NY Times: Appearing Soon at a Store Near You: An
A.T.M. for the Ears
By KAREN J. BANNAN
Sharon Gordin loves music. She is always on the lookout for the
latest dance compilation or trendy album. She is also enthralled by
the idea of downloading MP3 music files onto her computer for her own
use.
Unfortunately, Ms. Gordin, a 29-year-old executive assistant from New York, has been left out of the MP3 craze. She doesn't have a broadband Internet connection to make quick work of downloading music files or a CD burner to create her own music CD's. And anyway, she says, it all seems rather complicated.
For Ms. Gordin, music kiosks may be the answer. They let people create their own discs in a way that is almost as convenient as buying a prepackaged one.
"I really prefer compilations to one-band discs," Ms. Gordin said. "I only
recently heard about kiosks, and I can't wait to try it myself."
She won't have to wait long. Today, three technology companies --
Digital On-Demand, Liquid Audio, and Musicmaker.com -- are
designing and deploying music kiosks in stores across the country.
RedDotNet, a Digital On-Demand subsidiary, has installed kiosks in
Target stores, at music retailers like Sam Goody and Wherehouse
Entertainment and at Walt Disney World. Liquid Audio has set up kiosks
in Europe and Asia, and Musicmaker.com will start installing its kiosks
this year. Although they differ somewhat in design, the kiosks all let
consumers select songs and create music CD's right then and there.
"Kiosks give a similar experience to MP3 files," said Pierre Tager, vice
president for engineering at Musicmaker.com.
"Customers can browse thousands of tracks, personalize their CD and
take it home."
Kiosks fill a need, as shown by the success of MP3 files, said Mark
Mooradian, an analyst with Jupiter Communications, a research firm. "If
you look at the record charts, over the last 10 years we've seen an
explosion of compilation discs," Mr. Mooradian said. "People normally
don't want an entire album anymore. That's one of the reasons MP3's are
so popular."
Musicmaker.com, based in Reston, Va., and Liquid Audio, in Redwood
City, Calif., are counting on that. Both manufacturers' kiosks let
consumers create their own compilation discs, with thousands of singles
to choose from.
But Digital On-Demand, in Carlsbad, Calif., offers only entire albums. It
has relationships with most major record distributors and offers up to
5,000 albums for purchase. Most of these albums are selections that the
store wouldn't normally carry, said Tom Szabo, chief executive officer of
Digital On-Demand.
Each of the manufacturers' kiosks has a touch screen so users can
browse through a library for songs or albums. Like their ancestor, the
listening kiosk, the music kiosks can be used by consumers who want to
hear 30-second samples of music. Liquid Audio's kiosk can be
connected to a song database on the Internet, said Gerry Kearby, the
company's co-founder and chief executive, so users may one day be able
to choose among hundreds of thousands of tracks. Today, the company
uses a secure private network to update its kiosks periodically.
Once one or more songs are selected, the digital music files are recorded
onto a blank CD. Although MP3's have become the music standard on
the Internet, kiosk providers are using various file formats to burn CD's.
Users can also select jewel-box album covers and clip art for a
customized cover.
Musicmaker.com's kiosk is self-contained, with a CD recorder and
printer, and a credit card reader for payment. Digital On-Demand and
Liquid Audio send digital files across an in-store network to printing and
recording equipment behind the sales counter. Discs cost $6 to $20,
depending on the number of songs.
If the kiosks become wildly successful, their success may work against
them. Burning a CD isn't quick. Musicmaker.com's kiosk has an 8X
CD-ROM burner within its cabinet. If an album is 32 minutes long, it
takes 4 minutes to burn it onto a disc. Add that 4 minutes to the time it
takes for a consumer to browse, select songs and pay for the choices,
and it is apparent that the number of people who can use the kiosks in an
hour is limited. Digital On-Demand's kiosk could take just as long,
depending on the number of CD-ROM burning stations installed behind a
counter.
CD's are only the first step, Mr. Mooradian said. All three companies
want to have their kiosks offer digital downloading for portable MP3
players. The Musicmaker.com kiosk is able to download files to a
Diamond Multimedia Rio MP3 player for $1 per file. In the next few
years, consumers can expect kiosks that offer downloading of DVD
movies, software and electronic books.
Not everyone is impressed with kiosk technology. "Everything is
happening on the Internet, but I haven't seen anything that makes me
understand how this is going to work in a large consumer market," Mr.
Mooradian said.
But Ms. Gordin, at least, is enthusiastic. "I really can't wait to give this a
whirl," she said. |
