. . . . YOU WON'T BELIEVE YOUR EARS. . . . .
B.Long. . . On RNWK. . . If Real Networks "RealJukeBox" embraces MP3 as they are implying, the Music Industry will not only avoid RNWK on this and every other Real Networks product, but it will probably boycott it.
To all:
Make no mistake. The music industry. . .songwriters, artists, record companies, publishers and managers are VERY upset about MP3, because as it proliferates, they get robbed of their earnings. . .due to the small percentage of MP3 that pays into royalties, etc. . . the vast majority of music available via MP3 on the many many sites set up in dorm rooms and bedrooms around the world. . .violate Federal Copyright law in the U.S. and scores of other laws around the world.
As such, the music industry has declared war on MP3. Lucent's coded system, A.T. and T.'s "A2b Music's" coded system and Liquid Audio's digital encoding are the formats currently being embraced by the music industry. Any product or support for the current MP3 model is avoided. Diamond Multimedia products are under a silent boycott, due to the MP3 player they released.
EDIG is important to this mix primarily because Lucent has hired them to build a player similar to Diamond's but using Lucent's encoded system which forces music listeners to pay the artists and songwriters, etc. for the music they are downloading.
And in my opinion, the minute EDIG completes its work, the record industry will trip over itself to accommodate this product and format.
Frankly, if I were A.T. and T. or Liquid Audio, I would be trying to match their Beta with my VHS . . .and FAST. . . .it won't be the BEST that wins. . .[Beta was superbly better than VHS]. . . it will be the first and/or the longest playing that wins that game. . . .especially if little or no compression is used [which music pros require].
2 modes would be best. . .one with compression and longer playing times for kids, the other without compression, thus better fidelity for pros and audiophiles. Also, the first to make a 24-bit version of same will be a winner, since the record industry has adopted it as the new standard. . . 16-bit [CD quality] is a thing of the past. . . .my personal digital recording console is 24-bit.
Soon 24-bit CDs will be available everywhere. . .and "high-resolution" will become what "high-fidelity" was in the 60's and 70's. And we are not talking about just cosmetic or indistinguishable differences here.
When the audio industry moved from Tubes to solid state electronics, it was a step toward stability, but away from fidelity. . .high frequencies were compromised. . .then when we moved from solid state and records to digital and CDs it was another step toward stability and less noise, but away from fidelity. . and once again high frequencies were compromised.
But this move to high-resolution 24-bit 96k audio will be the closest thing we have to the incredible fidelity enjoyed in the 50's and 60's when tubes [valves] were the only game. Don't believe that you can only hear to 20k. . .that is just not true. . .you can recognize individual notes from 20-20k but you can feel notes down to 1 cycle per second and presence is distinguishable well over 100 kilohertz.
And for film music and other multimedia events, the new standard of 5.1 [5 speakers and a sub-woofer] will blow you away. . .especially if 24 bit/96k can be incorporated into this format. We are talking enormous amounts of data and storage here.
Bottom line, the audio that is being developed behind the scenes is FAR superior to any audio that has ever been heard before.
Rande Is |
