For Christmas of 2005, I bought Barenaked on a Stick. It was a USB stick that contained songs mostly from their Barenaked For The Holidays album.

The music was in MP3 format and the USB stick also included videos, live recordings, some of their famous onstage banter, pics, liner notes, and animated GIF buddy icons. The actually physical packaging was pretty sparse and utilitarian as you can see. The price point was $40.00. That’s pretty expensive compared to CDs. However, this package wasn’t for the public or casual music consumers it was for fans. Fans bought it and it sold out.

"Barenaked on a Stick" sold out despite only being sold online and at the live shows. It seemed record stores had no clue on how to stock the item. Get that, a music store has the opportunity to sell a music product with a $40 price point, but chooses not too since they cannot figure out how to stock it. Even Amazon wasn’t sure what to do with it. They put it in the electronics section not surprisingly the same place where blank CDs are sold.

So music on a CD or DVD is sold in the music or entertainment sections of a store not in electronics where blank CDs or DVDs are sold. Yet, music on a USB stick is sold in electronics. If you stop and think about it, this situation reveals a lot about why recorded music industry has struggled. They forgot what it was that they actually were selling.

Anyway, I had a pretty high sense of satisfaction after I bought it. I read the liner notes, and actually used the pics on the stick as my computer screensaver slideshow. I watched the videos and listened to the banter a few times, but once I had moved the music to iTunes and my iPod, I never consumed the media that came with the USB stick again. The screensaver has changed and the actual USB stick is long gone now, too.

My music is now completely divorced from the packaging that I had paid for. Naturally, it would be great if I had that content easily accessibly to me whenever I wanted (on any device). Which is likely whenever listened to Barenaked For The Holidays. This is the simplest reason why I believe that music packaging needs to be offered as both local files and as a service.