Who Will Buy the Only Copy of The Wu-Tang Clan’s Next Album?

The Wu-Tang Clan’s next album, “The Wu — Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” will be “available for purchase and ownership by one individual only,” reports ArtsBeat. This means that there will be just one album, and it can only be heard while the album is “on tour”:

The plan is for the album to first make a tour of festivals, museums and galleries (no dates or locations have been set, however), where fans can see the box and hear the music. The group and its producers, Cilvaringz and The RZA, will sell tickets for the privilege of hearing the album: Cilvaringz told Forbes that tickets would probably sell for $30 to $50. He added that the exhibitions would have heavy security to prevent anyone from recording the set. (For the less well-heeled, the group is also releasing “A Better Tomorrow,” a conventional album with different material, this summer.)

The website for the album does not list an expected selling price, but the group clearly expects it to be several million dollars. Its rationale, after all, is that while works by contemporary visual artists sell for prices in the millions, musicians’ work is now passed around for free. “Industrial production and digital reproduction have failed,” a statement on the website reads. “The intrinsic value of music has been reduced to zero.”

Then there’s the question of a leak — in the digital age, albums often leak before they’re released. As ArtsBeat points out: “If the album gets bootlegged, the Wu-Tang Clan will have the name and address of the person who has the only known copy.”

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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