Music zines used to often have flexi discs selotaped to the back of them. These were 7 inch records pressed into a flexible PVC piastic rather than the conventional rigid vinyl. They allowed the distribution of music as part of a zine.
Intrigued by the idea we wondered if the technology was still around and it is. There are still factories that you can commission flexi discs from. With a minimum order of the low hundreds and an item cost of between £2.50 and £3 each they need the right project and Distromat isn’t it
However we were still intrigued by how we might reinterpret the idea of a flexidisc selotaped to the back of a zine . QR codes are one way of providing a link to a digital asset, a music track or a video. It only requires a specific grahic, so the cost to implement is low. Interaction with the QR code however requires the user to select their camera app and frame the viewfinder onto the printed QR code. User friction is also increased because of awareness of QR code based scams so trust is not always high. We wanted something that was integrated with the physicality of the zine and had a bit more magic!
It turns out this can be achieved with RFID tags. These are tiny silicon wafers with silver foil antennae which can be embedded into paper thin self adhesive labels. They use NFC technology (Near Field Communication) to send information to an electronic device when it is placed into close contact with it. You encounter this technology all the time to make contactless payments and as security tags in shops. All modern smart phones have this technology built in.
Self adhesive RFID tags can be bought relatively cheaply at around 20p each. They can easily be programmed with a mobile phone to provide a link direct to a web page and then adhered to the micro zine. On the zines we can draw attention to it with a printed circle that we call a “Magic Media Dot” To activate the media link the user places their mobile phone over the dot and the phone initiates the connection to the media. By hosting media on the distromat website the pop up address reinforces that the link is to a trusted provider and we can make the media activation seamless with no sign up requirements or advertising getting in the way.
The first micro zine where we have used this technology is The Panoram . The zine tels the history of a short lived 1940’s coin operated vending machine in the USA that allowed people to watch early 3 minute films of musical performances, the very first music videos! The Magic Dot Media is used on the back of the zine to allow readers to view a recording of one of the original films.
Whilst using this technology adds to the production cost of the microzine we see it as having exciting potential for the creation of media rich micro fanzines for bands and singer songwriters film makers etc Watch this space.
If you would like to include a Magic Media link in your zine submission please provide the media file in an appropriate file format eg mp3 or mp4