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Sony building a digital walkman
Tim Trampedach writes "Sony has previewed what they think is the MP3 killer by storing audio on a "Memory Stick". Not too much technical detail, but interesting that Sony is joining the crowd. "
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It's often quoted "Information wants to be free".
We already have an open, useful format. It's called MP3. The reign of music distributors over artists and consumers is crumbling.
Music distributors are making a last ditch scramble to come up with a format that offers similar portability benefits to MP3 but is still under their exclusive control. They have only a limited time in which to do this, because the strategy hinges on convincing the public to buy into their proprietary products because it's an "upgrade" from regular CDs. They will completely gloss over or outright obscure the the freedom issues that differentiate their own format(s) from MP3.
If MP3 becomes a mainstream format, which is already happening, there will no longer be a convincing reason to trick people into "upgrading" to a closed format. Yes, you can claim technical performance benefits, but these will not be nearly as enticing as the portability benefit over CDs.
The way that music distributors like Sony are behaving reminds me of Microsoft when the internet was taking off. They wanted to sign people up on MSN, and derided the internet as an unorganized mess that will never go anywhere. MP3 and its descendants, like the internet, will thrive and leave the closed formats behind no matter how hard big business tries to stick our heads in the sand.
It's also often said that freedom of the press only applies to those with a press. I don't see a fundamental reason why only only corporations with millions of dollars should distribute mainstream music. It's just been something that you simply had to accept - until now.
-OT
The memory stick is a marketing move by Sony to try to lock in control of the flash memory for consumer products market. This is a market with huge potential growth over the next few years, so it is only to be expected that a consumer electronics giant like Sony would want to push consumers towards a version that they control.
Sure, they might license it to other companies, but they'll get royalties.
Sony of course plays all sides of the market; they sell and release music, hardware, and media. It would be terribly remiss of them not to try and offer the third leg of the stool, a digital audio/hardware format for public consumption.
That being said, it seems sorta silly. The idea of encrypting or protecting data is not necessarily bad, especially for musicians and companies who get paid per company; but another post pointed this out, how much will it cost for a new artist to overcome the initial costs of getting access to this format? If it's as proprietary and closed as the Memory Stick seems to be, it won't do a thing to help budding artists and like.
The idea is a good one, technologically, I think. Say your Memory Stick has some private key embedded within, like in PGP technology. Lets also say the MS has a public key. If Sony is going to sell you some song, it takes the public key, encrypts it with said key, and sends it to you, where the Memory Stick will the proceed to decrypt and store it.
No one else will be able to unencrypt it, right? So copying won't work. I'm not sure how Memory Stick to Memory Stick transfer would work, and I assume MS to MS copying would just not be allowed. Perhaps it would just entail re-encoding the song with the other stick's public key and re-decoding it within the other stick.
This of course assumes that there is some amount of processing power in the stick itself. Perhaps all the stick stores is the private key and the music, and the player does all the miscellaneous encoding and decoding...
Seriously, if you believe copyright is important, how can MP3 be used to deal with this?
AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
The article is short on technical details, but it mentions that the music will be encrypted.
I suppose that the plan will be to sell music over the internet that you will download into your "memory stick."
For this to stop piracy, apparently it would have to be encoded to work on one and only one "netman" player.
You can't play the same music program in a portable deck, car deck, and home deck without buying 3 identical Memory Sticks of music?
You can't take your memory sticks to a friends house?
If your "netman" breaks all your memory sticks become useless? (How many walkmans accidentially get splattered on the pavement?)
And what's to stop them from eventually using this technology to enforce a "pay per listen" system?
Yeah right!
Sony, get a clue!
Personally, I'm not worried about the RIAA's newest quest for a secure audio format. As an independant artist myself, at least I have a choice. There's nothing wrong with that. I'll still use the tried and true mp3 format for free downloads and offer orders on an actual CD if the listeners so choose.
But I wonder. Once this new secure standard arrives, how much is it going to cost Joe electronic musician to use it if he/she wants to?
I can't really see it helping too many artists out there that are indi and with it being so easy for indi artists to distribute their work over the 'net now, we could probably look forward to there being so much more new music from people like myself rather than signed artists.
In all respect, I don't see a secure format changing my life in any way shape or form. Mpeg audio isn't disappearing and the only stuff I do copy are titles that I already own.
It seems to me that a company like Sony will only be pandering to artists that are already signed and wish to distribute their music on the 'net. Basically furthering the distinction between an indi and signed artist.
I haven't been keeping up with the latest on the RIAA but did see something on CNN last night about how they beleive a secure format is well needed for the industry. Well, part of it maybe is more like my take on it.
Other than pirating, can anyone see a rational difference in the future because of this? All it would do is make proprietary music more propietary. Unless I'm still missing many points.
