e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[Tinroad]

MP3: Sound of Silence
By Brad King
2:00 a.m. July 17, 2001 PDT
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,45279,00.html

Media players and software systems designed to help consumers make listening to music a simple endeavor all have one flaw: They all make listening to music harder.

Thanks to a host of new proprietary systems and security measures, consumers hoping for an easy music-listening experience are about to face a world where music files and services don't work together.

No problem, really, if you're an engineer from MIT. For the rest of us, life is going to be hard for awhile.

"There was a period of time where they wanted to make that interoperability work, but the music industry didn't want to use MP3s so everyone is back to developing their own systems," said Webnoize analyst Ric Dube. "Windows Media is the only candidate and it will either work or it won't. If it doesn't, then we're going to be waiting for a while longer for the digital music market to develop."

The recording industry and the motion picture industry are, first and foremost, looking for ways to make sure their content isn't copied and traded on the Internet. So technology companies are focused on creating secure products that satisfy the music labels and movie studios.

And for technology companies, finding ways to make money does make good business sense, Dube said.

Napster, the file-trading service that was the bastion of free, downloadable music, has recently become the poster child for secure music. On Monday, Napster unveiled more of its plans for security, announcing plans for a proprietary digital music player that will be used with its new subscription service set to launch before the end of summer.

The new service won't allow consumers to move their music away from the Napster file-trading network to other media players like RealJukebox or Windows Media Player. Instead, the service will only play proprietary ".Nap" files on the new player.

The Napster system will take MP3 files that run through its main server and create the new, proprietary format, said Dube.

"Napster is doing this because their chance for survival is to leverage the huge volume of MP3s out there," said Dube. "They saw this as a business strategy, to leverage all those MP3s out there."

In leveraging those MP3s, users will be funneled into using Napster's new format, said Brian Litman, CEO of PlayMedia, the company that created the playback technology to be used in the new player.

Napster isn't alone in its move toward security lockdown on digital media files.

Last week, Federal District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel announced her intention to force Napster to remain closed until engineers can provide a 100-percent-safe environment for copyright owners.

With such a high standard for copyright protection, companies might be forced to create media players that are more focused on protection and less on consumer ease of use.

Many of the big media players such as Winamp and MusicMatch offer the ability to listen to MP3 files, although ripping -– a fancy name for recording a digital music file -– songs in MP3 format has proven to be a bit trickier.

Tricky means that, with rare exceptions like the MusicMatch application, consumers haven't been able to record any music at all in MP3s using their media players.

Starting this October though, Microsoft will allow consumers to purchase an MP3 encoding plug-in for the Windows Media Player which is bundled in the Windows XP operating system.

If consumers are willing to pay in the neighborhood of $20 to $30, they can add MP3 recording capability to Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Consumers then have the choice to record their music in either the MP3 format or the Windows Media format.

This marks the first time that Microsoft users will be able to encode in the MP3 format. However, company executives don't expect the MP3 encoder to catch on.

"There is a subset of users who want to encode in MP3, but there is a larger set of people who don't care what format they get," said Michael Aldridge, a lead product manager in Microsoft Windows Digital Media division. "They just want a great quality experience."

The sheer number of MP3 files -– billions were being traded on Napster earlier this year -– does seem to indicate that Aldridge might underestimate the importance of the MP3 format. However, Microsoft at least is acknowledging the need to allow consumers some choice when they are encoding their own CDs.

That might not sound like a big deal, but the recording option allows consumers to move their music more freely between portable devices and other media players. Only one music format will play on most every media player and portable device on the market: MP3s.

MusicMatch, RealNetworks and Microsoft continue to fight to control the desktop media player. That leaves MP3s as the best option for users who might be confused about which format plays in which device.

Of course, Microsoft users have to pay for the opportunity to record their own CDs in MP3 format, but according to Webnoize's Dube, customization costs money.

"Microsoft is just doing what they are supposed to do," Dube said. "Operating systems come out, and then people buy plug-ins to make their system work how they want it to work."

But consumers may be drowned in a sea of music formats if record labels and movie studios begin creating their own proprietary content.

Already, EMI offers consumers a downloadable media smorgasbord of Radiohead music and information at VH1.com and hollywoodandvine.com. Using technology from LockStream, EMI was able to build an entire media package that users can download.

The problem: The system doesn't work with the main media players on the market. Instead, users have to download a system that can only be used for EMI's Radiohead promotion.

But LockStream CEO David Goodman said that despite the added player, fans of Radiohead and other musicians will benefit from the new delivery system.

"You're creating a better affinity experience for the fan," Goodman said. "This isn't just about the music. It's about the look, the feel and the message that the artist is trying to communicate."

While each system offers its own benefits, one fact remains -- each will offer its own unique perspective.