Here is a very recent review of Cognicity's Audiokey that I found in a newsgroup. This is very informative.
Also, a lot of the references that are made by Mr Kibbee remind me of analogies that Mr Falk made during the Wallstreetreporter interview at the beginning of the year.
MusicDish Industry News
musicdish.com
Product Reviews and Their Implications
A review of Cognicity's Audio Key
by Russell Kibbee
In this age of digital distribution there is a pressing need for absolute proof of ownership for your creations. Cognicity Inc.(http://www.cognicity.com) has a product, Audiokey, which is the first to address this situation. They have developed a watermark product that hides information in the music using psychoacoustic models of human hearingŠSounds like a CIA beta product? Read on:
Tests done at Cognicity have found that there are parts of music which are inaudible to humans and therefore can be used to imbed information. This information is hidden and can be accessed only by those authorized to view it. Up to 42 bits of data can be imbedded into each second of music, thus providing hard evidence when a small portion of a song is used in sampling. The embedded information is part of the signal and will survive any editing, format conversion, compression, or broadcast.
The first question I asked Michael Robb, VP Sales for Cognicity, at the recent RealNetworks Conference is, as an audiophile myself, how can I be sure the signal is truly imperceptible? He pointed out that the system has been tested with the "golden ears" of the industry (those with a highly developed and sensitive sense of hearing - perhaps there are a few of you out there in our readership). They can identify the embedded signal 60% of the time (just 10% above mere chance).
Michael pointed out that the possibilities are endless for applications of this technology. There are two layers of encryption available so different levels of access can be specified. One type of use is User Specific informationregarding licensing agreements, confidential details visible only to a specific user, and transaction audit trails which are buried deep within the signal and fully robust to withstand all compression schemes. The General type of information that would be made available to all users could be lyrics, a hyperlink to an order page with UPC number, or even time specific promotional announcements via their web server.
The first obvious customers for this product are the big labels They can rest assured that if their product finds its way to a rogue website charging money for a song, the proof of ownership question can be quickly answered. The next type of customers should be the musicians themselves who can use this reasonably priced product ($99 for the lite version) to authenticate their work. This allows the musician power to control their product from start to finish.
Another question I always ask is regarding ease of use. Do I need to be a technical wizard to operate this product? Certainly not. I can honestly say that Audiokey is quite intuitive with a simple spreadsheet type layout where you choose the audio file to embed, input the data you want embedded, and hit the "embed" key. The spreadsheet then will show the embedded audio out file which is ready for distribution. I do not profess to be a golden ear, but I could not hear any audible difference between embedded and non-embedded music on the audio system set up at the conference.
Given the massive consolidation going on in the music industry right now combined with the incredible advances being made in DIY production, promotion and distribution, there is a pressing need for total control of your product.
Audiokey is the foundation for the vertical integration of your music. For more technical information a "White Paper on Data Embedding" is available at the Cognicity website.
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