If I am, I'd like to know. Guess I better look into it some more.
- Jase
This is ridiculous. This memory stick thing will be the BetaMax of the flash industry...(although Beta was a superior technology).
The Memory Stick is currently available in 4MB, 8MB, and 16MB versions, and will soon have 32MB capacities. By the end of this year, Sony officials expect to ship a 64MB version that could hold about two hours of stereo music in "long play" mode, they said.
OK, let's get something straight--CF is smaller and Pretec has already announced--get this--a 128MB CF2 card and a 320MB CF2 (same size as IBM MicroDrive) card!!
Flash memory is used in small capacities in products like cell phones but is still relatively expensive. The 16MB Memory Stick, for instance, runs about $66.
Yeah, and I just bought two 16MB SmartMedia cards for my Rio from Diamond. Price? $89 for TWO!!!
Maybe they think they can push this memory stick thing with their lame cameras (the floppy-based ones were actually innovative, but who wants to carry around a box of floppies when you can use a single CF card?!) and their new desktop (which retails for only $2500, BTW) with the built-in memory stick "drive". But I say it's more dead-end tech.
Sony will never learn....
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To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.
You thought that Sony was against MP3 (and portable players) because of their Mini Disc technology and the Sony Record label ... now we know the whole truth.
Once again, Sony wishes to GRACE THE PLANET with a format war.
Anyone still have a BETA VCR? Didn't think so.
I guess some old dogs NEVER learn new tricks.
The idea of a memory stick sounds slightly suspicious (why not just stick with MiniDisc?) but I think you'll need someone like Sony (which also produces records) to get real artists behind a new medium.
MP3 is a great technology, but all of the artists listed on the legit MP3 sites are no-names. And no, I don't want to hear has-beens like Public Enemy or Ice-T.
I know that sounds like a slightly immature thing to say about a great new format, but I think it is safe to say the artists that are in demand right now are not releasing full listings on MP3. CD is still the king.
I even had a link to some pictures a while ago, but NikkeiBP is ungoing maintence in their archive section. The pictures showed a prototype integrated in a pair of regular headphones (Nice..
9 902/99-021/index.html
no wires!) Here's a a older link regarding the technology to be used.
http://www.sony.co.jp/soj/CorporateInfo/News/19
Apparently the device will be using a variant of ATRAC 3. (Minidisc codec, which BTW, is far superior to MP3, fidelity wise for same bitrate 10:1)
Some of you are bitchin "Why does Sony want to use the memory stick?" Some legitimate reasons: Slimer than Compact Flash (two memory sticks could fit in the same footprint) and requires less insertion force (can be ejected with a button) Its a whole lot less flimsy than SmartMedia, and doesn't require a condom for storage. Some complain about the price, which I agree, why not use slightly cheaper CF cards? Well Sony always assumes that those who want the best will pay more. But my question is, why mess with solid state formats? MiniDisc is still the most superior technology size, cost and audio fidelity wise.
I use a Sony MZ-R55, its only 78.9 x 18.9 x 84mm. (a hair larger than the disc itself) It weighs only 190g w/disc and NH-14WM rechargeable battery. It records off the battery, so I use it for meetings, lectures, and stereo recordings of concerts. Blanks are cheap in bluk ($2 each in quanities of 20 or more) I get 4 hours playback or 2 hours of recording using the internal battery . When coupled with two AAs I get 16 hours of playback and 9 hours of recording. Whats also nice is that the things housed in a damn sexy brushed magnesium alloy case, everyone wants to see it.
Got questions? Check out www.minidisc.org
-HuangBaoLin
Sony has been pushing this stuff for a while. In fact, my next computer (the Sony 505ZX) is going to have a slot for Memory Sticks built-in.
The question is, why should we all get so excited about a new standard that doesn't offer much of an advantage over, say, Compact Flash? Compact flash actually costs less than Memory Stick at this point, and near as I can tell, it's smaller too.
I have a little Olympus camera that stores on Compact Flash, and a new 4 meg clip costs about $20 bucks, vs. $30 for a 4 meg memory stick (if I recall.
CF is thinner and shorter than memory stick, though a little wider.
I haven't seen specs, but I assume they are about the same speed, since they are based on similar technology.
Thus I have to conclude that Sony is just trying to push a proprietary spec on us so they can make an extra buck, even though there is an equivalent and cheaper technology already available.
Therefore all the ZDNET and CNET and even New York Times articles on itis corporate hype and we should probably ignore it.
As for the MP3 killer part, why would anyone buy a Sony machine that doesn't do copies when they can get one that does, and uses the widely available MP3 format? The answer, oddly enough, is that they probably will. Oh well.
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