Another DRM Update: Apple and EMI Join Forces to Bring a Software Licensing Model to the Music Industry, and the Industry Reacts
By munroe on 04-12-2007
Growing up with 8-bit video games and Saturday morning cartoons as main sources of entertainment generally leads to a short attention span -- and a lack of patience. This new generation raised on the virtues of "right now dammit" are even worse. To combat this increased lack of patience, a "hot" story was put onto the back burner last week to soak in the sweet flavours of the inevitable information fallout. In short, I've been busy.
Last week, EMI announced that it would soon be offering its entire catalogue in a DRM-free format. You read that correctly. The entire catalogue, even Dirty Vegas and Everclear, will be sampled at a rate of 256 kilobytes per second, and will be completely unencumbered. Those a little fuzzy on this whole digital music thang may be content with that much information, but EMI has more to offer.
The music will be sold on iTunes (Stevey J was at the announcement shindig -- shown in the above picture) and will be provided in the AAC format. Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is a standardized format that is similar to MP3, but claims to offer better sound quality at a lower compression rate (laymen: more bang for your buck). Purists cry fowl, as the accepted standard for digital music is MP3, but Apple has its reasons. MP3 is a licensing nightmare, with many different companies claiming the rights to the encoding (ripping), decoding (playback), and file structure (shit you don't care about). On the other hand, since AAC is a proper standardized format, there are no royalties to pay and roughly 60% of the devices capable of playing digital music today support AAC, so it's not a bad business choice.
Now, normally iTunes music is released at 128 kbit/sec, so the jump to 256 pleased SOME audio enthusiasts. The rest bickered and whined that the music is still in a lossy, compressed format and therefore unacceptable. These are the people who own nice/expensive audio equipment and have a properly tuned ear that can pick out tiny discrepancies between the original recording and the lossy version. Quickly: lossy means that the original music has parts of it stripped away that cannot be "heard" by a human ear, and the remainder of the music is squeezed into a tiny format that gets turned back into music at a later time by a decoder such as your iPod. The jump in quality is essentially worthless because one group of people won't notice the difference, and the other would claim the difference is not good enough. These purists want uncompressed, lossless files such as the FLAC format, which will probably show up later in another "upgrade." Which of course will cost more, but will probably only upgrade the tracks to 360 kbit/sec, with another upgrade planned to FLAC for the second quarter of 2008.
The catch to this good news is the price increase from .99 to 1.29 for DRM-free music. It's not a huge jump for small-scale purchases, but with EMI offering to upgrade your entire catalogue of their music at 30 cents a track, it could get pricey. The increase is a victory for the label, but sets a terrifying precedence for the consumer, as the price for a single song has risen 30 cents and there is absolutely no way to justify it. Without DRM, there are reduced software development and licensing costs to Apple and EMI, the encoding process requires fewer CPU cycles to downgrade a CD-quality recording to 256 kbit/sec, and fewer cycles to NOT add DRM at the end, which is a huge bonus for Apple.
Some would argue the increase in file size, which is small to begin with, would amount to a greater amount of bandwidth consumed, and while true, does not justify a 30-cent increase (bandwidth is cheap these days). It could also be argued that since EMI is removing the DRM, they're protecting their investment with a higher price, but with the money they're saving on software development, licensing, and customer lawsuits pertaining to DRM restrictions, they would of already come out on top without the increase. In short, the price increase is absolutely unnecessary.
So while the removal of DRM is the first step in creating a viable business model for the 21st century, it still puts the business ahead of the consumer. The major labels can tweak their business model all they want, but the up-and-coming generation was raised on the freedom provided by the internet, and half-baked schemes like this one just ain't gonna fly in their eyes. But with WMG's shock at EMI's decision (especially during a high-profile takeover) and Microsoft's knee-jerk announcement of its intent to also release DRM-free music, the formerly out-of-step EMI has added tremendous pressure to the rest of the industry to play catch up.
I Had to Tell You About the New Roky Erickson Documentary and Tour
By Papaya on 04-12-2007
Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, a statement rarely applicable to the TMT news column. Yet, nowhere is the phrase more appropriate than when describing the bizarre life and times of psych patriarch Roky Erickson, whose experiences could literally and figuratively be described as mind-blowing. First coming to prominence in the early 1960s as founding member of The 13th Floor Elevators, who are often credited as the first psychedelic rock group, the group continued breaking new ground, playing, and recording throughout the decade. Eventually, his vocal support for marijuana and LSD proved to backfire on him, causing much police attention and ultimately leading to his arrest for a single joint. While on trial, he plead insanity rather than face a 10-year prison sentence, which also proved to backfire -- the plea got him sent to a mental hospital, and his several busted escape attempts from it got him sent to the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
There, he was subjected to electroshock therapy and heavy doses of Thorazine. After being released, he spent the next few decades undertaking new musical projects, claiming to be an extraterrestrial, and living under the eye of his heavily religious mother (among other things). It was only after legal custody of Roky was awarded to his younger brother in 2001 that he began recovering, regaining control of his life to the point where he is now able to make music again, even playing several shows and festivals in the past and near future.
A documentary about Erickson's life, entitled You're Gonna Miss Me (via Palm Pictures), is due for a theater release on June 8 and a DVD release July 10. Note to movie producers: I think I can speak for all aspiring musicians dabbling in recreational drug use from Texas who have religious parents when I say the recent documentaries about Erickson and Daniel Johnson have not exactly been the most encouraging. Just one movie about someone not suffering from schizophrenia by their late 40s would be a serious breath of fresh air. It's difficult to complain though, because at least judging by the trailer on the film's website, this movie is going to be a much-needed retrospective on the important achievements and far-out events in the life of one of the most influential musicians of the 1960s.
But seriously, electroshock therapy?
