Flexi Of The Month: A Playable Music Postcard Club
With vinyl showing strong growth as a specialized music format and cassettes making a surprising return, the re-emergence of seemingly outdated formats makes the upcoming launch of the Flexi of the Month club right on time. A new project from the folks at Hifidelics, Flexi of the Month is inspired by flexi discs in the form of Polish Sound Postcards.
Flexi of the Month was developed by Erik Peterson of Hifidelics, which was previously profiled at Hypebot.
Mat Schulz Explains Polish Sound Postcards
Flexi of the Month is a subscription club that's gearing up for a 3 month trial run. The basic concept is that once a month an indie single will be released in the form of a Polish Postcard, basically a flexi disc in postcard form. Polish Postcards apparently got going in the 1960s in Poland and other Soviet bloc countries, often using older postcards with two current songs pressed into each card.
I had quite frankly forgotten about flexi discs which were singles or related audio content on a thin grooved piece of plastic that I usually encountered in magazines though Erik says they also showed up in cereal boxes!
Each flexi of the month will feature original art, a rock-oriented single and, since they are rather flimsy, will be packaged on a balsa wood plaque. Proceeds will go to a music-related charity chosen by voting and the first will be Rock Pink, an organization that seeks to raise awareness of breast cancer issues with young people via music events.
Erik was inspired, in part, by the "old SubPop Singles Club – for a one time fee members would receive a new 7" single from a band on their roster each month, for a year." He's crowdsourcing the funding and the postcards will be pressed in the U.S. At this point they need 59 more members to get started at a cost of $24.00 for a three month run.
While I don't expect this to be an early sign of the return of flexi discs, I agree it's an interesting way to create what Erik terms an "experience behind a tangible product of value."
Hypebot contributor Clyde Smith maintains his freelance writing hub at Flux Research and blogs at All World Dance and This Business of Blogging. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
