Every so often an idea comes around that makes so much sense you wonder why it took so long to make it to market. Take the ATM, which totally revolutionized the way we interact with money. Or the VCR, which created a multi-billion-dollar rental market.
Now there's the i-station, an interactive music kiosk from San Francisco-based Intouch that lets you listen to music before buying. Already installed in selected record stores and slated for a nationwide rollout by the end of the year, this user-friendly kiosk is a music club on steroids. You fill out a demographic form, in return for which you receive your very own bar-coded "i card." Swipe the card in front of the i-station's reader, and an approachable, touch-screen-based information database containing over 35,000 titles is at your fingertips. You can search for a particu-lar title and listen to it - some tracks include clips from music videos. Intouch founder Josh Kaplan predicts at least 2,000 i-stations will be installed in major record chains nationwide by 1995.
If while browsing the record store aisles you find a CD that piques your curiosity, just bring it to the i-station and swipe it in front of the bar code reader. You can then listen to up to five tracks - 30 seconds a track - and decide if you like it. If you do, the i-station can suggest other titles that may suit your tastes, or other albums by the same artist. Afterwards you can rate the album, listen to the Billboard charts (updated weekly via a built-in modem), read album reviews, check upcoming concerts - you get the picture.
Sure, that built-in modem works two ways - your personal information and your musical preferences are sold to record companies. That's the decision you make when you sign up. Record labels and retail chains are thrilled with this new beast. By closing the information loop with consumers, they can pinpoint which albums are selling well, when and where to put artists on tour, even do specialized mailings to all Garth Brooks fans under the age of fourteen who might be interested in whoever becomes the next Garth Brooks.
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