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Editorial by Gene Pitts
Owner and editor of the audiophile voice.
The prospect of music being 'pay per listen' when it comes to you over the Internet is starting to get closer and closer. The United States Copyright Office, a division of the Library of Congress, is considering whether stations that put music programs onto the Internet must pay record companies for the use. According to a Bloomberg News report, some 4,000 radio stations of the nation's 14,000 transmit programs over the Internet. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) might be one agent used to collect and distribute such royalties, and indeed the RIAA has urged the Copyright office to use its SoundExchange. A coalition of music artists and indie labels has, however, asked the Copyright Office against selection of the RIAA for the task, urging instead that an independent body be established to collect and distribute web-cast monies and the funds collected from digital copying under the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act.
Speaking on behalf of the National Association of Broadcasters, Dennis Wharton said that "What the music industry is trying to do is saddle broadcasters with new fees that Congress has always exempted us from paying. It could cost broadcasters millions of dollars and would probably cripple or seriously impair the streaming of radio signals over the Internet."
MS HDCD???
At the time of the Audio Engineering Society Convention, Microsoft announced that it had purchased Pacific Microsonics (PMI), the developer of the High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) process. No specific programs or products were announced by either Microsoft or Pacific, and it is difficult to see what Microsoft plans to do with the technology. However, the PMI HDCD filter for CD and other digital work is widely viewed as one of the best available, whatever the level of HDCD use on the Compact Disc. PMI says that 50,000 titles have used the HDCD technology, of which 225 are Billboard's "Top 200" and that more than 30 million HDCD discs have been sold to date.
Mark Mays, Microsoft's group manager for Windows Media Appliances, did give one hint about the firm's ideas. "The whole industry is wondering and worried - probably at the same time - about Internet delivery." in addition, Mays drew attention to the "understated theme" of this year's Audio Engineering Society Convention, alternative delivery systems, and forecast that "production for Internet music delivery will be the convention's major theme next year." Funny, but I can't see the RIAA pushing Microsoft around, no matter what leverage the Copyright Office gives the association.
Watermarking Woes
The Warner Music Group has been widely reported in the techie- and music-business news media as signing up to use the Verance Corporation's copyright protection on its DVD-Audio discs. Covered is encryption and watermarking. Jordan Rost, Warner Music Group's senior VP of technology, fended off questions as to why Madonna's Music or other recent hits were not among the firm's first batch of seven releases. "We're working on such titles as k.d. lang's new release and Joni Mitchell's latest album."
An early version of the coding was supposedly cracked by a hacker, and there have been reports that the watermarking audibility degrades the audio signal on playback.
The only other announced DVD-A release is Swingin' For The Fences by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band on Siiverline Records from 5.1 Entertainment.
