So, would you buy music on a USB Flash drive?
The idea has been around awhile and lots of people have suggested it to me. I've always balked for two reasons: 1) even in bulk, the drives are expensive and 2) it's a lot of work to come up with extra content to fill out a 1GB drive and make it feel worthy of the price tag. I about tore my hair out doing the CD extras on Where I've Been and the MP3-only mini CDs awhile back.
That said, IndieDrive looks like a pretty cool idea. I've signed up so I could poke around on the website, but haven't uploaded any music yet.
I think there's an opportunity here to offer pressed-for-time musicians (like me) some pre-made templates for doing flash drives, CD extras, etc. Something like: drag and drop your music files here, some photos and video here, put your lyrics here, then pick a layout template and bang, instant kiosk complete with autorun which you can then just drag onto the USB drive or CD.
But then, I'm still skeptical. Personally I wouldn't buy an album on a USB drive unless there was some serious value add, like bonus tracks or video you can only get by purchasing the drive. Or maybe the artist's entire back catalog. "The Complete Works Of..." etc. What would move you to purchase a USB drive over a CD?