New digital album format doesn't have a prayer

Reading through Greg Sandoval's detailed reporting of SpiralFrog's demise, I once again found myself wondering--as I did many times during the late 1990s dot-com boom and subsequent bust--how anybody could possibly have thought this was a good idea. Ad-supported music downloads that are incompatible with the iPod, the device that basically created the MP3 player market? Who would possibly buy such a thing? SpiralFrog seemed like such an obvious nonstarter, I wrote about it once in 2007 and never wasted time revisiting it. But investors were spending serious sums of money on it, right up until the end.

Album art is fine, but I'm more excited about the music in the grooves.

Apparently, some folks in the music business still haven't learned the lesson about Apple and iPod support, as demonstrated by recent reports that the major labels are planning to launch a new format for digital albums. Operating under the working name of CMX (as a friend quipped, "8-track" was already taken), the new format will allow users to browse album art, read lyrics, and so on. Basically, it's trying to duplicate some of the fun of buying and unwrapping LP records.

Unfortunately, Apple's not playing ball, but is rather working on its own competing format, code-named Cocktail.

So let's get this straight. First, it's a new format. Unless it takes advantage of existing technology like Adobe's Flash, that means users will have to download some new software or plug-in to access these files. Second, this format is meant to be consumed from your computer. But in my experience, the main reason to put digital music on a computer is in order to move it to other devices. Third--and probably most important--without Apple's support, the format won't be compatible with iTunes, the iPod, or iPhone. You can count the market share of the other players in this field on your fingers. Finally, the entire premise assumes that people aren't buying complete albums in digital format because they're not getting the fetishistic experience they used to get--unwrapping the physical object, admiring the cover, reading the liner notes. But the sad fact is that a lot of albums aren't and never were worth buying, and customers grew tired of paying $18 for one song they liked. (Chumbawamba, anyone?). Digital downloads free us from bundling practices that we never liked in the first place.

Unless there's more to the story--a tie-up with another player like Sony's X Series Walkman or Microsoft's Zune, for instance--how can anybody possibly think this will succeed?

[stepyourgameup]

Chumbawamba didn't even have one good song on the album. Tub Thumping SUCKED.

[Random_Walk]

Hehe... true. :)

OTOH, I disagree with Matt about the need for an album. Sometimes, they are well worth the cost (not the format mind you, but the idea of buying a whole album). Sometimes, an album is actually contiguous, or the songs tell a coherent story when played in their particular order (very few bands do this, but still enough to qualify).

[sting7k]

I don't even understand what this is supposed to be or what use I will have for it. Songs on iTunes already have album art. You can look up the lyrics to any song online in about 10 seconds. All I (and most people) want are the songs to play where ever I take them. End of story.

[baconstang]

If someone likes an album/artist enough, they buy the CD. Otherwise it's single song downloads. A nice package isn't worth the full CD price if there's only a couple of songs worth listening to. For me, an album has to be 50%-60% or more listenable before I'll buy the physical format. Also it's nice to have a physical back up and in an uncompressed format.

[baconstang]

Some other info I'd like to have with the downloads is who were all the musicians, the engineer and producer.

[Argyll]

The music industry, like many other industries, hasn't learned that when you fight against natural tendencies you lose. They had a lock for a while with albums, but the computer has freed us from their grasp. When will they learn.

My only worry is that they will stop selling the single songs and try and force people to buy a whole album.

[BigGuns149]

The industry has somewhat counteracted the trend towards digital singles by pushing for Apple and others to raise their prices for individual tracks to counteract the lost revenue from people no longer buying B tracks nearly as much as they did in the album era.

[bob dow]

The record companies are clueless.

If the format is open at all (doubtful) fans will assemble better liner notes and extras than the marketing hacks at Sony, EMI et all...

Forget about your fancy new format and give us what we really want, and have painfully paid for in the past... demos, bootlegs, unreleased tracks or maybe even an options to remix a track ourselves.

