Public Enemy Lets It Zip

06/01/1999 7:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(6/1/99, 4 p.m. PDT) - Public Enemy and its new label home, Atomic Pop, continue to make headlines with their innovative methods of music distribution. Today Atomic Pop announced that P.E.'s latest, There's A Poison Goin On, will also be available on Zip disk. The company had previously announced the album's availability as MP3 and a2b downloads on its website, and on CD and cassette through the site and traditional retail outlets (LAUNCH, 4/15).

According to Atomic Pop, more than 23 million people have Zip drives on their computers. The Zip disk of There's A Poison Goin On, which sells for $16.98 and includes the music video for the single "Do You Wanna Go Our Way???," can be played on any Zip drive.

"Public Enemy started off the '90s with an album that was recognized as one of the most influential hip-hop albums, Fear Of A Black Planet. Why not close out the decade with an event just as significant?" Public Enemy's Chuck D said in a statement. "Technology beats technology every time, and Poison's the whooping stick in this matter. Regardless of what critics, cynics, and the industry say about this, the fact that the album is on a Zip disk is mind-boggling."

By utilizing Iomega Record/ Play technology and Liquid Audio, the songs on the Zip disk version of the album will not be able to be uploaded to the Internet or copied. However, the traditional CD version of the album does not have any such safeguards. As the savvy MP3 user knows, you can record a track as an MP3 file on your computer using a number of different "CD rippers" that are readily available for download, including Real Networks' new RealJukebox.

Got news tips, comments, or questions? Send them to newstips@launch.com.