back to article Arcade Fire releases album on USB fidget spinner for £79/$105

Canadian indie outfit Arcade Fire has released an album on a USB-flash-drive-packing fidget spinner. The limited edition of the band's fifth album, Everything Now, costs a considerable £79 (~US$105). That's a whopping £72 premium over the cassette edition, £69 more than the CD, £61 more than the basic vinyl edition and …

  1. mr. deadlift
    Flame

    Apply cold water to burn, ouch.

    1. MyffyW Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Finite and Infinite

      £79 isn't "infinitely more than the free stream on Spotify" - it's exactly 79 pounds more, that's all.

      1. John Robson Silver badge

        Re: Finite and Infinite

        £79 is infinite percent more than £0

        Of course the £0 assumes you like ads, if you pay for Spotify then you have to allocate some of that monthly fee towards each track you play... every time you play it...

        1. MyffyW Silver badge

          Re: Finite and Infinite

          In percentage or multiple terms you are correct, however the author didn't use those terms for any of the other comparisons (Cassette / CD / Vinyl), so my criticism is valid albeit really, really, really picky.

          Personally speaking I'm no great fan of ads, I rather like album sleeves and my only previous knowledge of Arcade Fire was their co-opting of the late, great David Bowie to do a version of "Life on Mars" live with them. Not brilliant but it didn't totally suck.

          1. Jan 0 Silver badge
            Coat

            Re: Finite and Infinite

            I'm not sure that zero is allowable as numerator or denominator in fractions. Fractions were a halting, but useful, attempt to bridge the gap between integers and real numbers. Saying that any arbitrary value is infinitely larger than zero, is true but, is not useful.

            Percentages are the ratio of parts out of one hundred parts. Anyone using percentage values well above one hundred is just parading their innumeracy.

            MyffyW was correct in this instance, although his reference to "1.79%"* in a recent post is as inappropriate as others who** talk of percentages of hundreds or more.

            * I'd call this a bastard number! I think they meant a bit less than 2%.

            ** Yes, journalists, excluding some technical journalists, are worse at this than most El Reg Readers.

            Dons down(vote-proof) coat and retires to see what mathematicians have to say.

            1. John H Woods Silver badge

              Re: Finite and Infinite

              Zero is allowed in the numerator. Percentages higher than 100 are perfectly acceptable. People who live in glass houses ...

            2. John Robson Silver badge

              Re: Finite and Infinite

              0/10 is perfectly reasonable as a fraction.

              It's x/0 which becomes dodgy - and if x=0 it becomes really interesting because it's absolutely 0,1 or infinity depending on how you approached the 0/0.

              And if I am a loan shark^H^Hpayday loan company then I charge you 1000% interest. That's an entirely correct (if immoral) use of percentages above 100%.

              Fractions are a perfectly good way of representing any rational number (of which there are an infinite selection between 0 and 1), it's only when numbers become irrational than they fall down (unfortunately there are an infinite number of irrational numbers inbetween each pair of rational numbers IIRC).

              YouTube Link

              1. Saltee

                Re: Finite and Infinite

                It's a common mistake. Divide by zero is not infinity, it's undefined.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fidget widget

    Some people really do have too much money.

    1. FuzzyWuzzys
      Happy

      Re: Fidget widget

      Depends....

      If my Mum had listened to her Dad when he said the same thing to her when she bought Beatles albums as a teenager she wouldn't have handed me 5 albums about 15 years ago. Those 5 albums are all limited first editions and worth about £9,000 in total.

  3. frank ly

    Pranks

    Track 1: Everything_Now (continued)

    Track 2: Everything Now

    There's no way I'd trust anyone who does that sort of thing.

  4. LaeMing
    Go

    It has a beat...

    ...and you can fidget-spin to it!

  5. Chris G

    Ooh Rocky

    Described as a rock band and definitely in a rocky place.

    I am surprised they have lasted long enough to produce a fifth album, if what I just listened to is anything to go by.

    Noise/volume ~ talent I guess. Still, a USB fidget spinner!

    I want , well, anything else but that, maybe a USB bottle opener or a USB sonic screwdriver. How do you fidget with it when it's plugged in?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    RPM??

    Do you have to spin it at 33 or 45 rpm to get the music to play??

    1. Stumpy

      Re: RPM??

      78 dear boy, 78.

  7. Excellentsword

    Shit band.

    No fans.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shit band.

      Well, their new album kinda looks like a fan...

  8. Bloodbeastterror

    "the cassette edition"

    Say what...?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fidget spinners?

    Already in the bargain bins here

    1. Stevie

      Re: Fidget spinners?

      Last weekend I wandered through the street fair in Times Square, where the challenge was to find a stall that didn't sell fidget spinners in addition to African folk art or Jamaican jerk barbecue.

  10. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

    "fidget spinners are generally considered a harmless toy "

    I consider them the most mind numbingly stupid toys ever and a danger to a kids development. Mainly because they are purporting to help with some sort of add thing

    1. MonkeyCee

      Danger!

      " a danger to a kids development. "

      That seems a little over the top. There's some pretty good evidence that they (and other fiddle habits) help those with ADD deal with in a way that doesn't involve us walking out or getting on the speed.

      Personally I doodle, so for a 2 hour dull lecture I'll fill three or four sides of A4. Beats falling asleep or playing video games/facebook as I still have enough attention for the useful ten minutes of lecture they slip in.

      The issue is that when something is boring enough that I end up sketching, often the people around me become more interested in my drawing than the lecture. Even when I stick to abstracts rather than nudes...

      So even if the spinners help the kid with ADD focus, it'll still distract others, so it's value as a classroom treatment is questionable. Don't think it'll be a threat to their development either way.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I listened to this dreck so you don't have to.

    Show your appreciation of my sacrifice with an up vote. Thanks.

    1. Spacedinvader
      Trollface

      Re: I listened to this dreck so you don't have to.

      That's not the way it works around here. Downvoted :)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Pint

        Re: I listened to this dreck so you don't have to.

        Oh I don't know, sounds like this AC did us all a signal service. I'm good!

  12. Annihilator
    Joke

    Fidget spinner only option

    The fidget spinner was also available without the Arcade Fire album. It retailed at £99.

  13. Adrian 4

    Is it any good as a fidget spinner ? It looks poorly balanced.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      See, that's why it cost so much, because of having to counterbalance that USB plug, and get it to retract and all. Practically had to re-invent the... uh...

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon