What has mp3 done for us?

RO Admin Joined: Mar 20, 2000 Posts: 4352 Location: Canada

I'm just curious here.

What has mp3 done for all of us?
What did Napster do for us?
Where is the business going?

I don't know if you all realize this but there is ALOT! of music out there on mp3. I just finished a job with a large company, lots of staff.
These people don't care about quality or how they're effecting the industry by supporting this. They download thousands of songs, keep them on their drive, play them all day long. Like what the hell! I asked them what they think about this and do they realize it's killing the business, however, they all said "ya but if we can get music for free", duh!
They all didn't really care much about the sound quality.Napster's gone but there are others like them. I know it will change, it has too but, what do you think? So many of you have your music on MP3.com.Man I have a whack of song, but I'm sitting on them until I see something. Liquid looks cool and I think has the right idea but they don't seem to be going anywhere. Bob, you mentioned something about the majors coming up with something?hmm

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2001 3:10 pm

I heard thru the grapevine that Sony really wants to push the DSD thing... but they're moving slow (presumably) to make sure there will be no snags (a la the DAT copy protection lobbying which ultimately caused the demise of that format). The word "feasibility" was used, but I'm not sure what it meant - if anything. Maybe just a nifty buzzword to get us off their backs? In any case, I would put $1 on that square just for the speculation of it. I'll bring my shovel to AES and see who else is on the table too.

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2001 1:42 am

As far as "What has MP3 done for us?", I'd say it's the greatest poor man's codec in the world. I love MP3'ing mixes to clients and while many people argue about the sound quality, it sure beats using a cassette like we used to do back in the day.

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2001 4:59 pm

I thought of a couple positive things mp3's have contributed. 1.Saves heaps of time(read money): I personally use mp3's pretty often to send mix, arangement or other ideas back and forth online. And an mp3 encoded at 320kbs sounds as good as a cheap cassette and approaching the quality of a high-end cassette...with less noise.2.There's lots of LEGAL mp3's out there: Bands from Arkansas to Zamabia can get their sound out there, even e-mail demos to prospective band-mates, producers, labels, etc.There's probably more, but I'm too lazy to dwell on it Smile

Guapo

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2001 5:24 pm

The majors are using a format called Advanced Audio Coding which was developed as the successor to MP3 by the same people. It is about twice as efficient for a given level of quality and has copy protection as an integral part of its construction rather than as an afterthought "band-aid" that can easily be cracked.The Sony SACD is only just coming to market. The delay has been in replication capacity. Mass market titles need to be able to be ramped up on a dime as demand increases. This has only been possible for SACD in the past couple months.

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2001 7:14 am

Hopefully what MP3 will do for us is give us a better consumer format than CD. The "near CD quality" claim of MP3 isn't much of an exageration in some cases. The way to make MP3 trivial is to raise the quality bar, then it becomes as pitiful as those cassete dubs that always sounded like the album was made durring a sand storm.DVD-A or DSD could possibly make me not care about getting a good turntable. It might not be as good as the ultimate analog, but if it's that much closer and as convenient as a CD, I'm sold.Bear

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2001 1:05 pm

in my opinion,the mourning of the industry about mp-3 and how it affects its business is unfair, childish and cheap!it is unfair because most people who are downloading ripped mp3's wouldn't buy the whole stuff if mp3 wouldn't exist, either because they don't have the money or simply wouldn't want to.
it is also unfair considering what the industry has earned on cd's, tapes or any other media during the last 20-30 years-i still remember well that the ceo of sony music germany stated a few years ago how cheap cds are and that he could imagine them to cost 50 dm (~$25) in the near future!
in this light, i don't see how it kills the music industry, apart from groups or "music" that is simply based on marketing hype, like britney spears or 80% of the other acts which are dominating the pop-charts, and which disappereance i wouldn't consider a loss, really!it is childish and cheap because the big companies don't have the customers in mind, but just their own existence which they see threatenend by mp3, also because artists are getting more independent from them, because it got easy to publish your own music (mp3.com), and also because quality (in a musical sense!) does play a bigger role right now!
the only answers those biggies know is trying to establish new forms of copyprotections which is totally senseless, because-like a hacker stated: "there's a key to every lock!", and sooner or later this key will be made public-there are enough wizards out there!
the other answer is sueing companies like napster, and so trying to kill the "competition" instead of finding new ways of marketing to hold or even gain marketshare-but those exchanges are like the hydra from the ancient grek saga, if you cut off one head, 2 others will appear.
also, exchanges like gnutella are decentralized and you can't sue them, because there is simply no one to sue.so in my opinion, the music industry is already in a major change, and the companies have to face the new competative situation with new answers instead of trying to kill it!
strongly reduced prices of cds with enhanced booklets or other additional features would be one, the conquering of the new distributionchannels with consumerfriendly priced offers (for example, general fee of $25 for "all you can download"!)without any restraints be another.so my assesment of mp3 is very positive instead of negative!but just IMHO, of course!

