Weird media formats - KiT

I was trying to find the thread with Billy the Fish in it as this seems to come in the category of Weird Media Formats.

How should this thing be added to MusicBrainz?

A fusion of nostalgia and innovation, KiT albums evoke the tactile joy of physical music formats, with nods to '90s culture through Gameboy-style cartridges and premium, collectible packaging.

How does it work?

The music is hosted in the cloud and accessed via the KiT Player app (available on iOS and Android) by pairing with a physical cartridge. Once paired, the album is available on your device for 24 hours, after which it can be reactivated again by reconnecting the cartridge.

Eh… what? So you get a plastic doodah you have to get out every time you want to play the music. Which lives in the cloud. So when the cloud server goes away you then have no music. Just a plastic doodah and some postcards.

It sounds like a bizarre combo of the bad sides of both digital and physical mediums.

So in MB will this be categorised as “Digital Media”? Though really it is more like an app being unlocked on your phone with a physical key. Like someone reinventing DRM.

I’m confused. :joy: :confused:

Music by custom app.

I just ordered the CD. Seems more reliable to me.

9 Likes

That concept reminds me of the Toniebox except that the plastic doodah actually has a loudspeaker (and people have hacked it already to store your own content on it)

3 Likes

Yes, it is really bonkers. Just recently learned about the format on this discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/musichoarder/comments/1jkif4o/eli5_what_is_a_kit_album/

Very proprietary, very limited, heavy DRM. I agree with you, seems to combine the worst parts of digital and physical.

And Toniebox at least kind of has a selling point. For little children something simple, haptical is really useful. It’s why cassettes stayed popular for children content a long time.

7 Likes

I’ll stick to CDs and vinyl records thanks :laughing:

5 Likes

No.

4 Likes

If I haven’t derped up the search, these are the existing KiT Albums in MB. Looks like mainly K-pop.

I usually keep Wormrot’s discography kinda-up to date, but when they announced a KiT a release a while back even I didn’t want to waste my time adding it :upside_down_face:

That said, I guess if someone finds joy in this format, good for them.

2 Likes

Hardcore punk / grindcore is the last genre I’d expect to release on this format :sob:
The box looks pretty and the album is good, I might’ve bought it if they put a CD, USB or SD Card in it instead…
Added it to MB for completeness sake, is box the correct packaging or should it be other?

3 Likes

Yes, this looks like a tin box, indeed.

1 Like

This version is describe a little different to those as it mentions the cloud, whereas those ones seem to actually have the music on them.

But interesting to see these actually have a type to select. I had never heard of it before.

1 Like