Let me start by saying I am not predicting the end of the MP3 here. Back in the early nineties, as we were growing our first successful endeavor in the Royalty Free Music sector, we were the first (and possibly ONLY) online music library to offer AAC (also known as m4a). This is the file format iTunes delivers their music in. It’s a great format. It sounds good and takes up less space than an MP3. We were certain that this was the wave of the future and would eventually surpass the MP3 in terms of customer downloads. And WE were on the leading edge. Guess what? Nobody wanted it.
Technology comes and goes. Some sticks and some doesn’t. But this is pretty interesting:
BACH Technology, based in Norway, Germany and China, is set to launch a new digital music file format which can be embedded with additional content such as lyrics, news updates, and images. The new technology, which they are calling MusicDNA and has the backing of the original inventor of the MP3 format, would allow music labels, bands, or retailers to send updates to the music file every time they have something to share such as tour dates, interviews, etc.
The user would receive as much or as little of the information as they want each time they are online. These updates would only be available to those who obtained the music legally. Anyone downloading files illegally would receive only a static file without the MusicDNA benefits.
Chief Executive Stefan Kohlmeyer says the service would hark back to the time when music fans enjoyed looking at the lyrics and artwork on an album. Anyone who was a music buyuer in the days of vinyl knows this was a legitimate part of the experience of enjoying music. This got lost a bit with CDs, and nearly forgotten with the emergence of digital music files.
So are we ready to jump in head first and be the first music library to add MusicDNA files to the our website? Not just yet. But I love the innovation and will continue to monitor it’s success.
