"In a release strategy that makes Beck’s recent distribution of sheet music look like a personalized mix-tape, the sole copy of Once Upon A Time In Shaolin will be encased inside an engraved silver-and-nickel box designed by British-Moroccan artist Yahya, then taken on a tour through museums, art galleries, and festivals. There—and only there—visitors will be able to listen to all 128 minutes of its 31 songs on headphones, and only after enduring a rigorous security check to eliminate the risk of any recording devices. Once the album has completed that tour, it will then be sold to a single buyer for a price estimated to be “in the millions.” Because Wu-Tang is for the children—the children on museum field trips, and the children of very rich people." - Eric @ CS Techcast

Wha? - Back to just Joe

I do believe we now have a new Pretentiousness Champion. I don't know anything about the (music?) of Wu-Tang Clan, and that story doesn't encourage me to want to know more. - walt crawford

The thing that's weird and interesting to me with this idea - it puts it in the same category as a famous painting. It tours a bit, and if the public is lucky, lives in a museum open to them after that. If not, well, maybe there's a picture somewhere. - Jennifer Dittrich

The difference is that there *will* be reproductions of the painting--by the museum, if nobody else. The whole idea here appears to be (artificial) scarcity. - walt crawford