Don’t Buy My CD

Yeah, it might sound crazy, but hear me out. Why buy a CD in 2022? If you still have a CD player then that’s awesome. But in the era of streaming and Bluetooth, is a CD really a valuable item? All it does is play the artist’s music (until you hit a pothole on the road) and take up space. You can’t even reuse the CD if you needed to! The songs are permanently pressed on there. And what does the case do? Other than sporting the cover art, it just protects the CD and take up more space. Nowadays, people only seem to buy CD’s as commemorative item to support their favorite artists, or because they like the nostalgia of a time in music when CD’s were king. But we all know CD’s are not the easiest way to listen to music in 2022.

Personally, I like my music DIGITAL, at my FINGERTIPS, and in the place I like to keep music (which changes sometimes). I like to be able to snatch a song from anywhere and add it to my personal pocket playlist. Real quick. Need dat, speed dat! If you listen to music on streaming platforms like Spotify, or Apple Music, or Tidal, you can add Survival Kit to your favorite songs with one tap and access it again at any time.

But what about video? That’s like, at least half the experience of hip-hop music! I listen to music on Youtube a lot because I like to play the video at the same time. iTunes and other music libraries can store and sync videos and all that to your smart devices, too. As for CD’s… well, there’s no shot of CD’s playing a music video anytime soon (you need a DVD and a screen for that).

That’s what got me thinking about USB flash drives. There’s so much cool content that can be put on USB: songs, videos, pictures, text notes, even URL links. I felt like I could give my listeners a way doper and more flexible experience that way. Think about it, you can do WHATEVER you want with the Survival Kit content once I give you the files. You can add the music, artwork, and the videos to your music library of choice, sync that on all your devices, and boom. Now you can play Survival Kit anywhere in the world, no need for internet connection or cellular data. That means you can even play it in airplane mode! And when you land, you can email your favorite Survival Kit song to your best friend. Then hop in the Uber and Bluetooth it through the car speakers.

It gets better. Ready for the kicker?

YOU CAN RE-USE THE USB FLASH DRIVE.

Just dump the files off of the USB onto a computer to clear the USB, and boom. Now you can store whatever you want on it. Way more useful than a CD, right? And smaller too. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you wouldn’t throw away a perfectly usable flash drive, would you?

How about if it looked like this?

I call it a Flashtape. Like the original cassette mixtape, but in USB flash drive form. The USB swivels 90˙ to fit easily in any port. The Flashtape even has room for custom artwork like cassettes used to.

This is the typical conversation after I show someone a Flashtape:

Them: “Woah, I’ve never seen that before. It’s like a cassette tape, but it’s a USB.”

Me: “Pretty cool right?”

Them: “Yeah! So the music is on the flashdrive then?”

Me: “Yep. Videos too.”

Them: “Wow. Does the cassette actually play in a cassette player?”

Me: “No, do not try it.”

Them: “Ohh… that’s still cool though.”

Me: “Yeah, and you can take the files off the flash drive and use it for storage.”

Them: (pauses)…. “Bro… that’s really dope. I would actually use this.”

I know distributing my music on a USB is new and uncommon; It’s also somewhat risky for me because people can easily pirate my music. But the purpose of this tape is to reduce the stigma around mental health, help those in need, and give glory to God for rescuing me from my depression. For that reason, I’m going with my gut feeling and doing it anyway.

USB flash drives have been around forever. They’re becoming like fossils as people collect them in their computer bags over time. But people don’t throw them out, and they’re not going anywhere. Most vehicles made after the year 2012 have at least one USB port in the car (yes, that’s where your cigarette lighter went). If you plug a Survival Kit USB into that port, the music will start playing just like a CD. Even the audio from the attached videos will play through your speakers, but without a screen there will be no visual, of course. 

The industry believes that since the emergence of streaming platforms, people don’t care to own physical copies of music anymore. But in my opinion, they’re wrong. This is what I believe: people don’t care to own physical CD’s or other useless clutter. Can you blame them? I’d rather copy the music off my favorite CD onto my computer and toss the physical CD. If you ask me, you deserve more for your money and space. So in theory, I believe if artists can deliver a variety of great content on a useful device, more people would care to own a physical copy.

So that’s what you get when you order a Survival Kit. Each kit comes with a reusable USB flash drive containing a variety of content you get to keep. Get yours now!