Digital-Lifestyles

Distribution

The new digital ways content was becoming distributed

  • Pay More For Music, or Pay More For the Player?

    There is some disagreement in Europe at the moment on how artists will be paid for all that music you’ve downloaded to your iPod. There are two competing models: DRM-based and taxation.

    Levies in EU countries bring in a lot of money – and only Britain, Ireland and Luxembourg don’t have the system. The International Herald Tribune estimates that Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands alone will see revenues from their private copying taxation rise from €309.39 million (US$) to an impressive €1.465 billion (US$) by 2006. You can understand why they’re so keen on it now.

    There seems to be a clear ideological split in effect here – if you’re a software provider or a store owner, you prefer Digital Rights Management. If you’re a European collection agency, then taxation is the only way to go.

    National royalties collection agencies in 12 European states are proposing a tax on digital music players – the Society of Music Creators in France has levied €20 (US$24) on every iPod sold in the country, as it is classed as a “copying device”… and Apple has refused to play it, preferring to go to court.

    Apple prefer the other model of artist renumeration – DRM.

    Enter the European Commission – who will be adopting a policy paper next week with the intention of bringing EU collection agencies into the 21st century. A mere 3.5 years late.

    The policy paper suggests a pan-European licensing system for protected content and examines ways in which DRM may finally replace blanket taxes in the EU states. Apple and lobby groups representing some 10,000 companies across Europe are keen on the policy recommendations as it will allow them to get on with their business models whilst paying artists, yet avoid negotiating with 15 different collection agencies.

    We much prefer a sensible implementation of DRM – artists are renumerated directly, it’s fairer on the consumer and promotes more innovation. Taxing “copying devices” demonstrates a lack of understanding of the entire field, is inaccurate and does not reward artists fairly. Also, making all consumers pay a piracy tax is in entirely unfair.

    Whatever happens, it’s up to us to make sure we don’t end up paying the labels TWICE.

    The International Herald Tribune

  • NAB: HP Partnering to Develop Digital Media Platform

    Hewlett-Packard has teamed up with leading content creators, distributors and technology companies to develop a standards-based technology platform indented to simplify the production of digital media. The Digital Media Platform (DMP) is an integrated, open system linking production and post-production processes, and is based on a strategic alliance with Warner Bros. Studios and Dreamworks.

    “The business model that has guided this industry for nearly a century is changing radically,” said Carly Fiorina, HP chairman and chief executive officer. “Content is still and will always be king, however thousands of new storytelling experiences, applications and services are just around the corner. There is money to be made just as there is money to be saved — if this industry embraces the change and the opportunity the digital revolution presents.”

    DMP combines HP software with expertise the company has gained from working with companies like Dreamworks, Avid and Starbucks. The foundation of DMP is a work flow system where creatives working on a project share a common set of assets for rendering, post production and editing.

    HP and Warner are also pooling their expertise to restore classic films – combining WB’s proprietary software with HP’s image processing expertise, data management and servers.

    “The impact of music, film and television moving toward all-digital platforms is profound,” said Shane Robison, HP’s chief strategy and technology officer, in a press release. “Warner Bros. Studios is at the cutting edge of embracing the digital transformation. By partnering, HP and Warner Bros. Studios will leverage technology and expertise to create compelling, personalized experiences for consumers that will set the bar at a whole new level.”

    HP’s release on the news

  • Search iTunes Without iTunes

    Downhill Battle, the site behind Grey Tuesday, are hosting a rather handy script that allows you to query the iTunes store, and even listen to the previews, from a web browser. The perl script was written by Jason Rohrer (“painter — scholar — poet — lover — scientist — composer – disciplinarian”), as part of his minorGems Sourceforge project.

    As Slashdot points out, now that the iTunes protocol has been reverse engineered, it’s now possible to write whatever front end to the shop you want. Well, theoretically. And until you get a cease and desist order.

    Try it for yourself

    Get the perl script

    Jason Rohrer

    Slashdot on the story

  • NAB: USDTV Chooses Windows Media 9 for Pay-TV

    We covered USDTV a few weeks ago when they launched the first digital over-the-air digital TV service in the USA. Since then, they’ve been making further progress, and have just joined up with Microsoft for another first: delivering HD programming to subscribers using Window Media 9.

    They plan to implement WM9 by Q4 this year when they launch a second generation set-top box, which is expected to feature that increasingly common component: a big hard drive.

    “Maximizing available bandwidth with Windows Media 9 Series will allow more broadcasters, especially network affiliates, to participate with USDTV,” said Steve Lindsley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Digital Television, Inc. “This will enable us to bring more content variety to viewers and create additional revenue-sharing opportunities for broadcasters.”

    “Windows Media 9 Series enables USDTV to expand their programming and reach new audiences,” said Amir Majidimehr, General Manager of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. “Windows Media has approximately three times the compression efficiency of MPEG-2 and easily scales up to high definition (HD), delivering HD at what would normally be considered SD data rates.”

    USDTV

  • New Desktop HD Editing Solutions

    Good news for video professionals working in HD – support for the format in desktop editing packages has just got much better.

    First up, Premier Pro 1.5, announced at NAB today. This new release builds on previous HD support, including the ability to export projects in Windows Media 9 HD format. Adobe have concentrated effort into Premier’s project management features, with multiple, nestable timelines and better sound support, including 5.1 surround sound. The inclusion of support for Advance Authoring Format (AAF) eases Premier Pro’s integration in mixed environments, and should save a few editors from having nervous breakdowns when flipping back and forth between packages.

