Random Thoughts

From yahoo news / reuters

Sony BMG to drop copy protection for downloads

By Yinka Adegoke 2 hours, 47 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the world’s second largest music company, will this month become the last of the big four majors to drop copy protection software on music downloads, also known as digital rights management (DRM).
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Sony BMG, home to artists including Beyonce, Britney Spears and Celine Dion, said on Monday it will launch a gift card service on January 15 called Platinum MusicPass that will feature digital albums from its artists in the MP3 format. The format does not use DRM protection.

Fans will be able to buy the digital album cards in stores and download full-length albums from a MusicPass Web site after they type in an identifying number. The cards will be available at U.S. retail outlets such as Best Buy (BBY.N) and Target (TGT.N).

“The introduction of MusicPass is an important part of Sony BMG’s ongoing campaign to bring its artists’ music to fans in new and innovative ways, and to develop compelling new business models,” said Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG president, global digital business & U.S. Sales.

The music industry posted a 15 percent drop in album sales in 2007 as fans bought fewer CDs. Digital music sales did not make up for the revenue shortfall, forcing executives to explore new business models and ways of attracting consumers.

One of the biggest issues for music companies last year was whether dropping DRM would help drive digital sales.

In February, Apple Inc (AAPL.O) founder Steve Jobs called on music companies to stop requiring retailers to use DRM for services like his company’s iTunes Music Store. Jobs said dropping DRM would help boost sales.

Digital music buyers have been frustrated by the limitations imposed by DRM, prompting industry analysts to support the call to drop copy protection. Music companies had required DRM to prevent users from making multiple copies or sharing songs with friends for free.

EMI, the number four music company in market share became the first major to drop DRM in April and was later followed by Vivendi’s (VIV.PA) Universal Music Group. Last month, Warner Music Group (WMG.N) said it would start selling its music in MP3 format through Amazon.com (AMZN.O).

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

It’s a great day for people who buy music! I am so glad to see this finally happening, now if we can just get all of the hard to find music and remixes out there and widely available it will be really really great! I am so glad that it seems the frustration of buying a song and not being able to play it on my laptop may finally be resolved!

So after reading the following news article about how napster is moving to the mp3 format, which I can only assume will be DRM free, next quarter, I have to wonder, why wait ’till next quarter? Why not start now? We finally see the signs of a revolution with consumer choice changing huge corporate game plans with music. It’s about time people.

Napster moves to MP3-only music download format
from yahoo news / Reuters
By Yinka Adegoke Mon Jan 7, 12:22 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Napster Inc, one of the largest digital music retailers, said on Monday it would start selling downloads in the MP3 format from the second quarter of this year in the latest blow to copy protection for songs bought online.
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Napster had sold songs protected with Microsoft Corp’s Windows-based digital rights management (DRM) to prevent buyers from illegally making multiple copies or distributing songs to other users.

But the use of DRM, originally mandated by the world’s largest music companies, has proved unpopular with consumers. Many have been frustrated to find that songs they buy can only be played on certain compatible digital players or could not be moved from one computer to another.

Napster made its name in the 1990s as the first major free marketplace for DRM-free songs in the MP3 format. But it did so as an illegal service for users to share their music files, eventually being sued and closed by the music industry in 2001.

Today’s incarnation of Napster operates legally after buying rights to the name in 2003. It has 750,000 subscribers who use both its music subscription and download services.

“We projected a year ago that there would be a critical mass of support for MP3, and we’re pleased to see the music industry is beginning to support it,” said Chief Executive Chris Gorog. “There’s now enough top-tier content out there.”

Major music companies including EMI Group, Vivendi’s Universal Music Group and, more recently, Warner Music Group, have begun selling songs in the MP3 format.

MP3 is the most widely available digital audio format and plays on the widest range of devices, including the dominant digital music player, Apple Inc’s iPod.

“There’s little question that the broad adoption of MP3s will provide an uplift for the industry,” said Gorog.

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

Oh no, don’t tell the music industry this! For a long time there was an argument that perfect digital copies are the problem, and that they really didn’t mind the not so perfect copies that tapes or low quality streaming or bad rips. But evidence that people want portability before quality, no, don’t tell them that.

Well, I still maintain that the industry needs to make top quality audio, and associated packaging an elite thing. Make it a status symbol. Those people that have the top notch quality audio in the car and have the nice cases to show off should be considered cool, or well off. Make the CD inserts cool to have, with lot of info and pictures, this will make more people want to show off and be cool.

Anyways, the article that sparked this mini-rant, from Boing Boing€ (good discussion there btw):

Music producers mixing for MP3
Posted by Cory Doctorow, December 29, 2007 3:23 AM | permalink
In a fascinating article about trends in sound engineering, Rolling Stone notes that producers are now specifically mixing tracks to compensate for the failings in MP3 — it seems to me that as a society, we’re happy to sacrifice fidelity for ease of use, flexibility and low-cost (see, for example, the trend from landlines to cordless phones to mobile phones to Skype). Designing for that, as opposed to lamenting it — is a damned good and realistic thing to do.

Producers also now alter the way they mix albums to compensate for the limitations of MP3 sound. “You have to be aware of how people will hear music, and pretty much everyone is listening to MP3,” says producer Butch Vig, a member of Garbage and the producer of Nirvana’s Never- mind. “Some of the effects get lost. So you sometimes have to over-exaggerate things.” Other producers believe that intensely compressed CDs make for better MP3s, since the loudness of the music will compensate for the flatness of the digital format.

Link to full story at Rolling Stone (via /.)

Start typing away!

This is a post about this great canoe trip that never happened. It would have been a long trip through the mountains and would have bee a very pleasant, peaceful escape from the crowded city life that I am accustomed to. This canoe trip would of certainly included getting wet and seeing nature in ways that had not been experienced in some time of course.

I also suspect that there would be mosquitoes and bugs and other things that I am not wanting to deal with, and long drives to get there and back, so I am happy to read about other people’s canoe trips and here the details from there.

When you arrive at most canoe destinations you have to park in the center and then get to the canoe, hopefully they will pick you up and you won’t have to walk a long distance with a canoe on your back.