“Forget WAV, MP3 and M4A – major labels have something new in mind, and it’s called CMX. Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI are reportedly preparing a new digital album format that will include songs, lyrics, videos, liner notes and artwork,” Sean Michaels reports for The Guardian.
“The news comes just weeks after reports of a similar project, Cocktail, being developed by Apple. According to the Times, Apple rejected CMX and instead began work on an in-house alternative. It is not clear how Cocktail and CMX will differ, other than ownership,” Michaels reports. “A label rep told the Times, ‘Ours will be a file that you click on, it opens and it would have a brand new look, with a launch page and all the different options. When you click on it you’re not just going to get the 10 tracks, you’re going to get the artwork, the video and mobile products.'”
Michaels reports, “The major labels plan to launch CMX, which is just a working title for the format, in November. It will reportedly be ‘soft-launched’ with a few select releases. ‘We are not going out in force,’ the industry source said. ‘What you are going to see is a couple of releases thrown out there to see what people like. We are working with the retailers now.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s difficult to overestimate Apple’s reach in this market. Therefore, it’s quite simple: If Apple decides there will be a new digital bundle format, then Apple’s format will be the only format that matters.
@RalphM:
I can’t remember a recent great Concept Album like the ones you mentioned, (Black Parade? not good enough) but there are still some folks putting out albums where every track is a winner and the whole thing hangs together. “Extraordinary Machine”, “Modern times”, “Red Letter Year”, “The Cost”, and just about anything Jack White touches come to mind from the last few years.
Why don’t they just add art/videos/extras as “album only downloads” in iTunes? Why in the WORLD would they think we want to add yet another format to deal with? This is such an obvious and major fail. Who the hell cares about album artwork anyway? You can instantly get any artwork on anything that exists in the world instantly at any time. Welcome to the internet… DUH.
Brittany is an artist? Bwahahahaha.
CMX, soon to join DAT, MiniDisk, ATRAX, and all the otehr failed formats.
People Please!!!
The only reason we don’t care if Apple is a monopoly is that we continue to see innovation and bang for the buck. SO if there is a new format, wouldn’t you want Apple to drive it? I don’t see too many Windows people complaining about file format?? iTunes is cross platform and as responsible to the Windows community as any other software developer.
I also hear rumblings that this new format is also to premiere on ( dare I say ) Apple’s tablet type media player web experience machine. We shall see… I don’t believe it, but then again it’s Apple… anything can happen.
Pi has spoken.
IT WONT STICK!
no way no how
if its not on itunes (it doesnt need to be) its done
its not going to replace CDs in the store due to playback issues
the horse is dead at teh gate
Apple has NO monopoly on music. There are millions of ways to obtain music, physically and digitally. Jeez.
Apple does not have an monopoly. If anything they are constantly being given the short stick compared to other online retailers. Apple got DRM-less files later than anyone else. I call that collusion by the Labels.
Apple succeeded by good design and a compelling product.
This new format may work if it played on iTunes. I doubt that the Labels would do anything as clever as that.
Slightly off topic – I’ve been enjoy Lost on Netflix in HD and have watched most of the 1st season in the last few weeks . Given that I pay $25 a month for the service, I wonder how much Netflix pays for the privilege. Seems to me that their cost must be a lot lower that iTunes for rentals.
Nothing worth listening to has been recorded since January 16, 1938.
The Labels still just don’t get it.
They are attempting to create a solution for a problem that does not exist.
The Problem is the Quality and lack of standardization of what they are already selling. Wendy & Lisa pioneers in the music industry recently released their New Album “WHITE FLAGS OF WINTER CHIMNEYS” they have done it a) independently and b) offering it digitally in 320KB MP3 and FLAC (and they have some CD and Vinyl packages). Now the point here is if you want to sell more digital music the labels need to choose a standard. That standard needs to be high quality should be lossless. If Apple wants to sell Tunes in iTunes then the Labels should make it a condition that the tracks all be Lossless (not FLAC per se Apple Lossless would be ok), Microsoft, Amazon and everyone could either License Apple Lossless or use FLAC). Customer by license should have the ability to down sample the tracks for Personal Media Players to AAC or MP3 without charge or penalty. With Vinyl Records sales back on the up swing it shows that physical media is not dead yet. But, one must remember that Vinyl’s recent comeback is limited to small special production runs of very high quality pressings these are not the records of old. But, now that the labels are starting to flood the market with cheap low quality pressings from equipment that they’ve own and has been sitting idol in warehouses for the past 20 years or so. The interest and up tick of Vinyl will fall off quickly. The special high quality 140 to 180+ gram virgin vinyl pressings will continue to be popular and will keep selling well. The 75 to 120 gram reworked vinyl low quality pressings and the 35 to 50 gram plastic stabilized recycled vinyl pressings of the 90’s is better off staying dead.
