A legume-based MP3 player crops up on Kickstarter

Music on-the-go has been a changing trend over the years. Back in the day, it was commonplace to see people walk around with MP3 players strapped to their hips. Now, a unique dedicated MP3 player is all set to look for crowd funding. How it will stack up against the current “smartphone as primary music device” trend is the big question. 

The Kickstarter project, called iBean and iTagua, is described as “the world’s very first digital audio music players designed using whole natural botanical casings, gathered sustainably from the Amazon Rainforest,” according to London-based startup Cybotanics which launched the product.

What the convoluted description is trying to say is that these tiny MP3 players come encased in either a bean or a Tagua palm nut and they are designed for lossless audio, which outputs the exact original data of the music track by reconstructing it from the compressed data.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

iTagua is a dedicated MP3 player encased in a Tagua palm nut (Image credit: Kickstarter)

The players don’t support FLAC, though, which is the preferred format for most audiophiles. Monkey’s Audio format, which is the .ape file extension for lossless audio, is the native format for iBean and iTagua. If it is any consolation, the tiny devices can also play regular MP3 tracks.

Like a round-looking iPod shuffle, the products are crafted with parts sourced from across the world. Each botanical casing is brought from Columbia. The startup has said that its vines grow in abundance, and will not pose a threat to the environment. In case of the iBean, after sourcing the legume, each bean is carefully hand-selected for its symmetry and natural beauty (Bourneville syndrome, much?) and is polished to a high shine using a special stone polishing tumbler.

The inside kernel is then carefully removed and replaced with the digital medial player circuit board and battery. The iBean’s natural polycarbonate-like shell apparently makes for a strong casing, which is being positioned as an alternative to plastic or metal.

iBean, another innovation that the Kickstarter wants to promote

The iTagua is just as crazy, although the housing material is obviously different. Cybotanics seems confident that the ivory-like properties of its Tagua nuts will prove to be a viable substitute to plastic. And there is apparently even more room for personalisation with iTagua. The startup is offering backers a range of dyed color combinations.

All the pieces are assembled in Bogota, and each player boasts 2GB of flash storage. Taking into account that the players support lossless audio, users probably won’t get more than a few hours of performance out of the natural MP3 player.

The main USP of the devices is that they are an eco-friendly take on the iPod shuffle. The possibility of a market existing for these kinds of devices is questionable, though. No audiophile in their right mind will even think about shelling out moolah for an iBean.  However, there is a clear novelty factor around the device, as demonstrated by the video below:

But the biggest problem is the amount of funding that this project requires. The project needs £30,000 (Rs 27, 64,125) in funding. And that is after the $60,000 (Rs 36, 45,000 approx) in private equity which has allegedly gone into the project already.

While the novelty of the MP3 player is undeniable, especially as a one-off gift to your nephew, the chances of iBean and iTagua actually picking up seem slim. With shifting music-trends, limited storage capacity and the obscene amount need to crowd fund the tiny device, the chips seems piled up against the project. And let’s face it. We’re talking about a bean. Who would want an MP3 player that your pet bird could mistake for a mid-day snack.