Apple and record labels to release competing enhanced album formats
Remember when we said the four largest record companies were working together with Apple to add enhanced liner notes and extra media to full album purchases through the iTunes Store? Well, apparently Apple wasn't in on that cooperation. The Guardian is reporting that the four companies' plans for enhanced full albums were rebuffed by Apple, and they are planning to release their own format in competition with the one to be released in the iTunes Store.
The new file format, called CMX, was created by EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner. It will function quite a bit like a DVD, with a launch page allowing for navigation to the related artwork and video portions of the album. An unnamed label representative is quoted saying that the format was initially presented to an uninterested Apple; now, Apple is releasing a competing format under the code name Cocktail.
The format's tentative launch date is set for November, will be for a small number of titles, and only available in smaller music stores and non-Apple players. It is unclear how Cocktail and CMX will be different, if at all, save for the exclusivity of platforms. Apple is largely said to be following up on the format as a precautionary measure, in case it proves to be immensely popular; as they've said repeatedly, their interest still lies with supporting the more lucrative hardware, rather than trying to profit from full album sales. Still, Apple is stepping up to the format battle, and while not on the scale of Betamax vs. VHS or HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray, this promises to be a pretty decent fight.
[via Electronista]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Scott McLeod said 11:20AM on 8-11-2009
... because this is EXACTLY what we need. More different, competing audio formats made by people only interested in their own ideas.
(This goes for Apple, AND the record companies.)
For ****'s sake... can't we all just play together and make something awesome?
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Jacob Eiting said 11:24AM on 8-11-2009
I can't wait for the producer commentary tracks.
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Jeff said 11:34AM on 8-11-2009
Is it just me? ...or do other people also find this totally retarded?
Who gives a shit about Enhanced Liner Notes? Didn't we already do this back in the 90's with crappy little Macromedia Director files included on albums, showcasing just how cheap and tasteless the record labels are?
We can hardly get DVD menus that aren't made of fail - why do we want yet another avenue for these morons to up-sell us "additional content"?
bah!
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MattH said 11:42AM on 8-11-2009
I agree... I don't even like the extras on DVD's - I would prefer the movie and nothing else.. pretty much same for my music, just the tracks and nothing else.
I can see this would be nice for collectors and fans, and I think it should be out there, just like enhanced DVD's etc... but can we just have cheap versions with no upsell? just the movie or music please!
Level 5 said 11:44AM on 8-11-2009
Exactly.. include them as a scan in PDF or whatever format and be done with it.. I for one barely look at the notes.
KomputarGuy said 11:45AM on 8-11-2009
Agree 100%
nate fanaro said 12:35PM on 8-11-2009
I also agree. I want music to do perform the task of one thing, play music. If I want some crummy liner notes, lyrics, artwork, etc I'll check google.
Heimbachae said 12:54PM on 8-11-2009
unless the format makes it so the band POPS out of the cd and performs a live show for me anytime i want i think i'll just stick to my good old mp3s thank you.
infininight said 11:37AM on 8-11-2009
The point should be made here that likely the record companies format came with some additional encumbrances. Perhaps some drm limitations, perhaps it requires Java which Apple doesn't want on iPods, perhaps it's bitrate limited. The point is I doubt we are comparing two items with everything alike except for the format. The record companies aren't smart enough to make a good format.
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pListOFF said 12:04PM on 8-11-2009
The problem with the record companies coming up with this is that they'll just use it to showcase what whores they are instead of giving audiophiles the kind of information we'd like to see.
I can see checking out their new liner notes and reading, "Enjoy Coca-Cola while you read the lyrics for this song." Or worse a PSA for the RIAA! XD
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fats277 said 12:03PM on 8-11-2009
I was founder of TuneBooks (http://tunebooks.com) . We invented the first interactive liner note and were later shut down by Apple. The labels loved our product and we had hard data stating that our notes helped sell full albums vs. singles. That's really the reason for these things - sell bundles vs. singles and create corollary commerce opportunities. We got killed off because Apple didn't own the experience, and they didn't want the labels to have leverage. Unfortunately for the labels, this new format won't be a hit b/c they don't have the device-share to allow popularity.
And all the while the fans are the ones who suffer.
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Joshua Ochs said 12:27PM on 8-11-2009
Wow, bitter much? As other comments here seem to indicate, we don't WANT extra crap in our music files. The album artwork and lyrics are plenty for me and have been natively supported by the ID3 tag system for quite some time - anything else reeks of "enhanced DVD's" from the late 90's.
From your own linked press articles:
"Customers download TuneBooks along with an album and then navigate a sometimes dizzying QuickTime-powered trip through pictures, videos, credits, and lyrics."
