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stories filed under: "mp3"
Bleeding Edge

Bleeding Edge

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
clarinets, mp3, recording



Instead Of Recording Music, Recreate It 1,000 Times More Efficiently Than MP3s (But Only For Clarinets)

from the that's-gotta-lose-some-quality dept

There's a report going around about some researchers who created a music file that's apparently 1,000 times smaller than MP3s. However, what's really interesting is how it's done. Rather than actually record the sound, it's designed to recreate the sound itself. As the article notes, it's more like the way a player piano plays music from a roll of punched paper than a recording of the original piano. Of course, that's got to make you wonder about the quality, and whether it comes out sounding mechanical, losing the actual nuances of how the music was played -- but the researchers insist their system captures exactly how the music was played as well. Don't expect to hear much out of this research for a while, though. Right now, the system is rather limited. It can only work with certain types of music (clarinet music from the sound of it), because they had to program in the specifics of how a clarinet is played (such as fingering, breath pressure, and lip pressure). Considering that they would then need to do that with every single instrument, somehow this doesn't seem likely to be in practical use any time soon.

39 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Say That Again

Say That Again

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
lou reed, mp3, music, quality, velvet underground



Lou Reed Upset By MP3 Quality; Has He Ever Listened To Velvet Underground Recordings?

from the it's-not-about-audio-quality dept

Since when is Lou Reed an audiophile? Down at SXSW Reed gave a talk where he complained about the sound quality of MP3 technology and the fact that people didn't realize how awful they sounded. This is a complaint made by quite a few other people as well, who seem to ignore the fact that for most people and most music, MP3 technology is perfectly good enough, and the convenience of being able to carry around more, is a lot more important than a barely (if at all) noticeable change in audio quality. In the meantime, has Lou Reed listened to any of his early Velvet Underground recordings? I don't recall "audio quality" being one of the key characteristics of those songs...

42 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Too Much Free Time

Too Much Free Time

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
ces, mp3, music player, taser



The Music Playing Taser?

from the don't-mp3-me,-bro dept

Engadget and Gizmodo are shoveling post after post on this week's CES (aren't they supposed to help us cut through all the noise, rather than adding to it?) and it occurred to me that it makes almost no sense for anyone to launch new consumer electronics products this week. There's no way to stand out against the zillion other product releases. Even if you can get a post on one of the gadget blogs, you're probably off of the front page in 30 seconds or so. However, one way to stand out and get some attention is to come up with what may be the most ridiculous combination of gadgets out there: a taser holster that includes a 1GB mp3 player. I'm not quite sure what this is saying? Are police officers supposed to be enjoying their tunes as they tase someone into submission? And I'm not even going to touch on the fact that the latest Taser devices are now available in stylish leopard print skins. There's been a ton of controversy over just how dangerous taser devices really are... and their response is to offer an MP3 player and more stylish devices? Seems like a bit of a disconnect.

20 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
News You Could Do Without

News You Could Do Without

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
drm-free, mp3, music store

Companies:
amazon, apple



Amazon Finally Launches MP3 Download Store; Pricing Still Wrong

from the about-time dept

It's been rumored for ages, but Amazon has finally launched its MP3 download store, hyping up the fact that it's DRM-free. Amazon had gone back and forth on this idea for a while, at one point apparently considering teaming up with Apple on iTunes, only to later plan to go it alone. At one point, the rumor making the rounds was that Amazon felt it would be too difficult to compete with iTunes and had temporarily scratched plans for an offering. That was until folks at the company realized that the achilles heel for iTunes might be its DRM.

And that brings us today, with Amazon launching a DRM-free mp3 download store. It's definitely a step in the right direction, but it's still got some problems. First, the selection is definitely lacking. While the company has brought together an awful lot of content, there are still many record labels (and bands) that fear DRM free music (ignoring, of course, that most CDs are DRM-free). The second problem is that it missed the chance to shoot at the real achilles heel of iTunes: the pricing model. The songs all cost either $0.99 or $0.89, which is way too expensive in an age where people can carry around iPods with 160 gigs of content. Now that labels are finally coming to terms with the fact that DRM is a dead-end concept, the next big revolution will be in the price of music. So while Amazon got the first part right, the second part is still open for those who now want to attack the achilles heel of both Amazon and Apple.

43 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Failures

Failures

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
atrac, drm, formats, mp3, music

Companies:
sony



Sony Finally (Really) Dumps Proprietary ATRAC Format No One Wanted For Its Walkmen

from the what,-not-enough-rootkits? dept

It's been almost 3 years since Ken Kutaragi, then President of Sony Computer Entertainment, admitted that the company had made a huge strategic error in launching its digital music players and download store (Sony Connect) with its own proprietary ATRAC music format and DRM. Of course, admitting a mistake and actually doing something about it are two different things. A few different readers alerted us today that Sony is finally shutting down Sony Connect and ditching support for ATRAC in its new Walkmen, though they buried the details of it in paragraph 17 of a press release about the new music players. For those who had bought from Sony Connect and are now left with an unsupported DRM that won't be playable on any new music player... well.... you now have another reminder of why buying into DRM'd music is a huge risk. Sony is at least kind enough to explain to people how to get around the DRM using the standard cumbersome "burn to CD, rip anew" method, but that's definitely a pretty big pain for anyone who's purchased a sizable collection. Of course, that assumes that there was anyone out there who actually bought a sizable collection of music from Sony Connect and somehow that seems unlikely.

19 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
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