3/25/00

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that in its current state, mp3 does not lend itself to being a good technology for digital music distribution. Well, legal distribution that is. Only a person living under a rock wouldn't have heard of mp3 whether it be from some source online or a traditional media source because mp3 is a hot topic. SDMI which will choose the commercially-made "heir" to mp3, however will never be able to gain the kind of support that mp3 has because the format chosen by the SDMI will not be open like mp3. Apparently the record labels have not learned from the software industry what the consequences of keeping a technology closed are. The only way to protect the interests of artists is to make the format chosen by SDMI as open as mp3.

For all their rhetoric about protecting the rights and interests of the artists they "represent", the major record labels and RIAA have not paid much attention to the trends of the software industry. Time and again, closed standards have failed in the market place so it only stands to reason that the format chosen by SDMI will ultimately be a failure when an open successor to mp3 is chosen. Another issue which will be extremely difficult to resolve in regard to digital distribution is what happens if a user deletes the files or the files are corrupted? Would you call the company and ask for permission to get replacements or would you have to buy the songs all over again? Would they send a new license to you which you could enter into your player? As for encrypting the files, it would only be a matter of time before the encryption would be cracked. When that happens, the labels will not be able to hide behind the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for protection because the crack will spread as quickly as DeCSS.

The fact that mp3 is open and developers don't have to pay royalties to anyone to be able to add support for it to programs is the single biggest reason why mp3 is the most popular music file format. Other file formats like Windows Media make for files which are half the size of an mp3 of equivalent quality, but the since they are not open and players for them aren't available on all OS's they cannot replace mp3. Mp3 is fast approaching the point of becoming an accepted open standard much like TCP/IP, HTTP or FTP. The only way for the file format chosen by SDMI to replace mp3 is for it to be opened to the public to the same degree that mp3 has been. By sacrificing control over it, the labels heading SDMI can finally have a secure format ready for distribution. It is only by opening the format up to the public that security problems would be able to be fixed and thus the intellectual property rights of the artists protected.

The final reason why mp3 has been able to do so well is that labels do not add enough value to the albums they sell to make mp3s look less like a deal and more like a cheap rip off. Virtually nothing has been changed about how CDs are made since they were first invented. No innovative new bonuses like mpeg music videos are added on a regular basis to new albums and the prices sure haven't dropped much. By now a CD should cost little more than a cassette; a good price would be something between $10 and $13 for a CD. The labels can continue to attack mp3 fans regardless of whether they are using the technology legitimately or not, in the end it really won't matter. Piracy will eventually take its toll on the labels because people will get sick and tired of having to pay $16-$19 for a CD that probably doesn't have more than a few songs that really stand out.

MP3 combines the right price (free) with total freedom. Those two reasons are why it has become an open standard and will stay around for quite some time to come. It is doubtful that the public will ever want to give up the freedom afforded by mp3 and it is even less likely that the public would be interested in giving up more than trivial amounts of hard-earned cash for something like a SDMI-compatable music file. The failure of the major labels to take advantage of the net is mind boggling and if I were a stockholder of one of the major labels I would be very angry that the executives were not taking proactive measures to stop piracy rather than hiding behind the discredited notion that the law can stop piracy.