Music Pirates Aren’t Going To Love MusicDNA
MusicDNA, the new music format being touted to take over from the humble MP3, is being promoted by the creators as a possible solution to piracy. But it doesn’t seem likely that music pirates will fall over themselves to adopt this new filetype.
This new digital music format unveiled at the MIDEM festival is being called “the successor to the MP3″ by its creators and others in the music industry. Rather than just providing music, MusicDNA is said to provide additional content such as videos, lyrics, artwork, artist tour dates and all manner of other data associated with the track.
The creators are suggesting that MusicDNA could deter piracy, but this seems hard to believe. Although MusicDNA files can be played in a standard MP3 player, when the MusicDNA player is connected to the Internet the additional content is sent by the labels. Only legitimately bought MusicDNA files can be updated in this way – pirated versions can not.
A regular MP3 from lets say, a ‘Scene’ source, is as safe as a file can be, but MusicDNA files possess a big extra ability – they can phone home.
“We can get very indepth profiles of the music users,” said Bach Technology CEO Stefan Kohlmeyer when describing the technology this week, without clarifying if this only applies to legitimately purchased music or all copies, regardless of status. If big labels get involved, you can guess which way they’ll be pushing.
That said, the argument is that MusicDNA will add value to the standard MP3, delivering a richer fan experience. It will probably achieve this admirably and those already buying will be very happy for the extras.
But will people not currently paying for music hand over money for content they already have access to on the Internet for free, from places such as YouTube and the artist’s website, without the intrusion of being profiled by the labels?
MusicDNA is set to launch in the spring, so we’ll find out then.
Since when is creating a new format just to beat piracy EVER a good idea?
HI WE WANT TO BEAT PIRACY USE OUR FORMAT TO HELP US DO SO KTHANKS
Im putting $5 there will be an ugly mutation in teh MusicDNA ;P
I’m not that excited by MusicDNA. When I get music, I just want noise in my ears – I don’t want lyrics, bios, photos, gig tickets or anything else – just earnoise. Anything else I can get off Google as and when I want it.
MusicDNA just seems to me to be another way for the big content companies to try and overcomplicate the whole thing. Let the music speak for itself, and people will start getting excited about it again.
It’s just a money making scheme for the creators. They need to stop all sales of MP3 and CDs to stop piracy.
Anyone who believes their invention is going to be a possible solution for piracy must have been on the moon for the past decade. The more you lash out at them, the more they multiply.
I think the people who bought the mp3, should receive all those musicDNA for free…
But is going to be really hard for people to change from one format to the other… and what if you bought a CD, you should be able to rip it with all the rights… This will be a long discussion :P
The successor to MP3 has been around for a while. It is called ogg vorbis and it doesn’t have any crappy DRM built in.
lol @ new DRM
Oh plz… It’s not like the “phone home” DRM can’t be circumvented. Remember what a hosts file is? An equivalent will most likely will be found on mp3 players.
Second, how are mobile mp3 players supposed to validate content when there’s no open access points around? I live in NYC and in the subway here, we have ZERO radio signals (be it WiFi or cellular), so what, are we shit out of luck? If I’m riding my bike in the woods in Jersey, I’ll be shit out if luck too? Also, most access points are encrypted, how’s that supposed to work?
This new DRM sounds totally impracticable, and not well thought out.
and what type of sound quality will it have? lossy or lossless? (hmm…) i also dont need added ‘experience.’
DRM-evolution STILL sounds like crap.
yes bababooey you WILL be out of luck, because if you dont play by their rules, they dont want you playing at all. however, i surmise there will be a valadation timer, not a constant check.
breach of privacy? possibly if these files can “phone home” I don’t mind last.fm knowing what I play, but the last thing i was if the fecking music industry muppets having access to what I play and when.
