The Music Box Logbook

A Modern Music Box...

I've had an idea for a few years, similar in some ways to my podcast. To celebrate the launch of the album, I decided to work on something a little home-made.

My own modern-day music box. Something that only plays the album, and is tangible and unique.

I thought it might be fun to send it to my friends around the world, and ask them to pass it on to their friends, and them on to theirs ( - you get the idea). It's loosely based on the

Book Swap model which has been around for years.

There would be 3 simple steps:

1. Listen.

2. Leave a note.

3. Pass it on.

There are roughly 245 countries in the world, and I want to see how many we can reach… one friend at a time…

So this week I bid bon voyage to batch 1. Let’s see where they end up.

how it works

I set about finding the simplest (and cheapest) way to put my album in some kind of 'vessel', of which I could make several copies, and then post it out to all my friends.

After a lot of experimentation, I broke it down into 3 main parts:

  • A small tin box, holding:
  • The cheapest MP3 player I could get my hands on (with a USB cable to charge it)
  • A luggage label, showing the box number, and what to do with it.

leave a note

Have you received one of the boxes? If so, please leave a note in one of two ways:

Alternatively, if you have an aversion to Facebook, click to send me an email
  • State which box number you received.
  • Take a photo of the tin somewhere exciting to prove where you listened to it (in front of Taj Mahal, in Statue of Liberty's tiara etc), OR upload a video of it playing somewhere awesome (to a crowd of 40,000 Indians, for example).
  • Leave a little note if you want to.
  • Say who you passed it on to (maybe tagging them on Facebook), and where it's heading on to...

Box No 1 - London

This is Box No. 1, at the beginning of its journey. It's heading to my mate Mike in Vancouver.

We'll see if it makes it....

FOLLOW ITS PROGRESS ON FACEBOOK

For those Facebook avoiders, you can track the music boxes' progress from this live feed.

(RSS FEED HERE)