" “We created a TuneBook prototype using Flash embedded in a QuickTime." "
Well ain't that a shit sandwich. Embed one impossible to parse format inside another, neither of which has anything to do with the actual content. Wrap content I don't want into some poorly done multimedia show to add "value".
Good riddance.
fats277 said 1:10PM on 8-11-2009
Well, I'm personally not bitter really, although our website marketing language does push that button. When your clients also hate apple, it makes sense to be simpatico.
It sucked to lose a fun business and it was nice to be ahead of Apple's curve for a time. And it was a good idea then, and since there are 4 major companies trying it again, it still is. There's data to back it up, and generally these notes excited old-school (I'd say 30 yo and older) fans who care about bands that have the connection to records/tapes/CDs. You might not want it, but the majority spoke via metrics and these fans want it.
I still believe in liner notes. I enjoy reading lyrics, and learning about the band in an integrated setting vs chasing down info on ad-laden poorly laid out websites.
One of my favorite books we did was the remastered Doors box set. It was great - the recording engineer wrote 4 or so pages per release talking about the first recording, and then their efforts to remaster, working alongside the surviving band members. Pretty sweet.
And yes, working around the Apple ecosystem is a shit-sandwich. I'm guessing you've never dealt w/ them or around them in a biz setting, else you'd be much more sympathetic, and less of a message board hero.
The background:
When Quicktime sprites died their proper death, Apple allowed Flash to be wrapped in QT, sort of a gentleman's way to provide basic interactivity. The problem was that QT wrapped Flash topped out at version 5, which had security holes and missed a lot of "modern" features. Apple killed it across the board for that reason, but what we heard back from our label clients was that it was partially b/c of our format - they just didn't want it as part of iTunes unless they owned the experience. Two weeks before it was killed, we had begun work on an compressed HTML/Javascript version that would work on any platform or device that had browser capabilities.
I'm not sure how Quicktime is "impossible to parse?" Both QT and Flash work fine, and the combined wrapper was decent until the security became an issue.
Your opinion is fine and you're absolutely entitled to it - but to me it's junk science, based on a few message board comments, and a lack of understanding of how Apple, the Labels & Fans interact.
jonbruck said 12:07PM on 8-11-2009
Record labels meeting-
"It'll be just like a DVD-except that you'll have to buy a new player. We can even sell ad time before people can play the music they paid for."
Sony exec: "I like it already"
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Kelmon said 12:07PM on 8-11-2009
So, let me get this straight - the record companies want to encourage full album purchases? Have they considered simply releasing albums that are full of good tracks?
Here's the thing. Speaking personally, if an album contains lots of good tracks such that it is cheaper, or damned close to it, for me to simply buy the complete album than it is to download the individual tracks that I want then I am happy to buy the whole thing. You can throw as much extras in as you like but if I don't like the music then I'm not going to pay for any more than I want to listen to. The last thing I need is more unnecessary fluff...
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fats277 said 12:24PM on 8-11-2009
The "full album" thing is a bit more complex. The popular new music market is one thing - the labels sell a bunch of Britney Spears singles and make a killing. If they can sell a few full albums too b/c of notes, all the better. The bigger question however is back catalog. If the label can sell the full Journey album that "Don't Stop Believin'" is on, vs. just the single, that's a big win.
So, I'd expect these liner note bundles to be content appropriate - if you get a Journey album, expect old photos, lyrics, maybe band stories, plus tour schedules, ticket offers, etc.
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Thomas said 12:51PM on 8-11-2009
and you can bet that they will overload it with all kinds of extra DRM to prevent lots of things. Maybe they will even have a 'call home' feature to the server so that they can pitch you similar albums or erase the music if the music store shuts down. Just what we need!
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Thomas said 12:53PM on 8-11-2009
And don't forget extra advertising imbedded within it!
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fats277 said 1:13PM on 8-11-2009
Oh - and a caveat for my opinions - I do feel that Apple and the Labels will screw this up, and it'll never be as good as it could be. While there will be a no doubt a helpful "long-tail" catalog included in the liner notes, there will also be tickets and merch jammed down our throats b/c that's where the $$ is now.
What would be best is an open-source wiki-plus-some-nice-interaction website where fans contribute the notes, free of too many ads and sales pitches. Anyone interested? : )
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InSaNeBoY said 1:16PM on 8-11-2009
BLAH that's one thing I could care less about when I buy music. I've never been interested in liner notes, lyrics, blah blah. I just want to listen to the music. When I was buying CDs, I put them in a big CD book and tossed the cases. Tapes? got a big box of tapes, never kept the cases and the only reason I still have my record covers is because they're protecting the records!
Also wouldn't it be nice to pop in a DVD, press play and have the movie just start??? what a novel concept that would be!
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