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2001 3:28 pm

According to whomever's lobbyist you listen to, mp3s are either mana from heaven or the very essence of evil incarnate.The Napster court case, the overt evilness of the RIAA and the lack of major artist support for the fight against mp3 downloads proves that the whole industry (as well as the consumers themselves) are fed up with the current "eat what your fed" system of music distribution. What has soured the consumer relationship even more is the labels' handling of the issue. (with a worrying sidenote of shoving standards down our throats)Even with the opinions and desires of the consumer and artist laid plainly for all to see (not to mention the slowness of the major labels' reaction to the danger of a mass, free mp3 market) it is an uphill battle to change the traditional mold of music commerce. There is too much money/power at stake. The squeeze can be felt by the slashing of artist royalties at MP3.com last month.Above and beyond anything else; the term "MP3" is not about the sound quality, file size or compression method but has become a rally cry against the current purveyors of music. This, to me, is both drastic and amazing.To quote synergy in the post above...
"but just IMHO, of course!"

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2001 8:48 pm

FWIW I have friends who have seen the average sales of their new albums drop through the floor after appearing on Napster.The artist who used to be able to earn a living off of selling five to twenty thousand units a year through independent distribution is who has gotten reamed. The biggest thing wrong with Napster is that it erodes the middle-ground between selling off the bandstand and selling a few hundred thousand units using a half-million buck video. All of this talk about how it hasn't hurt anybody is a bunch of pure bull. The sad part is that often only the RIAA seems to be standing up for artists and composers' rights which is a downright pathetic situation.

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2001 8:24 am

how to NOT do it...
(babelfish-translation of a german text, but nevertheless understandable, i guess...)Tiscali bases with Peter Gabriel on-line music rental business The Internet enterprise Tiscali does with Peter Gabriels to digital music selling OD2 together, in order to open to in the middle of Decembers a " interactive subscription service " for music in the Internet. As Tiscali indicates, the common service is to carry and on the technique of OD2 put " Tiscali Music Shop " for the names. Also videos want to take up the two partners to the liable to pay the costs supply. Among the Supportern of the service large music enterprises rank such as BMG, EMI, Telstar, Mushroom, Realworld record and Vìll. The service will start on English and Tiscalis native language Italian, is to be localized however gradually for the 15 European markets, in which the Italians are represented. The music supply is three-divided: As used there is the possibility of the normal Downloads, with which the music on CD can be burned and carried forward in the Player. The moreover the Music Shop wants to intersperse monthly music programs. The listener selects a program, for example a certain music direction, and receives once in the month a list of the Songs and video tie-clips. These may be able to be demonstrated he streamenderweise or beforehand on his computer load, where they are to expire however after 30 days. A third possibility represents the personal Playlist. There the music fan from the music repertoire of the Music Shop selects and arranges themselves from it a list, which is limited to a certain play length. Some Songs, which are offered over this channel, are to likewise run after 30 days. The Abo gives it according to the enterprises starting from seven euro in the month. Over credit card or Tiscalis of own NetCard, a type Internet Prepaid card is accounted for. So that the music cannot spread wildly in the Internet, Microsoft is to protect the pieces with its digitally Rights management for the WMA format. This protection already went around, the software company can adapt its procedures however relatively easily and remote controlled. As is the case for the free competition a comfortable Download manager is to facilitate music hamsters (cgl/c't)

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2001 2:02 pm

The infringer's battle cry, "The labels are evil", rings hollow as soon as the gross from which the artist's proceeds come shrinks drastically. Artist compensation is a seperate issue. Infringing and illegal copying doesn't help the artist, it just makes it harder, and only respond with touring, merchandising, or "tipping" if you have a sardonic wit.Quite frankly, a music fan should be quite interested in DRM solutions if they allow artists to stay in the buisness. A large portion of what is stolen might be from "corrupt" labels (I sometimes have to just say, as much as I hate them, quit whining, that's the nature of the beast and you don't need to play that game), but a very important portion goes to the artist and pays for what is important.Bear

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2001 12:51 pm

Limp Bizkit, is posting their entire new album for free on their website as mp3s (each week they post a new song). In this case I think mp3s are a good marketing move. many bands have done this before.

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2001 9:17 pm

I think it's just fine for somebody to use sound files for their own promotion. My beef is with people who say an artist shouldn't have any choice in the matter.

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2001 8:21 pm

Why isnt there an official napster type service? The market is there, by trying to make it go away they are just hurting artists. They need to establish a presence in the market by providing a service that is better, better because it respects artists copyrights and allows artists to better integrate multimedia into their work without having to worry what mtv thinks, or the clear channel, each artist having their own mtv. I am not an industry insider, but if I could cut out the whole process of manufacturing cd's as new technologies arise for the net to take that role I could just tour like crazy to spread the word and distribute music on the net pocketing all the money since I wouldnt owe a label jack shit. You could sell less, make more, maybe even turn it into a subscription based business model.
Thats wishful thinking, I know, but I think eventually somebody will figure out how to pull this off.
I mean people already pay subscription fee's to see dirty picture's, it could work for music too.

RO Admin Joined: Mar 20, 2000 Posts: 4352 Location: Canada

Well is that a breath of fresh air :w: I'll tell you...if we could turn RO into an engineers napster then my job would be done. Ha! wishful thinking but possible with the right minds.The support for RO becoming a sort of label/online audio network has been unbelievable! Just my little plug here and there hoping it will connect one day.

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