I cannot be the first person to consider what the music industry will look like 50 years from now, but I am wondering where music sales will be considering that all music sales for the last 15 year or so has been in a format that is currently digital or easily digitized. Unlike previous years where the Vinyl album had a shelf life and only existed in one location, digital music last forever and can be replicated. Each household will effectively have a growing library that they can pass on to future generations … legally.

Every track from antiquity will lose value because each household will have ready access to more and more of these old MP3’s. Superficially I think this will have the effect of putting a greater premium on new music and basically making old MP3’s free or cheap. I now just wonder how the owners of these vast, old and expensive catalogues will continue to make money if in fact the value continues to fall. This is just an educated guess but the industry is going to have make their old libraries attractive by making them more available.

As an aside I think the Beatles need to consider making their songs available via MP3. As great as they are, they will become almost irrelevant in the next generation or so. As great as Benny Goodman (King of Swing) was in his day, there is not a lot of takers for his music today.

If like me your conscience and honest nature does not allow you to simply download (AKA steal) MP3’s from the various music sharing sites then I think it would be reasonable to share some of the digital purchasing options available to you. I am not going to include any kind of music delivery that tries to apply DRM or hardware lock in of any kind.

CD -  The safe route, if not the most cost effective, is to simply purchase the CD and rip the contents of said CD at the desired bit rate.

iTunes (MP3 Catalogue – approx 10 million) – I have written about this before so I will be brief. MP3 downloads are usually $1.29, however, they are including premium price tag for higher average bit rates and the better artists.

Napster (MP3 Catalogue – approx 6 million) – You get 1, 3 or 12 month subscription at $5 per month, in exchange you get 5 MP3s a month and unlimited streaming of all music to your preferred PC browser.

Zune Marketplace (MP3 Catalogue – approx 5 million) – The MP3 selection is growing rapidly (More than 90% are MP3). The Zune Pass (@ $14.99 per month) provides lease ownership of millions of DRM tracks but you get to keep any 10 tracks, which also includes MP3s. Now If you happen to purchase DRM tracks from the Zune Marketplace check the DRM properties of the track inside the Zune software (right click on the track and click properties). Most DRM tracks can be burned to CD and you can simply turn and around and rip them to MP3.

eMusic (MP3 Catalogue – approx 6 million) – Provides another subscription based service where $11.99 per month gets you 24 track downloads per month. Price per track varies between $0.40 and $0.6 depending on the plan you opt for. This is the best price point of all the the options. However, the selection while large does not include some of the more popular artists. If you are looking to develop a Jazz collection this is the place to go.

Amazon MP3 (MP3 Catalogue – approx 2 million) – Most songs are between $0.89 and $0.99, and most albums are between $5.99 and $9.99, however, Amazon have a variety of ways to purchase MP3s at a cheap rate. Most of these deals revolve around the purchase of less than stellar albums for as little as $5. This is balanced against also listing some MP3’s at a premium cost of $1.99.

Rhapsody (MP3 Catalogue – approx 5 million) – $12.99 a month gets you unlimited streaming from any PC and any browser and MP3 prices seem to vary based on the popularity of the tracks.

Plenty of choices … if you are actually still buying music.

Most of the music anyone wants these days can be found in MP3 format. Which is great! I have abandoned all the trappings of the physical world for the digital one. I do no but my music from any physical store and in fact I am trying to figure out what to do with my current set of CD coasters.

There is one thing though that this terrestrial disc has over its electronic counter part, the inlay card! The list of musicians, singers, equipment, recording studios, producers, lyrics, etc. Could an MP3 have a simple link to an electronic inlay card, maybe it could stuffed in one of the meta tags that no one seems to use.

I thought the recent announcement from Apple and EMI was really interesting. Apparently there will be more DRM free music available directly from iTunes. There is a catch, however, it looks like there will be a premium added to the price of the music ($1.29). Of course you can elect to purchase the DRM version of the music, which will be lower quality, at the regular price of 99 cents.

