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U2 and Apple Collaborate On 'Non-Piratable, Interactive Format For Music'
Squiff writes U2 and Apple are apparently collaborating on a new, "interactive format for music," due to launch in "about 18 months." (A direct interview is available at Time, but paywalled.) Bono said the new tech "can't be pirated" and will re-imagine the role of album artwork. Marco Arment has some suitably skeptical commentary: "Full albums are as interesting to most people today as magazines. Single songs and single articles killed their respective larger containers. ... This alleged new format will cost a fortune to produce: people have to take the photos, design the interactions, build the animations, and make the deals with Apple. Bono’s talking point about helping smaller bands is ridiculous ... There's nothing Apple or Bono can do to make people care enough about glorified liner notes. People care about music and convenience, period. As for “music that can’t be pirated”, I ask again, what decade is this? That ship has not only sailed long ago, but has circled the world hundreds of times, sunk, been dragged up, turned into a tourist attraction, went out of business, and been gutted and retrofitted as a more profitable oil tanker."
Dr Dre the "producer" is essentially just an older peer that new acts can ask for advice and a respected name to put advertising. Usually in cases like this where an over-the-hill artist "produces" a younger one, it is in fact the much less celebrated engineer who is doing all the fine-tuning of the sound. The "producer" can only say "I like that" or "I don't like that" to what the engineer presents.
Once Amazon started selling MP3s, I jumped ship from iTunes and never looked back. I imagine even if there was no court order mandating they remove DRM they would have for competitive reasons anyway.
That's what you call rewriting history. The only reason why there was ever DRM on the iTunes store was because the record labels demanded it. The only reason why Amazon was allowed to sell DRM-free music in mp3 format was because they record labels wanted a strong alternative to the iTunes store - I wonder how happy they are with this nowadays and when Amazon will turn on them like they are turning on the book publishers. At the same time Apple was still not allowed to sell DRM free; only after Apple agreed to raise all the prices.
Just a reminder: The two A's in AAC stand for "Advanced Audio" and have nothing to do with Apple. And AAC = mp4.
I have nothing personal against Apple or U2, but if Cook thinks he can keep Apple's overall positive image as a "cool company" (not to speak of rejuvenating it) by collaborating with a pop band whose peak of success was in the late 80s/early 90s, then I can only conclude that Apple has a rough future ahead.
Perhaps I am missing the grand picture here but it's hard for me to imagine anything less innovative and more boring than this U2 bullshit in combination with a wrist watch that looses power after one day.
But, in a world where everyone is selling 256K and 320K tracks, I'd rather get my music in a lossless format and convert down to VBR MP3.
LMAO. AAC is already VBR, at 256k from the iTunes store. So you want a lossless track so that you can convert it to lossy anyway, rather than getting a lossy track in the first place with no extra steps needed. Brilliant.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
And local bars don't have live music anymore because local bands aren't allowed on the radio.
I don't know where you live, but in Seattle there are three *pages* of live shows for *today* [1] and five *pages* of live shows for *this weekend* [2]. Granted that is both for bars and larger venues, but the vast majority are small local bars.
As to local bands not allowed on the radio?! There are plenty of radio stations that cater to music lovers and absolutely do play local bands. One of several Seattle (again, I live here; I don't think Seattle is unique) is KEXP. They even have an article on how to get airplay on KEXP [3]. While it's a local station, I know many of their listeners are from beyond the city limits so getting airplay on such a local station can have wider-ranging effects for an up-and-coming band.
I guess what "local" bars offer depends on locale but generally higher-population areas sustain more arts. That's always been the case, though. Artists and patrons congregate.
[1] http://www.thestranger.com/gyr...
[2] http://www.thestranger.com/gyr...
[3] http://blog.kexp.org/2011/08/0...
Thsi point is the ignored deal breaker that has killed all other formats that attempted this. If it won't play on any of the following, it's sales are already in decline.
Common MP3 Players
DVD players that play MP3 CD's
Computers Windows, Linux, Apple
Cell phones Android as well as Apple.
Only formats with compatability at a reasonable price will sell in volume.
Unique formats that require a specialised player will have very limited market penetration.
Do I need to list failed formats?
Sony Minidisc with serial copy protection
Microsoft Zune and protected WMA formats
Apple Itunes copy protected format
The Apple format had a reasonable market penetration because they were the first to market with a legal format, but had to drop the protection when other players entered the market at lower prices in more universally playable formats. Apple tried to market the unprotected verson at a higher price, but that was short lived too.
My questions are who is going to produce the compatible players that people will actually buy? Will the player play legacy formats that are not protected? This is important as a new player that won't play existing libraries won't sell much. Will the player import the legacy formats into a protected format? If so, this will cause a backup and archival issue. Will it be compatible with MOST in car infotainment systems?
Many cars have the ability to "Play" MP3's on a USB Thumb drive. How are you going to sell into this market?
Another incompatable format has a high barrier to market entry. Good luck.
The truth shall set you free!