I am writing this as a live blog whilst taking advantage of some sky high WIFI (WI-FLI maybe in this case?) in response to the recent Music Week national poll. The poll is to "assess user interest in quality audio files for music." They state "This is your chance to make a difference and get rid of sub-standard MP3 files NOW".
This statement really got me thinking and I would welcome a discussion / feedback on the below to see what people really think?
I am someone who takes a keen interest in new technologies and especially new file formats, their history and their future. So I am keen to know just WHO is (or would be) developing this new file format being discussed?
By gaining support from professional musicians, engineers and producers what will the owners of the file format do with all the royalties they make if their new format is embraced by us all?
I am aware of how difficult it is to get a new format taken on by large manufacturers - it has to come from the biggest corporate powers otherwise it doesn't reach enough people and so therefore isn't adopted as a standard by the all important general public.
The thing is that none of these major corporations (like Apple) are keen on letting someone outside of their organisation make all that money, they would prefer if at all possible to create their own format to use on devices. However this of course also causes deadlock - unless of course one company has a complete stranglehold over the market.
I was once lucky enough to meet a gentleman whose company owned MP3 (M-PEG layer 3 patent) whilst on a trip to Japan. This guy earns a royalty for EVERY device in the world thats plays, reads or records MP3 format files. It seriously blew my mind.
He was at the AES Japan show launching his new MP3 HD format. I had got chatting to him as was the first person that day to correctly identify the different bit depths and sample rates of the files he was using for listening tests on his booth. The MP3 HD format offers exactly the same quality as CD (16 bit 44.1kHz) he said it would be the next big thing. This was back in 2008, 5 years later and nothing has changed as the industry didn't embrace it. i think perhaps they do not want to send him any more cheques!
Passing the new format onto someone else i'm not against; by all means let someone else forge a new format into our audio world with better quality. My main worry is a different issue.
I do not believe that any consumer or music maker likes sub-standard audio. I believe that its the money machine behind the consumer industry, the big corporations that are stopping the flow of a new format coming to market. The technology for better audio already exists.
So, let me pose this:
Imagine if a file format offering better quality audio was created, owned and patented by a not-for-profit organisation (maybe a fuse of industry organisations like MPG, APRS, AES, MU etc). If this was then embraced by the wider international community of industry individuals, imagine all the good that could be created by the profits from the format. If you let your imagination run, this could be a whole new form of income stream into the wider industry or used for research, education, community work, independent funding pools - options are vast.
I think this is also the best chance to get major corporations on board as they would then not be supporting a competitor but embracing an industry that gives them content and helps them sell and market their products globally. They could see it as a brand credible endeavour and embrace the format without fear of driving the competitors revenue, or making another single person incredibly rich.
It would need to be a format that DAW software titles allowed you to save / bounce down work to and that download stores offered for sale and that manufactures of hardware allowed compatibility with to read / play. A big task, but not impossible?
Thoughts?
Sarah x
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Whts wrong with FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec?
ReplyDelete@sneekermagoo Thanks for your comment. There is nothing wrong with FLAC - in fact this is a great codec, the issue is that it is not a format that is widely supported by the major manufacturers. To make an impact here it needs to be adopted by all phone and music player manufacturers. Maybe FLAC could be more widely used but as it has taken this long with no progress on something that isn't money related suggests it is not of strong interest or that it is not seen as an attractive step in how technology progresses (I'm sure it is around 10 yrs old?). MP3's to the manufacturer are a globally known format, that takes up very little space and are easily shared / downloaded and distributed. The format can be any, the article was more saying how we can work together to really think about the future, the challenges and how we can do something that could make a real difference.
ReplyDeleteI personally find it frustrating that FLAC is not supported more widely. As a DJ I prefer to use only high audio quality files - either WAV or FLAC - and I continually wonder why someone has not developed a format that is ID3 metadata enabled and lossless, and which also can be played on Windows Media Player, iTunes, Serato, Traktor et al. I find it hard to believe it hasn't already been developed (in fact your blog entry appears to suggest it has) because a format change is the music industry's age old trick for getting consumers to re-purchase their entire music or film collection all over again. I sense that they are afraid of a lossless audio format as this may mean the end of the road of the endless repeddling of the same music but in a different format. The wider issue is storage, which is, if we are choosing to 'future proof' our music collections by universally opting for a lossless format to collect on, the onus is then on ensuring the quality of our storage as totally secure and dependable over a minimum period of say 20 years, as hard drives can deteriorate and fail, whereas hard format systems such as CD and vinyl are comaprtively reliable for long term storage. I hope you debate garners the attention is deserves and hopefully stimulates some action in this much neglected area.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of things to consider. If any one company developed a new format I imagine that the others would not gravitate towards it simply because it was developed by competition, but it’s not impossible (example: Sony and the CD). I would also think that there might have to be some sort of demand from “average Joe listener” in order for them to consider making a change (as a group of companies supplying music) since they’re all doing okay financially with what currently exists. DJs that I know prefer FLAC, but it doesn’t mean that your average person walking around with music on their computers, iPods and MP3 players would be willing to call for anything different. I imagine their initial response would be “it sounds the same to me”. I would LOVE for all audio to be lossless, but everyone I know that ISN’T into music doesn't care unfortunately. It would be an uphill battle, but it’s a battle worth fighting for. As a producer I want people to hear my music as it is intended and NOT sounding crappy as a result of sub-standard ripping techniques.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. Some valid points for sure.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, as said FLAC is something that is already available for free and I can understand why is popular for DJ's. it's less storage space than WAV but offering better sound than MP3 and therefore making your sets sound better through a PA system in comparison :)
The issue is that it is not widely compatible or catered too by manufactures and also if I'm honest, because it is free and not corporate it almost has an image that major brands then don't want to associate with as their main format. It's cool but I doubt it will get used by the big CE giants.
I disagree that consumers don't want better quality, I think they would welcome it. The average person may not be able to sit there and say, yes I hear much more detail in the high mids, the low end sounds fuller and the reverb trails more natural (for example), but they will be able to say - yeah, I'm feeling that - it sounds good, it's maybe louder or is better bass or something... But I think they would notice.
My suggestion was to make a format that is seen as professional, endorsed by the industry but not for profit or only for reinvestment. Then companies could be sold into supporting it so we can move past this deadlock, and have it as a format that supports the industry, and takes away competition problems and credibility issues for the CE bigwigs - whilst still creating something that helps the producer / engineers / artist work be heard in a truer, better form?