Tracks that you may have already purchased with DRM could be ‘upgraded’ to DRM less MP3’s for 30 cents. It has also been rumored that older less popular tracks will be available for less than standard 99 cent.

In keeping with this new found musical hierarchy I wanted to suggest several pricing bands the music companies should consider ;)

* I quote from Rocky III –  "You fight great, but I'm a great fighter." - Apollo

I thought the Vectorform application for the Surface was awesome. The following is a demo that was recorded by Channel 9 at the 2008 PDC.

I have derided the Zune Pass in the past as a DRM trap and simply not the way that I wish to consume music. However, I have been enjoying the recent 2 week free promotion and I must say it really encourages you to discover and download a metric tonne of music for one low price ($14.99). I have probably doubled my music collection in less than a week.

I am not ready to purchase the Zune Pass on a monthly basis but I think everyone who has a Zune should consider getting a pass once a year, sampling all the music you can, and then purchasing the MP3 equivalent at the Zune Market Place, Walmart or my personal favorite Napster.

Ultimately renting music with the Zune Pass is not sustainable but it can provide you with a much needed view into music you have not heard before. As if to remind me of the failings of DRM I received an email for Walmart Music as follows:

...Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site.

If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer...

Beginning October 9, we will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com. If you do not back up your files before this date, you will no longer be able to transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash. Your music and video collections will still play on the originally authorized computer.

MSN music was the first major DRM bastion to fall now Walmart. Hopefully we shall see a day when we worry about DRM no more.

I complained several months ago about expiration of DRM under MSN music, as a result I refuse DRM music at every turn. There appears to be an about face on the original notification. 

On April 22, Microsoft notified you that as of August 31st, 2008, we would be changing the level of support for music purchased from MSN Music, and while your existing purchased music would continue to play, you would no longer be able to authorize new PCs and devices to play that music.

After careful consideration, Microsoft has decided to continue to support the authorization of new computers and devices and delivery of new license keys for MSN Music customers through at least the end of 2011, after which we will evaluate how much this functionality is still being used and what steps should be taken next to support our customers. This means you will continue to be able to listen to your purchased music and transfer your music to new PCs and devices beyond the previously announced August 31, 2008 date.

Microsoft continues to recommend that you back up your music on CD or hard drive along with other important data.

Sincerely,

MSN Music team

I am not willing to bet (with my money) that the Zune experiment will continue to work. I am officially out of the DRM business.

Zune is really pushing the advertising on the all you can eat subscription model. With the Zune Pass you can pay $14.99 a month and then have your choice of all the DRM music you can eat.

There are several examples I could use that should discourage even the most ardent music lover from this choice of music purchase. For me, however, the main issue is the way I use and consume music. The DRM tether of the Zune Pass means that you are only renting (or leasing) the music. As soon as you stop paying you stop playing!

My problem with buying music is not the fact that I cannot get lots of it, but that I cannot find lots of quality music that I enjoy. So for me the quantity is less important than quality. Usually when I find a great musician\artist I will enjoy it for several months at a time and then that music becomes part of my history ... the play list of my life if you will ;)

I am willing to admit that others may not have such an organic relationship to music and that treating music like chewing gum and moving to the next piece is a reasonable paradigm. Or indeed, gorging on as much music as possible regardless of the quality may seem like a fine way to dine. Or simply paying the $14.99 to test the music and then maybe purchase what you really like later ... isn't that rent to buy ... no thank you! I prefer my music à la carte not buffet!

This is the Zune update that I have really been waiting for, TV shows are here at last! It really helps lessen the gap between iTunes and and the Marketplace. I am not sure I really want to buy TV shows for casual viewing, that is why I have a 50" TV and a DVR, but at least if I decide to go to England later this year I can watch a bucket load of shows during the 8+ hour flight.

Some of the other key features are listed here.

