Now, the Wu-Tang boys bring up a real issue here. We hope to steer those debates toward more radical solutions and provoke questions about the value and perception of music as a work of art in today's world.

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? By adopting a 400 year old Renaissance-style approach to music, 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, we hope to inspire and intensify urgent debates about the future of music.

…although they seem to prefer the term “ edictum“: Of course, such acts of conceptual brazenness are usually (and usually regrettably) accompanied by a manifesto, and Wu-Tang does not disappoint… Even more interesting is the fact that, prior to the auction, the record will tour “festivals, museums, exhibition spaces and galleries for the public as a one off experience.” (Imagine the stringency of the security that will be required to keep this particular cat in its bag I am already anticipating the Twittersphere lighting up in outrage as museum staff shine flashlights into people's ear canals, conduct full body cavity searches, and generally out-TSA the TSA.) However, the zinger is that only one copy of the album will be made, destined to be sold to the highest bidder. The Wu-Tang have been secretly recording a new double album for several years, an event that would commonly be greeted with much rejoicing by their legions of fans.

It's easy to say that there is no going back – and there isn't – but how can artists respond to this seemingly unstoppable race to the bottom, now that the link between a work of music, and the physical artifact that is its vehicle, has been permanently sundered?Įarlier this spring, we received a candidate answer from the venerable hip hop outfit Wu-Tang Clan. This is further complicated by the fact that young people are its most desired demographic, but are also the most ardent adopters of said inconvenient technologies.

From Napster's peer-to-peer networking model to the current ascendancy of streaming services, the big labels have seen their fortunes scrambled and re-scrambled by the onrushing and ever-changing technological landscape. Chart-busting hits have been replaced by body blows to an industry that was once fat and happy. ”Įver since Napster tore through the music industry like an Ebola outbreak, there has followed a ceaseless hand-wringing about the ever-decreasing “value” of music. “ For the last twenty years neither matter

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