RIO, MP3 Under Attack in Wall Street Journal

An anonymous reader sent us a link to Wall Street Journal article about the music industry and MP3s. Talks about efforts by IBM and AT&T to create new formats that will successfully prevent the advancement of music and artistic freedom so that the industry can continue to overcharge consumers and rip off the people that make the music. Not that I'm biased. Update: 01/22 09:55 by B : There's another article in Wired about a recent panel discussion on standards in digital music: "It's become un-American to argue against security, but five companies sell 87 percent of the music. They'll say anything to protect their position." Update: 01/22 03:17 by S : An anonymous contributor emailed me his notes on the digital audio panel session of the Fashion Institute of Technology Software Summit yesterday: Industry in "sad state". The consolidation of music labels and radio stations has resulted in reduced variety.It is hard for artists, who must join the system to have a chance at success, but doing so requires giving up rights to master recordings (forever), royalties of 10-20 per cent, but only after paying back costs to producer, etc. Labels only interested in artists who can sell at least 250,000 albums.

Solution is "digital efficiency". For example, mp3 allows artists to leave at any time, artists get 50 per cent royalties, can have special targetting such as sending e-mail to all fans in a particular area where band is about to give concert.

Issue is that we have now way to separate bits from Intellectual Property via internet, and this will change the way that music is distributed. Music is the simplest case of this, in that it can be done "now". Similar problems with arise with video, etc at later time.

Can have multiple formats, but need means to transfer terms and conditions of use, such as "ok to play this song three times until next Thursday" -- this is goal of SDMI initiative.

Today have oligopoly -- 5 companies sell 87 per cent of the music. On pragmatic level, unrealistic to expect securitysystem that will restrict how people will use content. e.g., today cd discs are not encrypted, so people can make copies, but can't make cd from a2b music format. Result is that vendors will have to add value to maintain price (current model of $15/cd won't persist), or else reduce price.

Music industry is mature with structure that is decades old, with tight control of distribution. There will have to be new model for internet. For example, music is given away via radio, and broadcasters are given special exemptions, but there is yet no realistic solution/approach for internet radio.

Comments

We need to document the holes in their logic

[Anonymous Coward]

This is typical industry nonsense.

First of all, this isn't about piracy. There isn't any way to prevent piracy. If you can pump the sound into your stereo, you can copy it. I promise you that I'll be able to take any of the proprietary formats, pipe them into my computer, and turm them into wavs or mp3s that sound great. You just don't have much generational loss with digital sound, even if you convert it to analog.

This is an important point: this noxious technology is being foisted upon us as a solution to the problem of piracy. But it won't be effective in solving that problem. It won't be any harder to make pirate copies of the new format than it is to make pirate copies of cd's.

Piracy is a bogey man the industry is using to make their agenda more palatable. What they really want is to maintain their grip on music distribution. That's what this is about. It's not about piracy, it's about controlling the distribution of information.

If this is about piracy, why are groups like the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy getting harassed when they try to distribute music via the net? Articles about those groups in the WSJ consistently talked about piracy. But if the groups are writing and performing the music, how is it piracy?

The truth is that none of these schemes will eliminate piracy. They will perpetuate the industry's control over distribution.

The important thing to remember is that this is about control over distribution. Whenever they say piracy, we have to come back with control over distribution.

This is a consumer issue, it's a free speech issue, and it's about the freedom of musicians to reach their audiences without having to pay a record company for permission to do so. Distributing music on the net is going to lower prices to consumers and it's going to put more money in small artists' pockets.

If the powers that be are so concerned about crime in the music biz, they should dig into payola and the involvement of the mafia and gangs. Payola drives radio airplay and press coverage to this day, and there are high level executives at major labels with strong mob ties.

I'm not worried about these projects. They have about as much of a chance to catch on as DIVVX does. Comsumers aren't as dumb as they think.