A More Integrated Way to Manage and Enjoy Entertainment

Responding directly to customer feedback, Zune has updated and added features and functionality to address better integration between the software, the online music community and the store. In addition, the updates include frequently requested features such as the ability to sync multiple Zune players at once. Specific feature updates include the following:

• Auto playlists. Users can create an auto playlist that updates itself automatically as new music is added.

• Browsing videos. Consumers can browse their video collection by genre and series, plus they can preview videos before they play them on full screen.

• Editing album and track information. Users are able to edit track or album information (metadata) quickly via multi-select and drag-and-drop. The advanced metadata editing features make it easy to edit multiple tracks or survey albums and artist information.

• Organizing collections. In addition to sorting by artist or album, consumers can now sort by genre. While browsing by genre they can further sort music by artist, album or release year.

• Gapless playback. Consumers will now be able to listen to an album without the brief gap between tracks, both on their Zune and in the Zune software. This is a must-have for live-concert recordings and compilation albums.

• Syncing groups. Zune software now syncs to multiple Zune players simultaneously. Users can prepare which content on their computer to sync even when their Zune isn’t connected. Consumers can create custom sync groups for music, pictures and videos.

• Zune reminders. Experience is improved when a Zune player’s memory is nearing capacity, via an easy-to-use tool.

I got this mail from MSN Music this morning, and it confirmed to me that DRM is simply not for me. I will happily pay a premium to either get MP3s directly or continue purchasing CDs that I can subsequently rip to MP3.

...I am writing to let you know that as of August 31, 2008, Microsoft will change the level of support to be offered for music purchased directly from MSN Music prior to November 14, 2006. As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers. License keys already obtained as of August 31, 2008 will continue to allow you to listen to songs on all the computers that you previously authorized for service.

We wanted to send out this notification well in advance to remind you to backup your music and to provide you sufficient time to confirm license keys for the songs you've purchased from MSN Music.

... If you intend to transfer a previously downloaded song to a new computer (or an existing computer with a new operating system, such as an upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista) within the maximum allowed limit of 5 computers, please do so before August 31, 2008. You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play.

If you have additional questions about this process or any other questions about playing your music, please visit MSN Music online help for more information or feel free to contact our Technical Support representatives for assistance, prior to the August 31, 2007 date...

Sincerely,
Rob Bennett
General Manager, MSN Entertainment & Video Services

I do not download or share music illegally, but I do want to make sure that the music I am getting does not hold me hostage. Thankfully I spent at best about $40 on MSN Music and I have subsequently replaced most of that with MP3 counterparts. I was holding out hope that Microsoft would do the right thing here and offer people who had purchased MSN Music the opportunity to download the same songs under the Zune's DRM program, no such luck!

I just noticed that Amazons MP3 beta program has received a much need endorsement from Warner Brothers (WB). They are now able to sell DRM free music from select artists in the WB catalogue.

So far this beta program allows you to purchase whole albums and some artists are available for individual MP3 downloads. I suspect WB has realized that the cash cow was escaping and people (or maybe just me) want a little flexibility, I simply do not want to by tied in to any one vendor and their DRM monopoly.

I would hope that sales of DRM free music gives life back to the idea that DRM, and specifically the contrasting methods of DRM, constitute the worst path the music industry can take. We will look back at multiple and non-compatible DRM formats with the same disdain we reserve for the MiniDisc.

I do wonder why Universal Music and now WB have decided to exclude the biggest digital music distributor (Apple) from the loop for its non-DRM music?!? Is this a collective show of strength from a weakening music industry? Or are they simply angling for a better deal with the 900lb gorilla?

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I have a dedicated PC for music recording and production and I recently, out of the blue, started seeing serious performance issues with SONAR LE . Firstly I would like to say that I never install anything on this machine frivolously, in fact the machine is not even connected to the Internet. The only thing that I had changed within the last 3 months was to increase the amount of RAM on the machine from 512MB to 768MB.

