While music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, etc have made accessing our favorite songs and albums more convenient, it has fundamentally changed how we consume music. There are still some purists who listen to vinyl and even compact discs, but most of us have gotten used to firing up the apps and listening on our smartphones or smart speakers. If you’re not that particular about music compression then that will do. But those who long for higher quality sound and the lost art of listening well are always on the lookout for products that can bring some semblance of that back.
Designer: Simon Schuster
Cravt is a product concept that can do just that if one day it does get made into an actual product. The name is a derivative of the word “Craft” which of course can be connected to the creation of music. Some might even say the art of listening can be considered a craft as well. The designer wanted to bring back the habit of appreciating music by designing something that can be both convenient and give you uncompressed, high-quality music. There are three components to his product design: an album player, a speaker, and a remote.
The Cravt Album seems to be a combination of an LP and a CD player. The audio files for a specific album of an artist is stored there but the format is not compressed and is analog. It is encased in a durable shell to protect the files and internal components housed in it. It can have packaging to show off the album cover, tracklist, and band or artist photos. This is another thing that has been lost with the digital revolution so it’s interesting to see this kind of product design.
The Cravt 360-degree loudspeaker is focused more on giving your music the best sound quality rather than having a lot of smart functions and all that jazz. The shape itself is designed to let the sound fire upward to spread the sound of the tweeter. It also is designed to have high-end drivers (for mid, high, and low range) so that it will always give out a 360 degree sound. And since it’s not a smart speaker, there are no other distractions as you listen to your chosen album.
Lastly, the Cravt remote control unit is also simple enough to not distract you from the primary purpose of the device which is to listen to music. It only has the basic commands like play/pause, volume, and skip and all of these are done through touch gestures. You can also display what song is currently playing on the small screen included in the remote, also through an intuitive touch gesture. All in all, this is a premium-looking music-playing device that I would love to try out if ever it becomes an actual product. For now, though, I’ll have to make do with Spotify and my Google Home speaker.
