Company Aims to Make Music A Magical Mystery Tour

Jan. 11, 2007
Music fans, the days of vinyl are back, sort of.

Company Aims to Make Music a Magical Mystery Tour

Julie Kalista
Online Editor

Since 95% of albums purchased in 2005 were on CD and 10.5% of total music purchases are digital downloads, M3 Design, Round Rock, TX, has created Soundscape, a so-called multi-sensory packaging concept for music. Manufactured with 3-D printing technology, a combination of polymers, circuitry and OLED (inkjet printable LED) materials generate the physical product including pages, graphics, circuits, and displays. Soundscape gives musicians the opportunity to let fans better understand the music with electronic pages of lyrics, images, and layout, similar to the album-dominated days of yester-year.

Roughly the size of a magazine     (8 x 10-in.), the pages of Soundscape are flexible while the spine and back cover are rigid with a clear lens showcasing the artist name and album title for bookshelf placement. Listeners navigate the content by selecting touch-sensitive conductive traces embedded in the paper. There is a grid on each page with interaction points, a photovoltaic cell for power, and a flexible transmitter for wireless Internet access. Music and content streams from the Web to the user's cell phone or other listening/storage device, so no solid-state memory is required.

Record stores will also have Soundscapes so consumers can check them out before purchasing with music streaming through the listener's earpiece as he or she views visual artwork and reads liner notes for an enhanced music experience. The manufacturer says that this will be a collectible item, priced in accordance with other competitive forms of music distribution. Unfortunately they did not have a timeframe for when this will be available other than it will be in the near future.

More Information:
M3 Design

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