SONAR allows you to record sound and has this fairly standard horizontal graphic layout of the recorded sound. During recording sessions over the last 3 weeks I had noticed that at the conclusion of recording an instrument SONAR would freeze for between 25-35 seconds. During the freeze you would not be able to do anything within SONAR. It would then go back to normal operation at which point I would here a flurry of disk operations. Now the amount of tracks (concurrent recordings) that I had did not seem to affect anything (upper limit is 64 based on the workstation). In fact I was able to replicate this issue with a brand new project.

My first assumption was that I was having an issue with the hard drive and I figured I was overdue for a defrag, but after completing the defrag I was still getting the same issue.

I am a firm believer in if I did not change anything then nothing should have changed, but I am aware that the Windows operating system is not quite so static. So I ran some internal diagnostics within SONAR LE and still rolled snake eyes.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that this issue may be related to the colossal burst of disk activity that proceeded the freeze, my primary assumption being that the wave file that is being recorded was not being handled correctly. So in order to determine what was going on I employed the FileMon tool as developed by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell.

What File Mon revealed was that Sonar was creating the recorded wave correctly and appropriately and in fact closing that file before the freeze, but it also revealed that is was creating and reading files in the folder called C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cach\.

Now this folder contained about 10.000 *.wov files dating back to about 2005 which was when I got this machine. According to Sonar these files are related to the picture representation of wave file and were not related to the function of the music project . I simply could not believe these files were left abandoned for all eternity.

Upon deleting approximately half of these *.wov files I found that the issue of freezing went away. In fact the refresh rate (opening) of all my projects has increased dramatically.

I officially dig FileMon! Check it out if you have the time!

I left comments on the blog of Dare Obasanjo about what should be a decline in the price of digital music. It was in the wake of the Apples release of DRM less music.

I was blasted by others for agreeing with Mike Masnick who wrote:

Giving stuff away for free needs to be part of a complete business model that recognizes the economic realities.

I am bringing up this whole topic again in light of Princes release of his latest album Planet Earth. The thing is Prince chose to release the album as a covermount with The Mail on Sunday in the UK. There was no distribution with a record label they were completely out of the loop. This was a great move, it put a brand new album right in the hands of his fans without the indecisive but powerful music middle man. This gave Prince all the marketing clout he needed to sell out his 3121 concert tour in London.

Apparently other musicians are clamoring to do the same thing! I think the musician wants to see packed out concerts. The music execs want to see record sales I think the fight for music rights and distribution will be thrown into flux again.

"Common-sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Zune Marketplace is nothing compared to the iTunes, however, I have been able to download free music files from new artist, with little or no DRM restrictions from Zune Marketplace. This seems to be a trend that Microsoft is officially supporting. They are insisting on more specific content than the artist would provide to MTV, but that appears to be a reasonable exchange.

I like the idea of musicians making there music available for free via the web. If I like what I hear I will buy the album! Some people seem to believe that doing this kind of things is equivalent to killing the cash cow. I simply do not agree giving away digital music is like giving the cash cow ample reason to come in to the barn and the decide to stay!

"You only live once." - James Brown

The Apple\EMI press conference announcing DRM-less music is a big one, and we should all take note of whether the rest of the industry is going to follow suit. Now they are suggesting that this DRM-less music is premium content and have increased the fidelity of the files sold and will be selling them at $1.29. You can upgrade DRMed music for $0.30 a pop.

As I suggested in a previous post music with DRM needs to cost less, I was personally hoping for a greater revolt i.e. songs sold for much less than 99 cents each. With US CD sales down 20% this year the record labels will be scrambling to get a better foothold in the downloads market. I still think Pandora's box is already open and I doubt whether it will possible to control the music industry in the same way again, file sharing is just too easy!

