Interactive music formats didn’t grab headlines at this year’s MIDEM, as most tried to salvage streaming music models and were closely watching where labels and investors were planning to spend their few dollars for 2010.
MXP4 and MusicDNA showed up with new ideas and new ways of tackling what will replace the MP3 file format. While Apple itself made no announcements and there wasn’t much said about the iTunes LP, Apple’s announcement of its new iPad makes these formats all the more important.
Users are getting another level of engagement with content through that device and newer netbooks and tablets, making an interactive music file filled with videos and extras more appealing and more likely to get used.
These file formats aren’t aimed at the family PC sitting in a room somewhere. They’re targeted to the devices in the living room and to portable media players.
At the end of 2009, MXP4 began working with an “art rock” band Pony Pony Run Run for its first mixable track release, and the singer of the band provided the best reason for the need for a new format: “The CD is frozen.”
MXP4 is both a new music format and the name of the company behind it. It is now pushing a new, embeddable application that allows users to interact with and remix songs and albums.
The latest technology from the music firm is Max It, which allows users to remix the tracks in real-time, offering an editor that will allow artists to apply it to their own songs. The idea is that the song can be different each time it is listened to, and users can get more in-depth with changes as they get more familiar with tracks, thus increasing interaction and attention.
We’ve been told there’s a version in the works that allows users to apply it to their own purchased content, but this has some ownership concerns.
According to the company, at its simplest, MXP4 is a bundle of artist multimedia content – music, videos, bios, tour dates and social network interaction – “in one file, similar to Apple’s iTunes LP or the CMX project led by the majors.”
So far, 20 artists have made tracks for Max It, including artists who already had songs through MXP4’s previous technology. The Max It Editor is by far the most important element to the service because it lets anyone create the Max It tracks, not just established artists.
Not only will this give emerging artists more access to digital fans, but it will help increase the adoption of the standard. From what we’ve been told the editor, it’s easy to run and feels a lot more band-friendly than the iTunes LP process.
The company said its existing singles are played and remixed by fans for an average of 9.1 minutes per track and that, so far, 3% of people who mix then buy the songs.
Bach Technology has launched a new MusicDNA format, which it claims will be the successor to MP3. The format comes out of work from Norwegian developer Dagfinn Bach, who worked on the first MP3 player in 1993, and Karlheinz Brandenburg, considered the inventor of the MP3.
MusicDNA files will include traditional music and albums and will also feature an app-styled content player for lyrics, artwork, tour information, blog posts, videos and social networking interaction. We’ve heard about new formats for all of these before, but the kicker and big appeal of MusicDNA is that all of this can be updated anytime the player is connected to the Internet.
“Twenty years on from the initial development of MP3, it is time for digital audio to once again evolve. Just as vinyl gave way to the CD and the CD to MP3, it is time for the MP3 to pass the baton on to MusicDNA,” Bach said at MIDEM. “We can deliver a file that is extremely searchable and can carry up to 32GB of extra information in the file itself”
The files will work with existing MP3 players, though it appears that most won’t be able to access the extra content. The PC players that come out should be able to handle all of it; it is unclear which future MP3 players and phones will be able to handle the content.
The file also claims to be mostly pirate-proof; it can tell which songs have been pirated and thus won’t allow updates for that content. How exactly it does this is not clear, nor is how long it will take before users can begin to fool the system.
The file format hasn’t been backed by the major labels yet, but independents are jumping on board, including Beggars Group, Tommy Boy Records, Delta Records and Amiata Records. The company is said to have distribution deals with stores and some technology companies, including InProdicon, Rebeat Digital, People’s Music Store and CatchMedia.
When making its announcement at MIDEM, the MusicDNA Web site crashed because it was overloaded by the amount of requests and clicks on links for more information. It still seems to be having trouble during peak traffic times.
Bach Technology plans to beta-test the MusicDNA file format during the next few months and will officially launch it later in the year, setting it slightly behind MXP4’s latest files and its previous ones, but compatibility gives MusicDNA an overall leg-up.
These new file types will need a major player and publisher to really get rolling, and in the digital music space, that means Apple and Sony.
Sony will likely back who ever appears to be the new front runner and will expand its Walkman line and its mobile phones to accept and run these file types. Sony knows what a format war feels like, though, so expect it to hold back until the winner is all but declared.
The problem here is that the new file type is either a single app per song (MXP4) or requires a whole new suite of functionality that doesn’t exist on current players (MusicDNA). All of this means their backers will have to find a way to either work with or somehow supplant iTunes; both are tasks many have failed to accomplish.
The problem gets trickier considering Apple’s iTunes LP format, which includes many similar functions and will likely natively work on the new iPad.
As for the CMX project from the major labels and a few other publishers, it’s okay that you’ve forgotten about it; the industry is trying hard to as well.
While previous challenges in the digital space for music were trying to get users to buy files legally and give them convenient access to play and organize songs, the challenge for 2010 is much simpler: devices.
Digital music is established, and many recent projections are saying that – at least in the US and possibly globally – digital music revenues will equal physical revenues this year. The challenge now will be to get as many new devices as possible to support these file formats and to get them to market as quickly as possible.
Apple is the dragon here, resting on its music hoard and the bones of those who dared oppose it, so these two formats will have a lot of work to do if they are to either tame or slay the beast.