    One of Apple’s Final Cut Pro’s top features is that it can capture HD footage directly over Firewire without the bit loss that come about from all that compressing, decompressing and recompressing. Editing is done in the camera-original format and then output down Firewire when finished.

    As Final Cut Pro can scale from DV to SD, HD and film with out down-converting to offline formats for editing, users can work in their output format from start to finish.

    Adobe Premier Pro 1.5’s new features

    Apple on Final Cut Pro HD

  • Two Arrested Under Anti-Piracy Camcorder Law

    California’s camcorder law, which came into effect on 1st January 2004, has netted its first brace of criminals.

    One Mr Ruben Centero Moreno was caught taping “The Alamo” by a projectionist wearing night vision goggles (there – now you know who buys them), whilst Min Jae Joun was collared in a slightly more straight forward way: the record light on his camcorder attracted attention whilst attempting to pirate “The Passion of the Christ”.

    We can only imagine that the later offender will be forgiven.

    However, Jack Valenti, president of the MPAA told the Hollywood Reporter: that it would “send a clear signal such crimes will not be tolerated. In both cases, the LAPD’s fine work would not have occurred without the swift actions of the employees of Pacific Theatres.” Indeed, the MPAA has set up a telephone hotline so that cinema staff can report violations of the law.

    We applaud the new law, but feel it will have a limited impact on preventing film piracy. Although it tackles the source technique of piracy, it will continue to be rife for one very tricky reason: Whilst it’s true that most pirated DVDs bought in pubs and street markets are from source material captured in a cinema using a camcorder, most of the capture work is not done in LA where this new law is in force. No, most of the capture work is done in the Far East, where there is no such law, and often the camera work is done with the knowledge of, and a kickback too, the cinema owner, who obviously isn’t going to turn his buddies in to the local law enforcement group.

    Digital Lifestyles has noticed that police in the UK are taking a more informed and tougher stance on pirates selling illegal DVDs on the streets, and this will be more effective in removing the market, though not catching the criminals at the source.

    The Hollywood Reporter

    The Alamo – 6.1 stars, and that’s on IMDB, so subtract at least 5

    The Passion of the Christ – 7.4

  • Channel 4 Planning New Digital Services

    Channel 4 is planning some new digital services in the UK to retain and grow its share of viewers. It has not been confirmed by Rob Woodward, commercial director of the company, if the new channels will be free to air or subscription only, but they are expected to cover music, factual and comedy. They’ll be carried on Freeview, that much is certain.

    The new channels may be aimed at an older ABC1 audience (i.e. a bit more BBC2) than C4’s current younger mainstream audience.

    More details when we have them.

    Channel 4

  • Nokia Picks Visual Radio Partner

    Remember we reported on Visual Radio? Nokia have just chosen Hewlett-Packard as a technology partner to help get the service into the market. They intend to develop Visual Radio further, with the aim of making it available to other handset manufacturers through HP.

    Felice Swapp, director of strategic initiatives for HP said “As you drive to this ‘digital lifestyle’ where it’s fundamentally mobile and digital and virtual, and content becomes much more meaningful, how do you have business models in that world?”

    Their answer is to employ HP to sell Visual Radio to phone makers and radio stations, providing installation and support.

    Research from Nokia indicates that phone owners with FM receivers in their handsets only listen to radio once a week – but the company is hoping that their new service will encourage users to take more interest in radio and use Visual Radio to buy ringtones and other music-related content.

    Forbes on the announcement

  • TellTale Weekly: A Project Gutenberg for Audio Books

    Telltale Weekly are building an audio library – on a cheap now, free later model. They are looking to add at least fifty titles to their library every year, releasing them under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

    The professionally recorded, DRM-free, texts are available as MP3 and Ogg Vorbis audio files and can be transferred and listened to however the user wishes, for personal use. The site currently has 23 titles, but are looking to expand as quickly as they can acquire content, and they’re looking for contributions from authors, performers and producers.

    TellTale Weekly hope that by charging a small sum for new titles now, they will be able to offer them free later, after five years or 100,000 downloads. “Paying to hear the text now (and for the next five years),” they say, “helps to cover the costs for the production, recording, and bandwidth of the performance you purchase, and supports future releases so that we’ll still be producing new audiobooks by the time our first one hits the public domain.”

    TellTale Weekly

    Creative Commons

    Slashdot on TellTale

  • US CD Sales Up 10%

    With sales of CDs up 10.6% for far in 2004, figures in a new report from Neilsen represent the best year the American music industry has seen for some time.

    All music sales (including legal downloads, music on DVDs and CDs) were up 9.2% in the first quarter of 2004.

    The data for the survey was collected by Nielsen’s Soundscan system which collects data from 14,000 point of sale registers across the US and Canada.

    Record companies, fresh from a three year slump, were claiming an ongoing decline blamed on piracy. Some industry observers still blame the slump on the labels and artists themselves, with a dearth of quality product in the market to drive sales.

    Record labels are still cautious about the upswing, and are taking nothing for granted, and is citing surveys that indicate piracy has decreased since the RIAA started taking people to court.

    Neilsen Soundscan

    Silicon Valley