The music industry doesn’t yet have a clue, they’ll jump on and hump the life out of any idea that shows any type of movement in hopes that they’ll get so satisfaction out of it. Then their marketing whizzes will dream up and idea and they’ll mount it for some big ass sales and when it tanks they’ll wipe the spunk from their hands and do the same thing to the next big marketing idea that shows it’s ugly head.
Here is an idea that made be they’ll be able to try pick an idea like say selling only lossless formatted tracks for your artists’ work, and wow,!,! make them affordably priced. Start with your biggest Digital Music retailer and and run a 24 month trial after 12 months if it looks good move the idea to the number 2 digital reseller. Better then just Jumping on humping the life out of it and then moving on. 3″ CD Singles was like this in the US while in Japan were the idea was given a chance to grew they were very, very popular.
Knowing all the players in the game, I have no doubt that Apple’s ‘Cocktail’ solution will win and Labels’ CMX will die. Knowing the players, I also have no doubt that Apple’s solution will be more simple, elegant, easy to understand and based on open standards, and Labels’ solution would be complicated, cumbersome, DRM-infested and based on some closed, proprietary standard that won’t work on anything but Windows.
Having said that, the MDN take is completely true, and in this case, for the good of the consumer. Still, in some alternate universe, there would exist a chance that Labels could develop more elegant, easy to understand and simpler solution than Apple’s ‘Cocktail’, however, Apple’s dominant position in the marketplace would ensure the failure of that ‘CMX’ and Apple’s continued dominance with its ‘Cocktail’. These are the situations where monopoly position can easily get abused.
Obviously, when Apple is the dominant player, we don’t need to fear from them abusing the position.
Demon,
As much as you seem to like pristine audio quality (based on your extreme familiarity with vinyl, as well as desire for FLAC/Apple Lossless), neither labels, nor Apple will be exploring either of the two options anytime soon. 256kbps AAC files have proven to be hitting the sweet spot between audio quality and storage/bandwidth demands. Anything higher in quality and it just wouldn’t be worth it, neither for Apple, nor for the consumers. The number of people who can accurately and consistently tell the difference between 256Mbps AAC compression and 44.1kHz, 16bit audio file is minuscule, therefore negligible. That is why SACD, DVD-Audio and similar, higher-quality digital audio formats have practically died before reaching their second birthdays.
You will just have to get your music elsewhere, and not through iTunes.
I believe MDN’s take is that Apple has a strong influence in this area, just like they have had a strong influence in phone UI and design. Has absolutely nothing to do with a monopoly.
Another vote for lossless!
If all the music companies work together to make this CMX format the industry standard, then this might force Apple to adopt CMX, as if they say to Apple we will pull our music from iTunes, it could be difficult to refuse, as iTunes would be rubbish without any major music labels on iTunes.
I know the companies won’t remove their music from iTunes, but the threat could be large enough for Apple to adopt CMX.
Although I most often buy music by-the-song these days, I occasionally wish to buy an album. And, if I do buy an album, I really would like to have the lyrics and some high-resolution artwork in addition to the music. So, regardless of who sets the standard, I don’t necessarily see this as a bad thing. But, if this is just another ploy to charge more money for a product then I am not in favor of it.
The music industry reminds me a lot of the porn industry on the internet. According to a news article I read yesterday, the porn industry is reportedly suffering a lot these days since there are so many free sites available. Yet, if they hadn’t been so greedy and charged such outrageous prices for their products (from what I hear) then I seriously doubt they would even have a problem. They have only themselves to blame for their problems and the music industry could learn from that.
C’mon, every single idea the big-4 record companies have is stupid because they are at least a decade behind in their thinking, and still refuse to believe that things have moved on.
They haven’t even worked out a way to sell their own mp3s yet … They couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery !
The majors killed the album themselves by releasing with the old phil spector ratio of “2 hits and 10 pieces of shit” and now people are wise to that and, naturally, only want to buy the killers and leave the fillers.
I can’t really see either of these formats working because *serious* fans will want to buy the CD anyway.
JAYGEE:
…”f they say to Apple we will pull our music from iTunes, it could be difficult to refuse, as iTunes would be rubbish without any major music labels on iTunes.”
Apple is the single largest retailer of music in the US. They sell more music than Wal-Mart. If labels were to do something as idiotic as pulling their music form iTunes, they would go bankrupt within a year.
