The Next Generation in Music Technology 🎶
For the intro, I’m an informatic student who loves K-Pop (been following the news since 2012) and recently interested in becoming a K-Pop album collector. So, why just now? Like, I’ve been a K-Popers for 9 years but only got interested just now? Well, I’d like to describe myself as a practical person.
Generally, music albums were sold in the physical state of CD (Compact Disc). Well, I seldom listening to music using CD player, so I didn’t even have a running one. It’s more practical to listen to music through digital platform such as mobile phone, but there’s this feeling when you still kind of wanting to go vintage but still in-style😎. The interesting thing was that music albums are now sold — still in physical state — but they can be played through mobile gadget. These albums are called Kit Album or Kihno Album.
So what are those exactly?
They originally sold in a state of NFC Cards, people can place them near gadget with NFC receiver and boom! They would have access to the musics online. Now, they are sold in KiT Box. To simply described them, you’ll get a some sort of mini plastic box contains tech wonder inside — for the pre-requisite, you need to install the Kit Player app in your gadget first, currently supports Android and iOS devices — and you can access the data by connecting them using audio-jack connector or wireless connect.
Currently, most of the Kihno album sold were K-Pop genre ones. The models were compact, so it’s easy to carry around and giving out modern-yet-simple-vibe to millenial generations. I’d say these types of album hasn’t been that popular yet because it’s a brand new technology — developed only 4 years ago — and a bit more expensive compared to the current digital albums price. So, there’s been a debate whether it was a revolutionary advance or just an unnecessary finding.
From my point of view, these kind of album hasn’t found its marketing value yet. Other than some mini-box, I think they would be more attractive if they come with some sort of merchandise bonuses. As a tech person, I also still curious about what’s really the inside of the box since even the official website didn’t do any tech documentation or went to the detail — and I don’t think there’ll be any generous Kihno buyer in near future who would like to dismantle their own box 🤣 mind the price — But, I still believe they could be the next IT things that people would find interesting and valuable.