Music News

[uncloned]

"The BBC is reporting that the UK's Royal Opera House is to stage an opera created through social networking site Twitter. 'Members of the public have been invited to submit their 'tweets' online — messages of up to 140 characters — which will form the new libretto.The first scene of the as-yet-untitled work has already been completed and features a man who has been kidnapped by a group of birds. Excerpts will be performed at the Royal Opera House in September.' I'm personally looking forward to lots of idiotic net memes and inane emo ramblings being trilled out by aging sopranos."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8193917.stm

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Forget WAV, MP3 and M4A – major labels have something new in mind, and it's called CMX. Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI are reportedly preparing a new digital album format that will include songs, lyrics, videos, liner notes and artwork.

The news comes just weeks after reports of a similar project, Cocktail, being developed by Apple. According to the Times, Apple rejected CMX and instead began work on an in-house alternative. It is not clear how Cocktail and CMX will differ, other than ownership.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/aug/10/major-labels-new-digital-format

editorial comment - Discshelf will be a better solution - soon all handhelds will stream.

[psishock]

Forget WAV, MP3 and M4A – major labels have something new in mind...etc etc

smells like a new idea for controlled DRM protection, so i don't really welcome it.

a new digital album format that will include songs, lyrics, videos, liner notes and artwork.

ummm....bloatware anyone?

[Louigi Verona]

Interesting news... on one hand it may look like a DRM thing. On the other hand, I think those majors have already understood that DRM is not the way to go. I am now working in the field and I can say that although smaller labels still try to rely on DRM, big music stores and large companies are dumping the idea. If you know Nokia Music Store, all the new incoming material became non-DRM some time ago, Apple store has finally acted on Jobs' words as well.

Anyway, the idea itself is good, provided it is indeed an open free format.

As for Disc Shelf, it could be that a lot of people would want to own music rather than just stream it. I think it would be appropriate to ask advise. Do you think I should implement a simple way to download? If yes, then should that include cover art? Should the download be track by track or an album as a whole package?

[LPChip]

I think this CMX format will be what used to be buying an entire cd.

Since we're now in the digital age, stuff like paper is dissappearing, meaning that its being replaced by something you can have on a computer.

This CMX is looking to be a replacement for the cd. You download one CMX file, and you get the entire cd. Cover art, all the tracks in order, a booklet if desired, stuff like that. It basically will make it possible for the user to download one file and have the cd s/he normally would buy in the stores.

[PPH]

I think this CMX format will be what used to be buying an entire cd.

Since we're now in the digital age, stuff like paper is dissappearing, meaning that its being replaced by something you can have on a computer.

This CMX is looking to be a replacement for the cd. You download one CMX file, and you get the entire cd. Cover art, all the tracks in order, a booklet if desired, stuff like that. It basically will make it possible for the user to download one file and have the cd s/he normally would buy in the stores.

It's basically a bad copy of Disc-Shelf

[PPH]

Interesting news... on one hand it may look like a DRM thing. On the other hand, I think those majors have already understood that DRM is not the way to go. I am now working in the field and I can say that although smaller labels still try to rely on DRM, big music stores and large companies are dumping the idea. If you know Nokia Music Store, all the new incoming material became non-DRM some time ago, Apple store has finally acted on Jobs' words as well.

Anyway, the idea itself is good, provided it is indeed an open free format.

As for Disc Shelf, it could be that a lot of people would want to own music rather than just stream it. I think it would be appropriate to ask advise. Do you think I should implement a simple way to download? If yes, then should that include cover art? Should the download be track by track or an album as a whole package?

What about track by track and whole package? Anyway, if you have to choose one, I find both options good. Track by track has the disadvantage  that, if you want the whole album, you must go track by track. But as most albums have just a few tracks (say, less than 15), that's not really a problem (I, at least, I'm patient enough to download fifteen individual files).

Whole album has the disadvantage that if you want just one track, you have to download the whole thing. But with today's connection's, that's no big problem either. I also think people tend to want the whole album, even if they don't like all the songs. It makes them feel as if they have a whole something, not just a part of it. That is just an impression, of course. Also, many albums have a sort of "unity" to them, that is, you can't just chop them into their tracks. Their tracks are supposed to be listened to together.

[Rakib]

The file is going to be executable, so that you won't need any music player to play the songs.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10307467-1.html