A Better Online Music Experience?

[MacRumors]

MacCentral (http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/10/27/muze/index.php?redirect=1067252618000) discusses the future of retail music with Muze CEO, Paul Zullo.

Muze provides much of the information content for Apple's iTunes Music Store for both Mac and Windows.

Of interest, Muze claims to be working on improving the online-download music experience. According to Zullo:

Muze is working on systems that help aggregate and normalize graphics material so it can be part of the downloadable music experience. We're hoping to make such material available on the album, or even the song, level. It's a question of cooperating with the record companies and artists and putting the graphics into a regular format.

[Stike]

Aaaaand here we have it!
Downloadable, printable booklets and lyrics! Yay!
I would really like that feature!

Edit: It would be even cooler to look at the lyrics on the iPod :) so you can sing along on the road ;)

[MacMarino]

Well i think that having great artwork available is all part of the work that goes into making the cd right? Its good to hear that they are going to enhance the online music experience like this...

MacMarino

[alset]

I'll still end up buying a lot of CDs. The alternative would be relying on Kinkos for the quality that some books deserve.

Super hyped about this.

Dan

[mymemory]

I think is good to have the art for the CDs. I may even get the arts apart. I wonder how much would cost.

I can imagine how many services we are gonna get around the iTunes market.

[foniks2020]

They talk about graphics, not print. So don't get stuck thinking that it will just be downloadable copies of CD booklets or jackets. This opens up a huge door to all kinds of added value media... from Video clips to custom screensavers and visualizers to lyrics, posters, or even special iPod 'Now Playing' images.

Graphics means anything visual, ie: not audio... could be anything. I see Quicktime playing a large part in this, along with the MPEG4 umbrella standard that seems to have accounted for any and all types of communication ;-p who knows what meta data categories they have included in the standard that simply haven't been introduced as yet. I know for certain that lyrics a la kareoki are provided for in MP4 but I haven't seen it used yet.

[kerryb]

I'm old enough to have very fond memories of reading credits, song lyrics and just enough some great artwork which would come with buying an LP record. CD's shrunk everything to microscopic size and the pleasure as well as the impact of the "cover art" was dead for me. It would be GREAT to be able to see actual size graphics and text again on my Mac's screen. This something that I sorely miss from buying music online.

[cryptochrome]

Yeah, if you really want online music to take off, don't just make it cheaper and easier, because it will still have competition with CDs, with all their nice artwork and physical nature. You need to add value, stuff you wouldn't have normally. There are obvious improvements:

More artwork
text lyrics
timed lyrics (karaoke)
separate vocals and music for karaoke
5.1 audio
Video clips (are a bit big)
Macromedia flash videos (acceptable compromise)
Java programs defining custom visualizers

Think of what you could do with those, especially with the visualizer. This could make all the difference for ITMS Japan.

[jayscheuerle]

Follow the bouncing ball with animated lyrics! I can hardly wait!! :D

[macnews]

This seems like only the natural progression of online music. I polled (not scientific) about 50 17-20 year olds and was suprised at the number who didn't like online downloads over CD's because of things like cover art, lyrics, etc. While I personally don't look at these things much, there are times when I do want them and it would be a nice feature - espcially the lyrics. That is one thing I miss from the old LP sleeves, a few would put the lyrics on the inside sleeve. With CD's you just don't see many artists (esp. new artists) doing that.

[MacKenzie999]

I think this service is particularly appealing for mac users, because I'm pretty sure graphic designers and other visual types make up a larger-than-average chunk of the mac population. I'm in graphics and I really value music packaging, I hope they work this out in an appealing way.

[ITR 81]

Go Apple Go Apple Go!!
I'm all for it!!!

[ClimbingTheLog]

The AAC-compressed files are in MPEG-4 format. MPEG-4 is based on QuickTime, the best media container format. Heck, you could probably store the National Electric Code in a QuickTime file.

Let's hope they do something standard, like PDF, and store it in the MPEG-4 file for easy access, and, more importantly, <b>keep it to a single file</b>.

[Phil Of Mac]

Wouldn't this block out older software and firmware (iPod for instance) from playing these files?

[Stike]

The 1st gen iPod has been upgraded for AAC, and there will be no doubt that such important new features will NOT be exclusive to the dockable iPods.