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Silver Treasure of Wu Tang Clan’s New Music to be sold to just one person.

Single Treasure Copy of Wu Tang Clan’s New Album

Payel Majumdar

In a bolt out of the blue, Wu Tang Clan might potentially change the way music is distributed in contemporary times by selling a collector’s rare edition of their double album featuring 31 previously unreleased songs.

Ever shelled out money for steeply priced vinyl records of your favourite band before? If your favourite band is Wu Tang Clan then it is going to reach another level altogether. The latest album from the popular American hip-hop group Wu Tang Clan is going to be released in a unique way, by not giving it a mass release at all.

The album titled – “The Wu – Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” is an album that the band has been working on for the past six years. It is a double album, and contains 31 new tracks recorded by the band featuring guest appearances from Bonni Jo Mason (stage name of American singer) among others. As reported by Forbes magazine yesterday, in a ground breaking strategy, Wu Tang will sell one copy of their new album for which they will look at private collectors. The music is available for ownership only for one individual who might later decide to release it or not to the public. The treasure will be encased within a treasure chest, a hand-carved nickel silver box designed by British Moroccan artist Yahya. The Wu Tang Clan put up a notice on their website explaining the philosophy behind their decision thus: “Is exclusivity versus mass replication really the 50 million dollar difference between a microphone and a paintbrush? Is contemporary art overvalued in an exclusive market, or are musicians undervalued in a profoundly saturated market? ” Wu Tang observed that the strategy was  a 400 year old Renaissance-style approach to music, and offering it as a commissioned commodity and allowing it to take a similar trajectory from creation to exhibition to sale, as any other contemporary art piece, they hoped to inspire and intensify urgent debates about the future of music. By steering those debates they hoped for more radical solutions and to provoke questions about the value and perception of music as a work of art in today’s world. Wu Tang refers to a period where nobles in Europe would commission music and be patrons of the same. Looking for a future private music service, Civaringz (producer for the album) thinks it might be a different model for the distribution of music in times ahead.

In times where artists all over the world release their music for free on the internet, a move like this is a radical shift from the norm. Civaringz gave out a statement to Forbes magazine saying, “I know it sounds crazy. It might totally flop, and we might be completely ridiculed. But the essence and core of our ideas is to inspire creation and originality and debate, and save the music album from dying.”

Wu Tang will release an album titled A Better Tomorrow later this year by traditional means. It will be interesting to note how well both the albums are received as a marker for the future. But whether music is the new luxury good, remains to be seen.

To read about how music is being bought on the internet through websites such as OkListen click here. To read about excellent sources for music on the internet, click here.  

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