Rob Walker at NYT has an interesting article on the current encroachment of merchandise as income object for musicians rather than music. The thought of musician now having to add skills of being a curator of objets d’art in addition to booking, marketing, social media networking, and things that are no longer important; like being a musician.

Personally, the thought of object as artifact of the artist doesn’t really appeal to me. I don’t have a ton of space, and what space I have is taking up by books and records already. The thought of purchasing “the MDBC Totem, and it looks like a spooky, monolithic building, about seven inches high and made of bonded aluminum finished with a ‘gun-metal patina.’” for display in my apartment for $125 is just kooky. That’s 10-12 punk records, shipped to my door.

I can see wanting to own deluxe boxed sets, vinyl alternatives and books, but I have trouble trying to conjure up the world where I’d want to extend my adoration of a rapper to a branded coffee product.

One thing that I found to be oddly missing from the article was the wealth of Insane Clown Posse merchandising that exists.