It is astounding just how out of touch the music industry appears to be with the average consumer. When they’re not suing customers for copyright infringement, they’re trying to push another physical format down our throats - this time it’s albums on a USB stick.

The tech is known as DDA, and it comes with “online extras” to go with the physical product. Albums are identified by a card attached by a piece of string. On top of that, each stick comes with the proprietary DDA media player you’ll need to activate files from the USB, although the music can be transferred into iTunes easily and comes in both MP3 and WMA formats for your portable music player of choice.They’ll be available through HMV, Sanity and Virgin music stores.

But the biggest question of all around this new format is “why”? Sure, CD sales are sagging, but do music companies seriously believe that consumers want to buy hundreds of USB sticks to listen to music they can buy cheaper online? If MiniDisc - a format that had the potential for greatness - failed, why the hell do they think something like this will work?

What about you? Would you buy your music on a USB stick for the same price as a CD?