By: Connor

In the same way that Vinyl gave way to the CD, the CD now bows to the Mp3 – the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, not to be confused with MPEG-3 which is totally different and for our purposes irrelevant. In the future – or currently among audio enthusiasts – the Mp3 will fall off the mainstream charts, replaced by something better.

When the Mp3 was developed, hard drive capacity was far smaller than today. Mp3’s first began being shared around 1995, where the average hard drive was perhaps 512MB – 1GB. That’s 15-30 songs on average in .wav format, leaving no other space for an operating system, other applications etc. Enter the Mp3:

The Mp3 functions by using a lossy compression that takes advantage of a psycho acoustic principle called auditory masking, which states that the presence of a sound can be masked by another sound. An example of this would be having the same conversation in a quiet room vs. a busy street. In the quiet room, you hear stomachs rumble, breathing, etc. On the street, you’re lucky to make out the words.

In theory, if you can’t hear a sound it doesn’t need to be included in the data file, thus reducing the size. In 1995 this was a good thing, as bandwidth and storage space were limited. Obviously there were problems, as most people (I hope) would rather not listen to music than listen to something compressed down to 64kbps. However, past 256kbps, the average listener won’t notice a difference between an Mp3 and a CD, and chances are high that even if they could, they’re not willing to shell out for audio equipment that would let them do so.

In fact, a recent study conducted by Jonathan Berger indicates that kids actually prefer the lossy quality of Mp3’s. The human brain prefers familiar sounds, accounting for some people’s preference for vinyl, and apparently a preference for Mp3’s in newer generations.

I personally don’t like streaming music. Disregarding the audio quality – which is hit and miss – I’m not a fan of subscription based models, nor advertisements. I also don’t like carrying around a bajillion CD’s when I could carry a single Mp3 player. Call me picky, but I like what I like. The two remaining solutions for one in my position then, are as follows:

A) Buying CD’s ripping them to a format of my choice, tagging them, and storing digitally. This requires a lot of effort compared to option B, despite the plethora of online databases which will fill in tag information for you.

B) The one time purchase of a digital file – currently the Mp3.

Imagine my delight when a new file format was announced at MIDEM (go there, you can watch conferences and stuff. It’s pretty neat.)

The format is called MusicDNA and was created by Norwegian developer Dagfinn Bach along with Karlheinz Brandenburg, who is largely credited with inventing the Mp3. MusicDNA is intended to compete with Apple’s iTunes LP, and aims to integrate user generated content into the Mp3 file itself – allowing fans to access a wide range of content related to the original track they purchased, such as lyrics, artwork, tour dates, blog posts and video and Twitter feeds. It also updates whenever accessed on a device connected to the internet. It’s backwards compatible, and therefore not restricted to its corresponding player, unlike the iTunes LP – when played in a device that can’t take advantage of the added info, it functions in the same way a normal Mp3 would.

The downside: The audio quality is the same as an Mp3, and chances are it will cost more.

Tom Silverman, founder and CEO of Tommy Boy Entertainment, said it “will be a boon for artists and fans as it dynamically connects them long after purchase.”

Bach said that while the additional content may already exist online, it is dispersed and not packaged together in such a convenient format.

Despite the somewhat pretentious title (no, your file format is not the essence and life of music) I’m pretty excited.

But what does this mean for the indie artist? Primarily, ease of access to your material. Today’s society is stuck in the immediate future, we want it NOW. Such a dynamic and easily accessed connection with the artist could mean the difference between additional purchases and “I don’t feel like it right now, I’ll do it tomorrow.” Even if it doesn’t result in more purchases, fans will appreciate something to distract them from their commute/break/class/whatever. That it’s your music and related info that distracts them can only grow the relationship.

Check out this YouTube video about MusicDNA – sorry, embedding disabled.

For further reading on other file formats and portable players which accommodate them: Check out The Resolution Revolution by Shawn Daley.

Technorati Tags: Audio Formats, Dagfinn Bach, digital audio, itunes LP, Karlheinz Brandenburg, MIDEM, MP3, MusicDNA

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Music Business, Music Promotion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.