A few days ago, I ran into my college friend Dave, who (amongst other things) is now running a small, independent record label called Kids. Kids release limited-edition, short-run 7″ singles (at the moment); they’ve got a solid lineup (including Paul Hartnoll’s debut single) and, as I bumped into him, Dave was off to a launch party for KIDS009, the latest Wombats single.

We caught up quickly, and he handed me their previous release, the double A-side of It’s Magnetic and Out on 24s (on clear plastic) from Assembly Now. When I got home, I stuck the 7″ on the record player and listened to both sides – really great stuff, and a band I’ll be keeping my eyes on.

What was really interesting, though, was the piece of paper that fell out of the single when I opened it.

On it was written a small note to say that because I’d bought the single, I was entitled to email somebody at Kids who’d send me details of how to obtain the MP3s of that track – for free.

I love this idea. The short runs of 7″ singles that Kids put out are ideal for a small record label trying to find its feet – reasonably cheap to press, I’d imagine, and which can turn a reasonable profit-per-unit. And for their target market, 7″ are still an acceptable distribution format for singles. But their target market also own iPods – and nothing’s more tedious than ripping vinyl to mp3.

So this pattern really works in their favour: people pay money for the music they want to hear on a format convenient for home, and get the mobile format thrown in – because let’s face it, they’re going to find a way to do that anyhow. The convenience of doing things this way around is a huge bonus, though. I hope other small labels do this sort of thing – it’s relatively little effort and cost on top of the pressing, but it’s a smart idea that’s in tune with exactly how people like to listen to music.

And, of course, I hope Kids continues to thrive as a label.

Another piece of writing in the New Statesman; this time, a review of the Le Placard international headphones festival.

About 40 people are sprawled on the floor, or on an array of battered chairs and sofas. Along one wall is a row of desks and tables, behind which sit a handful of unshaven young men, backlit by Anglepoise lamps, fiddling with laptops, mixing desks and a wind-up shortwave radio. Naturally, I can’t hear any of it. So I sit down at a table and try to plug in my headphones.

Read the whole article.

Let’s take a long shot: is anyone interested in buying an Akai S3000XL sampler in pretty good condition? It’s expanded with a full 32mb of memory, it has the customary 8 outs, and I’ll also throw in a SCSI 100mb Zip Drive and an untested SCSI CD drive. I’ve also got the latest OS disk for it, and a full manual. The screen is in fairly good condition – not like it was when new, but not in need of a new backlight yet.

If you’re interested, email me. Ideally, London area. Will update with pictures soon.