"We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves." - Eric Hoffer

I have come across my first major issue with WMP 11, last week I was trying to setup sharing on my home network (mistake # 1) and at some point during the whole debacle my whole library was no longer available to me. I could not add any of the files back to the library and it would not scan any of the file on my machine. In fact every time I would open WMP11 it would ask me to setup sharing for the network, I had just purchased the Corrine Bailey Rae CD and was looking forward to ripping it to my library but nothing.

This was ultra annoying! I tried uninstalling WMP 11 several different ways, and even went as far as installing when the moon was at its zenith, but nothing worked. There was no useful troubleshooting information I could find from Windows support website's. However some judicious Google searches led me to try the following:

• Close WMP11.
• Stop "Window Media Player Network Sharing Service".
• Delete "%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player" ... trust me!
• Simply restart WMP11 and under Library select "Add to Library" and you should start to see activity and your music files start to replenish its depleted store!

Of course this should not have been necessary as one of the main points to using WMP11 was the improved database integrity. I never had a problem with WMP10, but then I guess I did not have the option to try to share my media across networks ... probably will not try that again!

"Knowledge is power." - Francis Bacon

I have blogged multiple times about my concerns and desires for the music in my personal collection, and the continual frustration I have with music and DRM as a whole. With the music industry at arms length from its consumers, and the consumers getting their musical fix elsewhere (P2P), I think I am finally starting to absorb and comprehend the full scope of the problem. With the music industry sales down across the board, and digital music sales are up, but not enough to cover the spiral, we are forced to ask what the problem is.

I do no believe it is the concept of DRM, nor is it the poor selection of online music that is at issue. I think it is a simple problem of PRICE! I think with the advent of digital music, the very medium that music travels upon has devalued the content more than the music industry is willing to accept. I honestly believe that the music industry is trying to protect what was 10 years ago a very expensive collective of music. However, without the need for a CD we the consumer cannot get our heads around why it still costs so much for downloads.

I know what your thinking $1 for a song is nothing, and I agree in principle, I just believe that in today's world of XXCOPY and FTP $1 is inappropriate. If the market were truly allowed to determine the price as opposed to the years of price gouging and fixing, IMHO, the cost of music would be in the order of 10-15 cents per song and that is for a song without DRM. With DRM I think it should be closer to 5 cents. That is right! if your DRM is designed to lock me in to using a particular device I should pay less for the music I am listening to.

When consumers were forced to deal with Poly Vinyl Acetate, tapes and even CDs the inconvenience of duplicating music was still great enough to need an industry to churn out copies of music for our convenience. That is no longer the case, all the world needs now is one copy and it so easy to make that available to millions of people and  I could use my vinyl, tapes and cd in any player I wanted.

I know, I know the artist has rights to his music, and as a musician myself I really believe that, but, I also believe the market should determine the price not just the supplier. It is a shame because it seems like it would take the bread right out of artists mouth, and in many respects that is true, but this is a capitalist society with "free" markets, and it is by definition fueled by supply and demand. If our technology has increased the supply the cost should fall. Trust me this phenomenon we are seeing with the music industry would happen to any other product that could be made this readily available. Do not feel too sorry for the artist, there still is no substitute for a live show, if they have the skill and musicianship ;)

The music industry is going to have to get use to the fact that music sales will continue to decrease until music is sold for what it is worth!

"Without struggle, there is no progress." - Fredrick Douglas

I blogged almost a year ago about wanting my music collection available in my home, car and office and only got part way there until this weekend when I purchased the Belkin Tune Cast II Mobile FM Transmitter. Unfortunately I was having all kinds of problems selecting a FM channel that wood give me clear reception. I had the tuner taped, cocked and pushed into every conceivable part of my car before quitting.

Coincidently a couple of mainstream blogger's Travis and Scott were having similar problems and discovered a web site that gives list of radio stations by zip code. In addition to the radio stations you can find out which frequencies are free to be used by your own miniature FM Transmitters. Based on the list below I had selected a channel from the 'Third Best' list. Who knew?!

"If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky