Bach Launches Updated MP3 Format

An anonymous reader writes to tell us that Bach Technology has rolled out an updated MP3 file format in a bid to combat music piracy. Dubbed "MusicDNA," the new format offers embedded "updatable premium content" like lyrics, videos, news updates, and album artwork. "Using the new technology, music labels and bands will be able to send updates to the music files – with tour dates, interviews or updates to social networking pages – while illegally-downloaded files remain static. ... No major labels have signed up to use MusicDNA so far, but British record company Beggars Group and US label Tommy Boy are both on board. However, the files are likely to be more expensive than MP3 files – according to the BBC – and will have to compete with Apple's iTunes LP, which already provides additional content such as bonus tracks, lyrics and video interviews."

Comments

Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[sopssa]

with tour dates, interviews or updates to social networking pages – while illegally-downloaded files remain static.

So if I want to buy music legitly, in addition to paying for the track I will now also get spammed with ads?

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[BabyDuckHat]

They're not ads. They're valuable opportunities from trusted online partners. Now, where did I put that shiv?

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[Anonymous Coward]

In other words, if I download a file illegally, I'm guaranteed to be left alone and my files won't be changed around without my consent or prior knowledge?

Hm.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[alop]

Sounds like a misguided effort. What I really want, is high-quality audio in smaller file sizes. It seems like they're creating a solution without a problem, or for the wrong problem.

I understand the point of incentivizing legitimate downloads, but the incentive here is something I (or just about anyone) can get with a quick google search.

If they really want to incentivize legit downloads, give me exclusive content or, life-like audio... Heck, I'd take the music equivalent of "Director's Commentary" over their proposal.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[infinite9]

I hope it's an open standard so someone can write a utility to strip all the crap from the "new and improved" mp3 files.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[jollyreaper]

So if I want to buy music legitly, in addition to paying for the track I will now also get spammed with ads?

But wait, there's more!

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[InlawBiker]

Doesn't matter what we, the end users, want. The customer is big record labels. They want a format to "combat piracy while adding value and opportunities for marketing synergy in strategic channels."

The folks who designed the format know perfectly well it will never go anywhere. So what! They're getting paid.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[PopeRatzo]

My old player was 80gigs, but when I needed to buy a new one last month I was hard pressed to find one larger then 32gigs, with many being around the 16gig size.

The shrinking size has nothing to do with the size of media files and everything to do with flash memory having larger profit margins than hard drives.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[nine-times]

From TFA:

Dubbed MusicDNA, the files contain embedded additional content including lyrics, videos, news updates and album artwork.

Ok, so lyrics and album art totally makes sense, but... can't you already do that with ID3 tags? But videos? Why would I want to store a video in my MP3 file instead of as its own video file? And the news updates, as you said, sound like spam.

To include some context to your quote:

MusicDNA was developed by Norwegian firm Bach Technology, the company that also created the MP3 file, in an attempt to combat illegal file-sharing. Using the new technology, music labels and bands will be able to send updates to the music files – with tour dates, interviews or updates to social networking pages – while illegally-downloaded files remain static.

Ok, so to me this makes it sound like, if I want to avoid getting spammed, I should listen to "illegally-downloaded files". This also implies that these files have some sort of phone-home DRM when the music is played, which is a potential privacy violation.

You know, when I'm listening to music, I often do think, "The only way this could be better is if it had DRM and reported my listening habits back to record labels, and if I was getting spammed right now. If only someone would develop the technology!"

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[PopeRatzo]

I hope it's an open standard

Not likely.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate to think what the record companies are going to include with this new format, lets face it they cannot even manage to tag mp3's properly most of the time.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[Jeremy Erwin]

HILDEBRAND Hi. I'm Andy Hildebrand, and I'm here with my good friend Paul Northfield, and we're here to discuss why this albums sounds the way it does.
NORTHFIELD: What's so impressive about this album? I'd like to point out that this track is particularly loud. By keeping the basic beat at fairly steady -0.5 dbFS, we were able to achieve a dynamic punch heretofore unrealized in the industry.
HILDEBRAND: One of the problems with singing that loudly, of course is that sometimes a singer's voice distorts. By applying a proprietary algorithm, we able to ensure that the distortion is minimal.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[thehostiles]

so?

the "extra information" they're offering is of absolutely NO value.
we can get tour dates, album artwork, interviews and other goodies anywhere else free of charge.

this changes nothing. You're actually going to end up getting a normal music file that takes up a bit more space on your hard drive.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[Have Blue]

Actually, it has everything to do with demand. If the distribution of music collection size works out so that you've covered the majority of the audience at 16GB, and the vast majority of them at 32GB, there's not that much money to be made chasing the ones left over with yet more product lines. Someone will still do it, obviously, which is why e.g. Apple still makes 160GB iPod Classics, but that segment is not exactly the low-hanging fruit.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[Lord Byron II]

Saying it has "no value" is like saying that Wikipedia has no value because there already exist print encyclopedias. I think, done correctly, this could be fairly unobtrusive and beneficial. Imagine, you download a single you like and it already contains Amazon links to buy the full album. Or it lets you know when the band's next release comes out.

