For some reason I’m really drawn to ways that involve consumables that are meant to be used up: for example, a download code branded into a bread roll, or inside a fortune cookie, or inside a bottle of beer (waterproof MicroSD?) . Or ways that really make the fans engage and work for their music: An internet scavenger hunt, with each song at a secret URL that contains a clue to the next. Or a real live scavenger hunt, with an open WiFi network at the end that hosts the music download. This could be federated out to different cities, so that there is a different experience in each location.

Or you could release your music one song at a time, recorded onto sound chips on greeting cards.

Or on a USB lighter (http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/aacd/).

I think the key, though, is to come up with a way that ties in with the theme of the album/music/musician/act, a delivery method that enhances the experience. I don’t know much about Mos Def, but I doubt that a t-shirt has any more relevance to his act than for any other musician. In that way, it’s little more than a gimmick. The internet scavenger hunt probably wouldn’t work for him either. But it could work very well for somebody like Jonathan Coulton.

Luckily we ran out of time before that happened, and the idea was shelved along with “knickets” (knitted gig tickets sold on Etsy .