Life in the Digital Age

Sometime between the demise of Napster and the rise of MySpace, music underwent a transformation. Music changed from being a tangible good that people willingly paid for to being a service that anybody who has ever owned an MP3 player takes completely for granted.

That tiny paradigm shift, from goods to service, completely turned the recording industry on its ear. We all know what happened next – the industry freaked out, sued its customers and dug its own grave.

I’m not going to say that something like that wouldn’t be easy to deal with. How would you respond if your decades-old business model gets taken apart in the span of five years when the product you’ve been selling becomes essentially worthless in the eyes of the consumer?

I’m sure you wouldn’t turn around and start suing the people who buy your product, but this column isn’t about the record industry’s past decisions. There’s no point in dwelling on the could’ve-should’ve-would’ve even if the RIAA is still suing its customers because they are over-valuing music that isn’t worth the tiny 1s and 0s that make up those digital files.

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The HD DVD/Blu-Ray format war never really had a chance to get off the ground.

There wasn’t a long, protracted battle, the name-calling was rather benign, and only a few consumers got burned when Toshiba raised the white flag and killed the HD DVD format, ceding victory and control over DVD’s successor to Sony and its Blu-Ray discs.

For most people this was a non-issue anyway. And why shouldn’t it be? The DVD is still going strong – they look great, work in every DVD player and computer around and are relatively inexpensive.

Blu-Ray discs, however, are only useful to people who have an HD TV, a Blu-Ray player or Playstaion 3 and a lot of cash to burn. I’m told the picture and sound quality is sooooo much better than regular DVDs, but I’m not sure the amount of money needed to build a home theater system capable of achieving Blu-Ray’s true potential is really worth it.

The key to that true potential is the new blue laser technology at the heart of the Blu-Ray and HD DVD format.

Like regular DVDs, Blu-Ray discs are read by a laser, but where the normal DVD players use a red laser, Blu-Ray players use a blue laser. The blue laser technology, much like the red laser, reads information from pits in the surface of the DVD.

Blue lasers, however, can read and write information in much deeper, smaller pits, allowing for more information to be stored on each disc. Normal DVDs can hold a maximum of nine GB of information, while Blu-Ray discs can hold around 50 GB.

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It’s never good when the government goes messing with television. TV is probably the one thing that keeps the general public sedated enough so we don’t pay attention to what the government is actually up to. Here’s hoping the planned switch from an analog TV signal to a digital one goes off without a hitch, lest a riot start over the public’s inability to watch Oprah or NASCAR.

And while I might find that kind of outrage sort of funny, the fact is, the coming change to the way TV is broadcast will hardly be noticed by the majority boob tube-consuming public.

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It’s 2008 and the music industry has finally come to the realization that Digital Rights Management does not work.

Three of the big four music labels – Universal, Warner and EMI – ditched the DRM last year, handing over their digital music to either iTunes or Amazon. Sony, the final holdout, decided that 2008 would be the year it gave its consumers what they have been asking for; unfortunately, it’s too little too late.

After several years of plummeting profits, massive job cuts and all-around mediocrity, the major record labels are finally ready to give unencumbered digital files are try. It’s a last-ditch effort in hopes of finding new revenue streams and maybe appeasing the consumer.

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The music industry is a-changin’ – as my compatriot over at the Inner Sleeve has noted – and whether you’re a record company, a music downloader, a band or just a regular fan, everybody is getting into trouble.

If you’re a record company, you’ve seen your approval rating plummet to an all-time low thanks to thousands of lawsuits, some against little children and grandmothers. Your Joseph McCarthy-esque witch-hunt in search of music pirates has left a horrible taste in the mouths of the people you are suing – who also happen to be your customers.

Not to mention your draconian business practices in regard to the bands you sign and the stream of mediocre music you insist on releasing. Is it really that big of a surprise that sales are down?

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