I for one welcome this idea. Instead of penalizing the legitimate buyers of a product with DRM, they are attempting to reward the buyers with additional content. Our relationship with the content industries is always going to be one of a carrot or a stick, and I much prefer the carrot.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[Lumpy]

my rip did NOT come from the audio layer it came from the data stream out the Toslink into the PC from the SACD player, The great part is that linux ignores the stupid copyright bit.

Just because you have no clue how to rip SACD or DVD-A audio directly does not mean everyone else does.

Re:Sounds like features I need from an audio file

[Merls the Sneaky]

Sounds like advertisement to me, personally I hate advertisements.

Extra content

[e2d2]

Given that one of the main reasons for buying music over simply downloading it is art work, lyrics, and extra content, this might not be a bad idea. IF you can truly restrict access. Otherwise you're just giving more reason to pirate the format.

What? Why?

[DigitalGodBoy]

This was dead before they wrote the first line of the spec. The MP3 genie is out of the bottle and there's no amount of wishful thinking that can be done by the record companies to stuff it back in.

No thanks, Bach

[mcgrew]

Just when the patent on MP3 is set to expire they "update" it with DRM? WTF? This will ensure that the old, soon-to-be free file format will stay around.

I hope Ogg doesn't think since MP3 has this cruft they have to too. Of course, MP3 may be playing catch up with Microsoft; WMA files have had DRM for a long time. The DRM was in fact (and still is) a security risk.

I'll stick with OGG and even better, SHN and FLAC.

Re:No thanks, Bach

[Sir_Lewk]

Don't worry. "Updating" MP3 like this will not extend the coverage period of the patents on the original MP3. The patents on MP3 will still expire on schedule, though I can't say I actually care enough to look up when that may be.

Re:No thanks, Bach

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. I'm sure they'd like that. And I'd like Scarlet Johansen to slob my knob tonight. The probability of the two happening are about the same.

Re:No thanks, Bach

[Zerth]

The patents on MP3 will still expire on schedule, though I can't say I actually care enough to look up when that may be.

In the US, December 2012 at the earliest, their main submarine patent surfacing in 1995.

There's some others that might last until 2017, but they were put in well over a year after the mpeg standard was published(and thus technically void). Won't keep them from suing, but you might win if you aren't crushed by your own legal costs:)

As for other countries, damned if I know. A bunch of other companies copycatted a lot, so there might be other patents in play elsewhere.

Comical

[rbrander]

...a "successor to MP3", which removes the most popular feature of MP3, the ability to control your own purchased copy of the property. Yeah, that'll bring back the customers you chased away with the last 3 attempts at controlled digital content.

It can be "updated"...who wants to bet that one kind of "update" is like the Amazon "update" of their sale of Orwell's '1984'...total deletion.

Do not pass "Go", do not collect millions of customers...go directly to the ash-heap of computer history.

Oh.. okay, no problem.

[Adult film producer]

I'll just keep ripping cds to .flac and distributing them so others can convert them to whatever audio format they prefer. Seems like a reasonable compromise.

Just another avenue to spread viruses

[Attila Dimedici]

Using the new technology, music labels and bands will be able to send updates to the music files – with tour dates, interviews or updates to social networking pages

They forgot to mention that this would also provide an exploit for malware writers to use to get into people's machines.

Oh Great!

[pm_rat_poison]

More expensive DRM-laden adware music! This is JUST what we need to change our minds about NOT CARING about music enterprises! Making the lives of the pirates easier compared to those who pay for the content is such a great idea! It's worked before, hasn't it?

Re:Wrong Audience?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I don't know if anybody cares about interviews; but research tends to demonstrate that pirates are, as a body, more enthusiastic about(and bigger consumers of) music than non-pirates.

Now, if anybody actually thinks that this magic new format will be able to distinguish between the evil and the good when it comes to updating with exciting new stuff, I have some very exciting prospects in the field of bridge-related real estate to share with them.

Re:Wrong Audience?

[Korin43]

Actually, pirates are the music industry's more valuable customers. It turns out that people who download the most music actually go to the most concerts and buy the most music also. It's still a terrible idea though, since it's basically mp3's with built in ads. I'm not sure where they will find people willing to pay extra for that.

