boycott-riaa.com - Article: A New Enemy Arises

A New Enemy Arises

Posted by C.W. Bennett on September 26, 2000 at 8:50 AM (printer friendly)

We once worried about SDMI, but perhaps it's just a weak front for something more sinister!

IBM in conjunction with the RIAA and major labels has been developing it's own covert inconvenience, EMMS short for Electronic Music Management System. IBM has already spent $20 million dollars on the trying to make music piracy-proof under the top-secret code name, The Madison Project. (Heh, sounds like a spy movie).

Apparently, IBM has been furtively testing this project on the experimental AlbumDirect.com. The secure files prevent you from moving them to any other computer or from downloading them onto a portable mp3 player. Strangely though you can just convert them to mp3.

The Music available on AlbumDirect is only in album form, you can't buy singles. What is the price for this mass-less album downloaded directly to you house? $15. If you want the extras normally included in a CD you then need to pay, $2 for the CDR, and $2.30 for the glossy paper to make an album cover. This adds up to $19 and the inconvenience.

I don't know about you, but with SDMI, now EMMS, and who knows what else later, downloading digital music legally does not look very appealing; more expensive and a hassle. The prospects of the record industry being reasonable look far and away. What do you think?

Kudos to Sound and Vision Magazine for hunting down one of the beta testers to get the story!

Related Links:

The Madison Project: The Future of Downloadable CDs is here...
but don't tell anybody

AlbumDirect.com which re-directed me to Columbia House Canada...bizarre.

"But what ... is it good for?" --Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

User Comments (These do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of this site)


MikeyLove	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 9:10 AM I think you're right.

milladrive	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 9:26 AM Okay, $20 million, top secret, spy movie code name, and, just like that, you can convert it to .mp3. Is your head spinning? 'Cause I know mine is. On top of this, it's more expensive to own a complete album than it is to just buy it in the traditional way. Wow. I wonder how much money IBM is spending to make sure that artist's rights are protected. I like the quote.

iansir	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 9:45 AM No matter how many different schemes like these are made, there's always going to be ways around it. The Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox has a line in - simply connect it to the line out on your computer, play these 'special' songs, it will write them to the disk in wav format. Ouch, that was pretty simple too.

pohsib	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 9:51 AM What bothers me more than possibly having to deal with SDMI in the future, is having to deal with MULTIPLE probably incompatible formats. Argh!

pressf8	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 9:55 AM you don't even have to make it leave your computer--you can record everything going through your sound card with some programs--so hit record and play at the same time and there you go--with no quality loss... IBM's usually got better things planned with their money--this is such a waste... Brian

Anonymous	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 11:45 AM Hmm... seems like this is old news... I remember hearing about this over a year ago... The article also mentions that IBM plans to test them until sometime in '99. I don't recall the details, but i definitely remember hearing about this test project quite awhile back...

pohsib	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 2:59 PM Oh sheesh, you are right. This was emailed to me as if breaking news. I feel stupid for not chacking the dates. oh well, to copy NBC, if you didn't know, it's news to you ;)

Anonymous	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 3:31 PM Hah.....just play the "special" file and change to mp3? That's pretty stupid if you ask me, sounds like IBM just wasted $20 million on developing this crap. Anyway poshib brings up a good point....with multiple "secure" formats that may or may not all play on the same platform, it'll be very confusing for the average Joe wanting to get into buying digital music. Imagine having to buy a new SDMI complient CD player, then a EMMS complient player, and still having to deal with regular audio CD's. The average user is not going to want to spend even more money to upgrade all their audio equipment just to listen to "secure" digital music....think how the amount of money some people put in high end home and car audio systems. All these "secure" digital music formats sound like a bunch a crap to me and hopefully the consumers won't stand for it and it'll end up like Circuit City's infamous Divx format.

spyed	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 4:43 PM these types of things are a waste of time and money.

Chad	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 5:10 PM Why cant they just invest money on making things just better for everyone, instead of investing money to just keep things the same? `Chad

doobybrain	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 6:01 PM responding to a earlier post up there.....a line out cable will do. yeah, its slower, but hey, you still get your music to other places right? i mean, people with MD players have been doing this since it came out (but you can also use the optical which is a bit better). its not like they are gonna stop making the line out part of devices just because we found a way around.....=)

doobybrain	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 6:02 PM i agree......why is that? seems like they just wanna stay in the past from now on...this is sad really.

Frawgster	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 6:42 PM How in the hell is the development of this new super secure horseshit format going to stop us from making mp3s? from downloading mp3s? The damage has been done, it can't be reversed. -Frawg-

Chad	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 7:19 PM Bangs Head

jamuraa	Date: September 26, 2000 @ 9:45 PM Oh great. So they spend $20 million on this "new format" and then they sell for $15 a pop, while I can go to the store and get it at the same price with all the extras. When are the internet companies going to understand - we like MP3s becuase we're getting RIPPED OFF from you at the store. Look, we just gave you a way to make your distribution chain price $0. Share a little of that savings, will ya? I think your pockets are lined with enough money that isn't going to the artists anyway.

ssscary	Date: March 25, 2001 @ 5:16 PM Correct me if I'm wrong, but havent artists been ripped off for years by BMG and Columbia House record clubs? I was under the impression that these companies pay one flat fee for the rights, regardless of the number of copies sold. This appears to be more a matter of control than money- the major recording labels want to control who is widely published, and how this is done. It's not too much harder for me to record a song from the radio with an equivalent level of quality to an MP3, but no corporation is bitching about that. Regardless, no one is going to embrace a secure (and restrictive/cumbersome)digital medium regardless of how much someone spends on development.