Better digital packaging is something that we should have already received (for free) when the industry shifted from cds years ago.

[jbcahill]

And I am guessing that this new "digital album" format will have some new DRM tangled up in it. Which I'm guessing is why they want this new format to try and keep the music business in their same old tired business model.

[BigGuns149]

At least for non-subscription music I think DRM is pretty much dead and I don't think much will bring it back from the dead. A few subscription services will survive to fulfill the demand of people who want to sample music easily and legally, but virtually every company that once sold DRM music has either moved to selling non-DRM music or quit the business. Even the RIAA and co. I think realizes so much.

[fazalmajid]

iTunes already allows you to include PDF liner notes with an album.

[man_w_balls]

MP3 format was the end of the Old Music Industry business model. It unleashed the music completely!

Old Music Industry execs need to get a clue and stop trying to resurrect the dead horse they've been flogging for years. Why not put what money they have left towards something useful, like electric cars, or anything more promising than the dead-end road they're on?
Any single artist can now distribute their own music cheaply and easily via the Web. Record Companies are history.

[BigGuns149]

Not to be a geek, but the MP3 format wasn't the beginning of the end. The Diamond Rio was the beginning of the end. I still remember reading about the temporary restraining order filed by the RIAA against it in the newspaper. The RIAA had the knowledge that a portable device that could store digital files would allow users to be unchained from using a computer to playback their tracks. The Rio was a truly liberating device.

While the traditional role of a record company to record and distribute your music is dead, the role of promoting one's music is far from dead. Record companies have largely transformed into music marketing companies.

[ronpadz]

In my mind what always distinguished me from so many teeny boppers is that I consume the whole album as a holistic experience. Though I certainly enjoy certain songs more than others, the other songs give the album context and contribute to its character. All the great albums have a distinctive character that hold a place in the collective experience of their fans. Unless I'm building a mix to work out to, I still consume my music in this manner and hope I always can. An all-you-can-eat subscription to Rhapsody serves this habit well. It's a shame that the younger generation (I am 42) does not have the attention span to appreciate this. What a shame it would be if the album format were to die. That said, my need to take my music mobile must be met or I will not adopt CMX.

[slumbergod]

Too late for me. I was so disgusted by the RIAA's "criminalize everyone" actions that I stopped buying music or even listening to new artists. I have years of accumulated CDs at home. Screw new formats. Screw DRM.

[shetaan819]

Apple needs to concentrate on socializing iTunes as a first priority not on pushing albums to consumers who've always wanted singles....

- http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/08/11/more-itunes-9-details-apple-developing-social-networking-application/

[Gigdoggy]

I dont think it's a bad idea overall, but technologists will be fighting over a standard for the next year or so. Dont think these models will blast off right away.
Anyways, if it goes to show, bands wont be producing full length albums anymore. Although it was for personal reasons, Radiohead just announced they wanted to concentrate on singles - I think they might set a trend. So this CMX/Cocktail model might have to evolve accordingly.

Great read btw. Thx

[kheftel]

The major labels STILL aren't learning. How dumb can they be?!

[Zoolaman]

The Premise actually is not consumer driven at all. Rather, it's about the record company's attempt to capture the album-size transaction. That is the main motivation. And since increasing digital sales from the $0.99 micro-payment level to a $14.99+ level is not a bad idea for iTunes too, they're "playing" in this also. Indeed time would tell what consumers would accept. Interestingly, consumers do tend to spend more on bigger packages for artists they really truly like. You can argue it's a nitch but it's a lucrative one to go after. When one sale can yield even more than $20 for such packages, that's the same as 20 single sales of MP3 singles to the "regular consumer", that is not a bad proposition and is worth trying. Even just the recent results of the Variable Pricing model driving increased revenues at the $1.29 single sale model prove that point.

[dazco]

Album format is the way music should be listened to. Weather physical or digital there's nothing better than listening straight through an entire album............