Today, Apple calls ALL shots when it comes to selling music in the US. Music labels have completely lost all the control and leverage they had on their own business. Life is good….
THE BIG QUESTIONS: What will be the sound quality and video quality of CMX? How dire will be the DRM infection?
For that matter, what will be the sound quality and video quality of Cocktail? How dire will be the DRM infection?
Bundling a bunch of stuff into one file is all SuperRadiKewl and everything, (déja vu PDF), but is the actual media quality worth paying for? The article provides no details or source for details. Anyone know?
Why I ask: The BIG MUSIC LABELS = the RIAA, who have consistently pushed for DRM crap and lowered audio quality standards. (Witness the abomination called ‘HD’ Radio which is actually BS Radio). If they’re going to foist another pile of garbage on us, no thank you.
What we really require: 96,000 samples per second audio DVDs with NO DRM crap. That would be progress. What a concept.
(And yes kids. People with decent hearing CAN hear the improvement over 44,000 samples per second audio. I sure can!).
…”And yes kids. People with decent hearing CAN hear the improvement over 44,000 samples per second audio. I sure can!.”
In a double blind test, under studio conditions, with pristine recordings, you may be. You, but not many others.
As a professional musician with over thirty years of work under my belt, I can testify that 256 kbps AAC provides way more than “good enough” sound. Even classical and jazz hold up remarkably well.
SACD (Super Audio CD) has been in existence for almost ten years (!!). Has anyone here EVER bought a single audio recording in this format?
Again, your wish may be legitimate, but it clearly isn’t happening. The new album format will NOT be developed to satisfy minuscule percentage of people for whom nothing but lossless is acceptable (and for derekcurrie here, not even lossless CD-quality works). The obvious purpose of the new bundle format is to resurrect the money-making album machine for the labels. It will provide additional content, but it will NOT be improving audio, as it does NOT need to be improved any further in order to appeal to broader public (it’s appealing enough as it is, in 256kbps AAC)
@ Predrag
Yes, I’m old. I remember when the format for buying your music was mostly Vinyl long before Music CD’s were available. Yes, I still own a high-end turntable and a tube amp too. But, in the early 80’s has music first started coming out on CD I started buying mostly CD’s.
I started buy music in the dark ages I freely admit. But, as a music buyer that still owns a good home Hi-Fi (Stereo) system for listening to music (not one of these surround sound systems that over process and make real music sound like a techno rave pop performance were you get a contact high just from breathing the air, Yes, I enjoy good techno and have been to more Raves then if you combined all the raves everyone else that posts on this site as gone to). 256 KB AAC is better then 256 KB MP3 but the fact is they both suck in terms of quality and just because kids under 12 years are tone deaf and have no idea what the music is suppose to sound like. And most Adults are obsessed with their jobs and don’t care. But, who buys music? Kids under 12? People over 25? No. Most music is purchased by young adults 15 to 23 years of age, these are the people currently buying high quality Vinyl Records and still buying CD’s. This is also the group that is going to continue to discover that their is more to the music then they get with 256 KB AAC or MP3 files. Well they also buy the low quality 256 KB ACC and MP3 Files, sure to so degree. But, if the Music Labels want to survive the long run they have to cater to the 15 to 23 year old buyer that is discovering music and the depths of the music itself, Compressed trash is not going to cater to that young persons sense of discovery.
256 KB AAC and MP3 music files is basically settling for less. Like you go shopping for food that box of Wheat Poofs last week was $2.89 for 18.86 oz. This week the same sized box of Wheat Poofs is still $2.89 but it’s only 14.97 oz. My favorite con that the food industry plays. They change the package size and shape to make the package look small and they print on the Label that it’s the same size as the old package and the same price. Once the label no longer claims the same amount of contents a quick check and smack it’s 10 to 20% less then it was for the same price. The 256 KB AAC and MP3 files being peddled by the music industry is worse then the food industry and their every shrinking contents.
The Artist is recording the music and all the bits are there. The record company then compress the music to a 256 KB AAC or MP3 file and then the files are sold by Apple, Amazon, and many others. When the consumer buys the 256 KB AAC or MP3 file what they are buying is not fully what the artist recorded. It’s also not the work as it was copyrighted. So basically 256 KB AAC and MP3’s is what everyone wants as a good balance. So, you’ll be happy when your box of Wheat Poofs is costing you $2.89 but only contains 6.29 oz and not 18.86 oz it started out containing
I see the CMX and even Apple’s cocktail Album formats are basically will not cut it with the segment of the market that is currently buying most of the music purchased, If this market is not listen too then the industry will keep loosing sells and will keep pushing buyers away,