The world’s first store for flash-drive music albums is located right here in Shakopee, in Steve Thaemert’s dining room.

Thaemert, a Christian rock musician, is attracting attention from as far away as the United Kingdom after recently launching an on-line based music store, Indiedrive.

Indiedrive is unique in that it offers music albums on 1 GB high-end USB flash drives, instead of CDs. The drives, which can plug into the USB port of a computer, DVD player or gaming console, are about the size of a small key and can hold much more than a CD; the idea is for artists to load them with songs, photos, videos, even ring tones.

Although the flash drives, most priced around $20, cost more than a CD, consumers basically get the music album for free because they can download it onto their computer and then re-use the flash drive for other purposes.

At indiedrive.com, customers can browse flash-drive albums similar to searching for CDs at a record store. The Website includes sample songs, photos and descriptions of artists, including links to their homepages.

Thaemert, 29, front man for the Christian rock band Precious Red, came up with the idea after seeing bands struggle to sell CDs in the age of MP3 downloads.

Then he watched a band sell out its albums on flash drives.

Although national acts like Matchbox Twenty, Radiohead, and Bob Marley were also releasing albums on flash drives, there wasn’t a central place for bands to order flash-drive albums and consumers to buy them.

So "we went ahead and created it," Thaemert said.

Steve Thaemert moved to Shakopee from the Princeton area with his wife and two young children about 1½ years ago to be closer to fellow bandmate Dave Barilla of Jordan. Thaemert, a full-time musician, is president of the first marketplace for flash-drive music albums. (Staff photos by Shannon Fiecke)

After two years of networking, including forming advertising partnerships with radio and independent record labels, and securing financial backing, Thaemert, along with a team of fellow musicians and an accountant, announced the launch last week.

"Now with a flash drives, you get the best of both worlds," he said: Downloads, plus something physical to walk out of a concert with.

Geared toward independent artists, Indiedrive has already signed up Scarlet Haze, a popular Minneapolis rock band, and Tim Glenn, musician and speaker for the well-known child sponsorship ministry Compassion International.

Glenn, in his Jan. 15 blog, encourages fans to check out Indiedrive and the new project he’s released with it. The album includes songs from previous and upcoming albums, never-released studio recordings, a video, lyric sheets, downloadable photos and five never-released songs from his college days.

"Here's the cool part: You can buy the flash drive, download all the stuff on it ... then delete it from the drive ... and you have a 1GB flash drive to use for whatever! For only $20!" Glenn writes.

The company launched right after Christmas with a massive media blitz and is advertising through personal contacts in the music industry.

So far, most sales activity has been bulk orders directly from the musicians.

The on-line store is currently selling albums for 20 artists from 12 different states, in the rock, country and R&B genres, and hopes to eventually feature thousands of musicians.

"We are just starting to get into the new frontier with the Web site," Thaemert said.

The company plans to get the word out more by hitting music festivals hard this spring and summer.

"That’s when you’ll really hear about it," Thaemert said.

Thaemert operates his business from a table in his dining room. He runs the company with bandmates Bob Othoudt, vice president of artist relations, from Milaca, and Steve Manire, artist representative, from Zimmerman, and an accountant he had worked with, Pete Holmbo, chief financial officer, from Princeton.

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South Dakota -based Cfgear manufactures and ships the drives, which Indiedrive markets and sells.

Founded in 2006, Cfgear offers customized flash-drive products and solutions.

Indiedrive albums are not pre-stocked, but made on an as-ordered basis.

Thaemert said the drives are high quality and guaranteed to last. The band’s name can be engraved on one side of the metal-encased flash drive. The other side displays Indiedrive’s logo.

"The ones we have are custom-made," he said. "They’re sleek, sexy little cool gadgets."

Indiedrive sells the albums at no cost to the musicians, who actually set the final price of the flash drive — determining how much they will profit from it.

"It’s here to help the musicians," Thaemert explained. Most Indiedrive artists make about $8 to $10 a drive, while Indiedrive earns $2.

The goal is to turn Indiedrive into a fully operational company.

"We’re definitely going to try to grow this into a big money-making business," he sad. "It’s quantity-based; we have to move a lot of drives."

Thaemart said he’s sure others may try to copy their efforts, but he believes his company has the advantage, due to its unique partnership with the manufacturer and because it doesn’t charge musicians.

"We’re absolutely at the rock bottom for what we get," he said of the base cost for the drives.

The intent is to drop album drive prices as they become cheaper to produce

"We want to compete with CD sales, to say you can get this now for the price of a CD," Thaemert said.