The Next Wave
January 4, 1999
Internet-based distribution of music (and eventually video) is
the most exciting and potentially earth-shaking aspect of the
Internet audio scene. Anyone with a little imagination can see
that the Internet has the potential to revolutionize all the
music and sound-related industries. However, it's anybody's guess
how soon the bandwidth bottleneck is going to be eliminated, so at
the moment imagination is running far ahead of implementation.
One place where imagination is sorely lacking is in the offices
of the major record companies. They have a long history of attempting
to block new technologies that they perceive as a threat, but in the
end they've never succeeded in doing so for long. The Internet, of
course, is far more of a threat to their way of doing business than
cassette tapes, CDs or DATs ever thought about being. Quite simply,
the Internet could, (and certainly will if they don't change their
attitudes), utterly destroy their entire industry.
One technology they would probably love to stamp out is "MPEG 1
layer 3," more commonly known as MP3. This is really nothing more
than a newer and better audio codec, which allows audio files to
be compressed to fairly small sizes, with only a moderate loss in
quality. MP3 has really caught on, and thousands of songs in this
format are available for download, both legally and illegally
(see http://www.mp3.com).
Diamond Multimedia
makes a little Walkman-like gadget called Rio, that can store
and play back MP3 files, so you can download tunes from the
Web, then load them into this portable player.
Dozens of bands are already selling their CDs over the Web,
and many have samples in RealAudio and/or MPEG formats that
you can listen to before you buy. However, the real future
is in online delivery of music. The issues that have record
companies' knickers in a twist are copyrights and royalties.
Piracy is already rampant on the Web, and once people can
download whole albums in high-quality formats, it could quickly
get completely out of hand. Also, distribution on the anarchic
Web would make it a nightmare to collect royalties. Every time
a song is played on the radio or TV, a payment becomes due to
one of the performing rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI and a
few smaller fish), which eventually distribute money to the
artists. Once there are a million Internet "radio stations"
out there, these royalty arrangements may become impossible to
enforce.
One company that has come up with a system to address these
concerns is
Liquid Audio.
A record label or artist can use the "Liquifier" to encode
their music at CD quality, then use the Liquid MusicServer to
offer the music for download on their Web site. Visitors can
either listen to streaming audio files through the Liquid MusicPlayer,
or they can download the files for a fee. Text and graphics
(lyrics, album cover, etc.) can also be displayed by the MusicPlayer.
The unique thing about Liquid Audio is its ability to create
a "complete end-to-end solution," as they rather tritely put
it. The MusicServer can integrate with E-commerce packages like
CyberCash and Merchant Server, and incorporates watermarking
and copy protection to prevent unauthorized copying of copyrighted
material. The system also records and reports relevant commercial
transactions to all known copyright holders. Liquid Audio really
seems to have all the angles covered, and allows both sellers and
buyers of music to get into Internet distribution without worrying
about the mechanics of it.
Liquid Audio, or something like it, is the future of the music
industry. Small record labels and independent recording artists
can have worldwide distribution of their music, which means that
music of more specialized appeal can be economically produced,
and fans will have a chance to hear thousands of bands that the
major record companies would never have bankrolled in a billion
years. Will the majors come along for the ride, or will they go
the way of T. Rex? It's up to them...
Including Sound in a Web Page
Audio for the Worldwide Web
For Further Reading:
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