Digital Music Gold Rush Confuses Consumers
Recorded music hasn’t been around that long, but it’s sure been
repackaged a lot. The upgrading alone — from cylinder to vinyl to
tape to CD, and now to a slew of Net-based formats — has been hard
enough on consumers. In addition, every time a new medium is
introduced, the record industry worries aboutpiracy once again,
especially when there are home recording options. And now, sadly,
with every major Net-based music breakthrough today there seems to
be a security issue just waiting to confuse eager music fans.
Last week was a perfect example. There were two big news
announcements: David Bowie will be offering a whole new album for
digital download, and secure-music distribution company Liquid
Audio will be introducing its 5.0 system. At first, these seemed
like easy-to-digest digital developments. Bowie is doing the
cyber-pioneer thing, paving the way for others to offer whole
albums online. And the new Liquid Audio format lets music fans
listen to MP3 files (finally) — and will be included in an
upcoming portable MP3 player from Sanyo.
It should be a win-win-win for artists, labels and fans: More
music, more ways to sell it, more ways to hear it. Instead, we’re
forced to read the fine print time and again, because every
announcement is tied to different formats/devices-and you have to
make sure your player/gadget/song is “supported” if you’re going to
personally enjoy these so-called coups. The result: You need a
scorecard to keep track of what you can and can’t do every time an
artist posts a new song online.
Specifically, it’s great that Bowie album will sell his album
online in its entirety, but note that it will be available in two
downloadable formats only: Liquid Audio and Microsoft’s Windows
Media. Music fans should realize that not every MP3 player supports
both of these formats. So you may have to download a new software
player — and pray it doesn’t muck with your default settings,
audio playback and prior software players. In addition, your
portable MP3 gadget may not support either of these formats. So you
could be stuck listening at your computer, not in the gym or on the
bus, etc.
Now let’s look at Liquid Audio’s latest offering, Version 5.0. The
company has finally added MP3 support at the same time that they
are trying to get folks to support something called Genuine MP3s,
essentially a digital watermark embedded in files that would verify
the authenticity of an audio file to prevent the spread of pirated
music. It’s nice idea (EMI liked it enough to commission Liquid
Audio to digitize their whole catalog), but do we really want to
introduce yet another format, more jargon and yet more computer
tasks for consumers have to learn?
Liquid Audio’s CTO Philip Wiser told Rolling Stone that
“It’s not a Liquid Audio proprietary thing; it’s really about
allowing people — primarily artists — to stamp the music. To say,
‘Hey, this came from me.’ [Fans] can go and look at this thing and
say, ‘Hey this is the real McCoy.'” Let’s be honest here: Music
fans aren’t clamoring for this; it’s the record labels and artists
who are. It’s getting to the point where every company that wants a
piece of the digital music pie justifies their inclusion by telling
us how much artists and fans are asking for protection.
I’m all for making sure that artists get paid, but it’s maddening
to see companies scramble to address the need for anti-piracy
measures by releasing a new format every other week, and then
saying we asked for it. Yes, the Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA) and its Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI)
demanded it, but that didn’t have to spawn dozens of competing
copyright and security solutions.
Even Mr. Wiser, when explaining how SDMI compliance works, admitted
that it’s all quite arcane. “It’s very complicated, that’s why it’s
so confusing,” he said. “At some point down the road, companies
would be embedding watermarks in their content and if you went and
ripped the CD from this new content, your ripper would detect that
and say, ‘Wait a minute, this is copyright-protected content and
you can’t just download this onto your portable device.'”
For the record, most hardware and software will be able to play the
MP3s you downloaded or ripped off CDs in the past. That’s one
reason that Liquid Audio 5.0, RealJukebox and Microsoft’s Windows
Media Player 6.0 all support the MP3 format. It’s how songs are
protected in the future, with or without any these competing
security formats, that’s at stake these days. All of which really
makes me appreciate the fact that my turntable can still play
records from fifty years ago, no problem.