If you’re an artist in music today, it’s all about getting your stuff out onto the internet and streaming services. Streaming has generated a ton of money for the music business, so why would one be so focused on selling music through physical platforms? Well, if you’re Jeremy Heiden, you just really love LP, cassette, CD, MiniDisc, and all of the other physical music formats, including vinyl. Heiden loves them so much in fact, that he is releasing his latest project, Blue Wicked, on nearly all of them.
Jeremy Heiden is a singer/songwriter and his Blue Wicked album, which was released in August this year, is like a greatest-hits collection of his work. Some of the songs on the project are 20 years old, with some of the newer tracks being recorded on Pro Tools, and the older ones on ADAT digital tape. Heiden himself personally designed the artwork on the packaging for each version of the album, while his producer Ralf Porankiewicz took care of the mastering and transfers.
The artist is indeed working on releasing the album in just about every conceivable format, including the short-lived Elcaset. It looks similar to a compact cassette, but it’s bigger at nearly twice the size. It was designed for people who wanted the sound of reel-to-reel tape, but in a smaller physical format. Unfortunately, it didn’t do well and was abandoned in 1980. But that hasn’t stopped Jeremy from wanting his music on the platform. Blue Wicked is going to be the first pre-recorded album on Elcaset that any record company has released.
Even if you don’t have any of those formats, Jeremy still has you covered. He’ll be working on mixes for DVD as well as Blu-ray. Any fans of 8-track stereo tape cartridges will be happy to know that they can purchase the album in that format as well in December. Blue Wicked is also the first commercial release on Digital Compact Cassette in 25 years.
Heiden has a growing number of fans who love and appreciate the older audio formats, and some of them have purchased every version of Blue Wicked.