What CDs?

[tepples]

I'll just keep ripping cds to .flac and distributing them so others can convert them to whatever audio format they prefer. Seems like a reasonable compromise.

Do the record labels even make Compact Discs anymore? I thought they all switched to non-conforming discs compatible with some CD players.

Re:Combatting Piracy

[LWATCDR]

You left out drop the price.
Really folks when a song is less than 99 cents it isn't worth my time to pirate it. If I like it I will buy it.

Re:Useless

[SomeoneGotMyNick]

Maybe a cappella, no lyrics or remix versions of the songs, but those would most likely just be pirated just as as the main music files too.

Maybe versions of the song before the vocal track was processed with AutoTune. When people get to hear the real "talent", the record companies won't have to worry about music piracy ever again (or sales for that matter).

Re:Combatting Piracy

[whisper_jeff]

http://www.geg.ca/en/show/pressrelease/1348

One example. $250 for the best tickets for U2. Those prices are not unusual any more. Celine Dion did about two dozen shows in Montreal where the best tickets were similarly priced. $100+ for "average" artists is entirely normal. When was the last time you went to a concert? They've become _EXTREMELY_ expensive in the last couple years as bands have realized you can pirate a song but you cannot pirate the experience of going to a live show. That is where the money is to be made.

Re:Wrong Audience?

[mcgrew]

I get all the free RIAA downloads I need from the radio! Just like I used to tape the radio, now I sample it. The only internet downloads I need now are indie music, and they WANT me to download their stuff.

If the RIAA didn't have radio they'd be tickled pink to have you smple their wares from the internet, too. Their true enemy isn't "piracy", it's legitimate competetion from the independant artists, who have discovered that the majors are no longer needed for anything except getting your work on the radio.

If you're in St Louis, KSHE plays seven albums every Sunday night, uncut and uninterrupted and have been doing so for decades. I had Ted Nugent's Stranglehold album on cassette a full week before it went on sale, thanks to KSHE.

This new format does solve one interesting problem -- how to extend the patent on MP3, which is set to expire soon. Too bad copyrights aren't as short a length as patents, and a good thing patents don't last as long as copyrights. If they did, technological progress would be as slow as artistic progress is today. Like science and technology, art draws on what has come before.

Re:You are not the customer

[PopeRatzo]

You are not the customer.

Welcome to the Corporate World Order.

We are no longer consumers. We are consumables. Corporations don't exist to sell us things to fill our needs. We exist to feed their machine.

Bach mp3? no-way

[McNihil]

It wasn't Bach it was The German company Fraunhofer-Gesellshaft that did mp3 in the first place. Extremely shoddy article.

Bach Technlologies? Who are they?

[sageres]

Ok the article states:

"MusicDNA was developed by Norwegian firm Bach Technology, the company that also created the MP3 file, in an attempt to combat illegal file-sharing."

(emphasis mine) Ok well I am sorry but I do not understand. According to ematch.eu:

Founded in March 2007, BACH is a new and fast growing music technology company. BACH has achieved a strategic partnership with Fraunhofer IDMT, an internationally proven and trusted institution in the music industry. In December 2009 BACH finalized it's first major investment round. Shareholders include Karlheinz Brandenburg (one of the inventor of the MP3 algorithm), 247 Inc. (the company of Shigeo Maruyama, the former Sony Music and Sony Computing CEO) and the German VC b-mt.

So, how is the company responcible for mp3 format, because Karlheinz Brandenburg was responsible for one of the mp3 algorithms? And, he is just a shareholder. By far, he was not the only one who brought it about, and his implementation was one of several that made it into market. But as you can see -- the major shareholders are the music industry, specifically 247 Inc, the arm of Sony who are interested in it. In short Bach Technologies are overstating their credentials. They did not create MP3 and this was done for no other reason then an attempt to bring more DRM into the fold of the market.

The REAL (secret) marketing plan.

[vlm]

You guys are missing the real, secret marketing plan. Those files will be available P2P. The "album art" will not be the tiny little CD cover, but a goatse. Fans of music that would like a goatse will get a different yet equally offensive picture. The "social networking" will not "friend" you to the band, but to alqada or some other james bond-ian villian. Instead of the web integration making the band your new homepage, it will make 4chan your new home page (assuming it isn't already, of course). You get the idea, basically it'll be trash.

And those "bad" files will be widely distributed P2P by the music middlemen themselves, to poison the well. I can see the whiny public service infomercial now... "remember when you could download music safely? Well those days are over, now a simple music file and totally screw up your computer and ipod. But on the good side, you can pay a mere $2 per track for one of our guaranteed SAFE music files at our new web store."