautiful box in a edition of exactly ONE!
You can check out the box here! Quite beautiful! A double Wu-Tang album, 31 tracks, recorded over a 6 year period. Truly a work of art. And only one person will be able to purchase it. Wow. Talk about swimming against the current of the times.
We live in an all-music, all-the-time, environment. A great time to listen to music, and great time to get your music out in the world. A not so great time for musicians to be paid for their recorded output.
I do love the confounding audacity of this concept. Brilliant, funny, and well, if you think that music, and music-making is a "high art," you can flow with RZA's thought-stream!
"The first ever private album! The music will only ever have one incarnation. It will not be made available digitally or in any other existing mass format..."