PLUS for all those people who’s brought all those MP3′s I’m guessing they will now have to fork out for the same track AGAIN.
there’s already software to do this using the ID3 tags… without having to add extra shit to the file itself
First thing I thought: happy 1984.
they will be phoning home through my vpn ta say the least if i’m even interested in crap added to my tunes ;)
So what’s so awesome about this new format? Apart from phoning home to retrieve info nobody would access this way, it seems perfectly normal. Mp3 already comes with lyrics, album covers etc. – and these need no updates from the labels. Tour times – yes, but I hardly believe that inside a song’s metadata is the way to keep them noted. Obviously they have never heard of things like RSS, Twitter, artist websites, Last.fm… any of these is a better way to access news updates regarding songs.
Bonus: Looks like their app’s UI looks blatantly stolen from Apple – iTunes’ toolbar, Safari’s “Top Sites” view, Dashboard’s bottom bar… now that’s what I call “piracy”.
Like… what?
Who needs this 1984 style crap when we have FLAC? :-)
MDNA isn’t even a new file. It’s just spyware attached to MP3. And MP3 has long since been dead (for music torrents anyway).
P.S. Yes, you can buy a portable device that understands FLAC. Check iRiver newer models, for example.
I bet it won’t be long before the MDNA to MP3 ripping software is written. After that appears on the net, everything issued in the MDNA format will be converted to MP3.
@prodigydancer;
“Who needs this 1984 style crap when we have FLAC? :-)”
Indeed, FLAC is way better than sucky MP3 tracks. I hope everyone realizes that one day, and thus FLACs will set the new standards…
I wonder if they intentionally chose a name which sounds like MDMA (Ecstasy).
Not enough devices are constantly internet connected, a file type that requires meta-data is unlikely to succeed.
Future is to move toward open formats.
No need to worry.
This is just because the mp3 patents are running out. I think it is just a blatant attempt to extend the patents. What’s the bet that this has lot’s of patent encumbrances from the original people who gave us the patents on mp3.
audacity, anyone?
Spyware codecs!
So i’ll get the “extra” tags only for music i bought. Yes like i can’t use MusicBrainz Picard, SongBird or MediaMonkey for tagging my music with lyrics/artist info/pictures etc.
Useless IMO, and it just proves they can’t fix the “piracy”, so they invent a new format which most people will never use. I bet 100$ this format will never reach mainstream.
Hahaha… Very funny,
This probably only an April fools joke.
Seriously, Are they REALLY that stupid?
Many NORMAL and already wide available music player with info scrapper can already do that! and it doesn’t care whether its pirate or not! free and works with our standard lovable non-intrusive mp3 formats.
How can adding some restriction and adding a spyware to a format can make it better?
So if the file can “phone home”… how is that any different than an invasion of privacy? Yet another attempt at violating the bill of rights by the big media companies.
Actually, I think the idea itself is pretty sound.
That idea is that you simply access all sorts of dynamic info right from the media player. Think: twitter feeds, blogs, tour dates, etc…
It’s possible to embed some URL’s in audio tags, but it’s by no means standardized. Everything I mentioned is actually impossible to do with ID3v2 tags.
The entire problem is the DRM-ness of the whole thing. A much better solution would be to make this info free and not collect users’ data. I think it would be awesome if somebody like Xiph.org standardized their tags to do this.
I don’t like the thoughts of some music format that can access the web and report information about me, my system, etc. To me its much like spyware or malware and why should anyone pay to be spyed upon? Its just another instance of customers being punished in the name of DRM management. Not to mention that theres way too much risk that hackers could target the ports that these files access to harm your system. It also sounds alot like the Root Kit issue Sony got in trouble for back in the 90′s.
Sorry IRAA or whoever’s responsible for this, Thanks but no thanks. Leave my MP3′s alone!
If it ever becomes mainstream, there’ll be heaps of people making programs to block it. I bet even a decent firewall will stop it sending information back, as we can treat it as spyware.
Give us a week. We’ll crack it :)
LOL this is a waste of time. the music industry needs to accept piracy instead of trying to find new ways to combat it. DO THEY UNDERSTAND WE CAN CONVERT FILES? or record off the source onto a different format? srsly u fail. pirates will always win.
take over MP3? who uses lossy anymore?
I’m sorry but It’s not out yet and you already failed.