Ogg Vorbis is mentioned in CNET's MP3 Insider newsletter.
I'm sending this article and another one that takes more
thorough look at internet music distribution (from the same
newsletter).
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MP3: IT'S NOT REALLY FREE
There is a widespread illusion that the MP3 file format is not a
proprietary codec. It'd be nice, but it's just not true. At any
time, Thompson (owners of Frauenhoffer Gesellschaft, who invented
MP3) could start charging whatever they want to anyone using MP3
in any way. They certainly won't start charging users directly,
but they could start charging the companies that make MP3 playing
software, as well as sites that offer MP3s for download, the same
way they already charge companies that offer MP3 encoding for
each download. If you don't like the sound of this, start getting
yourself acquainted with Ogg Vorbis files. They use a codec that
was developed as an open-source project, and there will never be
any licensing fees to pay for using Ogg VOrbis.
Ogg Vorbis, the real free codec:
http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBOR0BID4O0LB0ZpMy
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THE DEATH OF EXCLUSIVITY
The Big Story
If you think about it, the music industry is founded on the
principle of exclusivity. Artists sign exclusive contracts with
labels. Fans are excluded from almost everything unless they're
willing to pay prices that aren't dictated by the laws of supply
and demand. It goes further than that--independent scenes try in
vain to exclude the masses from ruining their little parties, and
technology firms and record companies sign exclusive deals with
each other. In this day and age, it's impossible--and even
counterproductive--to continue the exclusionary mentality that
has permeated the record industry up to this point.
There are too many new approaches being taken to limit music
distribution to just one method. Likewise, it no longer makes
sense to exclude fans from accessing music the music they want,
since they're going to get what they want whether or not the
labels like it. Exclusivity is out, and the sooner the players in
online music realize this, the better it will be for everybody.
It's still a party, but this time we're all invited.
Exclusive Contracts: Bad
Traditionally, artists have had no choice but to sign exclusively
to any label with significant marketing clout. They lose the
right to do anything with their name (now a brand) or music (now
the label's property) during the life of the contract. As Tim
Quirk of Too Much Joy pointed out in his Expert Sound-Off column
for Music.CNET.com, it's quite ironic that the life of the
contract is referred to as the "period of exploitation." But
there is a veritable army of companies and individuals setting up
a new mechanism of music suggestions, based on intelligently
recommending music to people who will like it. This stands in
opposition to the old method of promotion, which involved placing
ads, shooting videos, buying prominent brick-and-mortar rack
placement, and paying off whatever it is that has replaced the
human element of broadcast radio.
If these services, combined with the massive word-of-mouth effect
brought about by the Internet, succeed in making it easier for
sounds to find the ears that like them, then artists will no
longer need to rely on the massive promotional budgets of the
labels who require exclusive contracts.
For those of you who want to read more about this, here is Tim
Quirk's column:
http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBOR0BID4O0LB0DOmb
Exclusive Online Distribution: Bad
Likewise, a number of online music companies have tried to sign
artists to distribute their downloadable music exclusively
through their sites. While most sites that experimented with
exclusive contracts have given up on that approach, EMusic
perseveres. In order to get your music on their site, you need to
agree not to upload it to other Web sites. Agreeing to this
exclusivity runs counter to the everything the Web is about. The
fans themselves can download your tunes from one service, and
then set it loose on the Internet via Napster, email, IRC
channels, online storage sites--you name it. To pretend that it's
possible to distribute music exclusively through one central Web
site is to see order where there is chaos, walls where there are
none.
Exclusive Formats: Bad
There is nothing the record industry wants more than for everyone
to uninstall Winamp and install 10 or 12 different media players
in order to handle the different DRM schemes currently large
enough to consider using. Then, they could encode their entire
catalogues of music and sell them on the Web for $3 per song,
confident in the fact that every song would be paid for and never
heard by anyone other than the person who ponied up the three
bucks. There is nothing we, the consumers, want less than this.
The Internet has turned music into a buyer's market, and the
powers that be can no longer dictate how (or even whether) goods
are bought or sold. Bluematter, OpenMG, secure WMA, Liquid
Audio--whatever it is, we don't want it. If the American
government really wanted to stop speeding on the highways, they'd
force manufacturers to make cars that never went over the speed
limit. But if they did, people would buy older models without the
new mechanism or find a mechanic who specialized in circumventing
the restriction. The same goes for music.
Exclusive Scenes: Bad
In real life, you need to wear a safety pin in the proper nostril
in order to join a community of safety-pin-in-the-proper-nostril
music fans. But on the Web, all you have to do is pick the screen
name Proper_Nostril_Pin_88, and you're in. OK, that might be a
slight oversimplification, but it's undeniable that the Internet
has made it possible for more people to access previously
inaccessible music. Music speaks for itself on the Web, since
it's divorced from real-life interaction. Anyone can find and
join a community of people discussing and trading the music they
like, whereas before, people were excluded from each other by
clothes, appearance, and location. The Internet does not like
exclusivity, and that goes for the cliques that surround
underground music scenes. Anyone can get into the party, as long
as it's being held online. There will still be old- fashioned
record store clerk snobbery about who knows or doesn't know about
which seminal band, but the sheer quantity of knowledge available
at sites such as UBL.com and AllMusic.com make it much easier for
newbies to get in the know and up to speed.
Exclusion is out, and everything else is in; the sooner people
let go of the idea of the exclusive contract, exclusive
distribution agreements, exclusionary formats, and insular music
scenes, the more they'll get out of this heady collision of music
and the Internet.
Eliot Van Buskirk, Senior Editor, CNET Music Center
http://Music.CNET.com
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