Los Angeles has a lot of bad things about it, but it also has something most cities do not have: An extremely influential and innovative radio station. I am talking about KCRW of course, and when you think KCRW you immediately think of Nic Harcourt, the influential host of ‘Morning becomes eclectic’. Nic broke acts such as Coldplay, Norah Jones and David Gray (heard of them?) by giving them a chance to perform in KCRW’s basement studio in Santa Monica. Last Sunday I caught the weekly show ‘Sounds Eclectic’, which basically is a show highlighting the best music of the past week. I caught it half way through as Nik was interviewing an unknown band by the name of ‘Salt & Samovar’. I was tuning in and out as they were chatting about the band’s line up, their influences et cetera, when suddenly he told them the naked truth about how they actually made it onto the show that so often transforms fairly unknown acts into stadium bands: Their CD Packaging stood out from the hundreds of submissions he received that week. It was a different format, and then it was very well designed, so he picked it out and gave it a listen. He liked it. He invited the band. Voila. I am sure the music rocks, but it is a nice little story of how crucial of a role design can play, even, or especially when you don’t expect a return in your investment. Rock on to the power of design.

I am sure by now everyone read about how Nine Inch Nails released their latest album/CD/MP3-set á la Radiohead. What really strikes me, and i have not seen that done so far, is that each of the 36 songs has its own ‘record cover’ assigned to it in iTunes. A creative photograph that matches the emotions triggered by the particular piece, which helps tremendously, especially since it is an instrumental album. It gives me hope after still mourning the days where the album or CD cover was a big part of the purchasing process, and together with the booklet, a big part of the all-around brand atmosphere that each artist created by releasing a new album.