So Apple came out with its revamped Ipod range. Many are calling it a bit limp with the biggest news being that Steve Jobs is back at work and healthy. However I think a mild repositioning has taken place.

What was new then? Ipod Nanos were given a ton of functionality from cameras (video) to pedometers. Apple are trying to make them a lifestyle product which happen to play music. They increased storage capacity on the old school Ipods and upgraded the Itouch to similar internal specs as the Iphone but without the camera. Thats right, without the camera.

Whats goings on here? Its simple; ever since they launched the Iphone it was expected that at some point there would congestion and overlap with the Apple product portfolio. Hence Apple have clearly decided to give with some products but take with others. Want an Ipod that has a camera but can’t afford the phone? Your option is the Nano. Want a touch Ipod but do not want the phone, get the Itouch, but it won’t do everything you need. Each product is either reaching out to specific consumers or are designed in such a way as to infruite them and hence force them to own multiple devices or continually upgrade!

Now on the music front, there was no demonstration of a Tablet, and hence my prediction for what it might mean for the music industry is still out there. Whatch the next 6 months for that story to continue to bubble as it won’t die down. However they did launch their new version of the LP. A download that includes a lot more artwork, interviews, lyrics and other content. Itunes LP is what they are calling it, and Im not going to say that for the cost to produce that content, ‘it won’t work’. Im sure it will bring in extra revenue for the labels and publishers and should be welcomed. However don’t for a minute jump to hyping this to a return to the ’shared experience’ of all of us buying an album again.

Id like to see them sign some exclusive album or content deals and only sell them in this format. It would be an interesting experiment. If the content was compelling enough and sold at the right price would the LP format harm, boost or make no difference to sales?

Recent other developments, in Europe at least, are that Apple has approved a Spotify app, which means you can now get music onto your Itouch/Iphone devices from places other than Apple. A lot has been written about how major this is. Its not. Not really. For quite sometime we have been able to buy music from Emusic, Amazon and many others and place it on our Ipods and Itouch devices. So this is just a wee bit different as its an integrated app, and hence feels much more embedded into the device.

Maybe Im pushing for Apple to move into a space they will never move into, but whether it be the tablet or new functionality for the Itouch and Ipod range, I feel that at some point they will have to embrace music interactivity. Its not as if they are  unaware of it, Garage Band is a key free product with their Macs, but perhaps they have not yet joined up the dots and seen its value as a lifestyle element for their lifestyle products as well as their computers.

The Beatles: Rock Band will be out on the 9/9/09 and its already been reviewed on multiple sites. They love it. Its the same old music, many of us already have, remixed and mastered as part of a game or game format many individuals already have and enjoy. What is interesting is that box sets of the same remixed and remastered recordings are being released along side the game.

Which will sell the more copies? Which will generate more revenue for the labels and publishers? This will be a huge milestone if the game does significantly better. It won’t be the start of a trend, far from it, but due to the historic nature of the content and act it will be a marker, a confirmation of all that we have learnt over the last 3-5 years.

Over the same time period new Ipod Touch products will be released. These may be nothing more than the same as the new (well not, so new now) Iphones, with faster CPU and graphics along with the cameras enclosed. However there has been speculation that along with a tablet type device (the jury is still out as to whether it will see the light of day) a new form of music purchase will be announced. A package of content, which includes videos, perhaps lyrics and who knows what else. Im still of the thinking that it might include some kind of Garage Band (the software for Macs) inspired tool for remixing tracks, as the actual individual instruments and vocals would be sent. Why pay for remixes when you can in effect get your audience to create them for you!

So will this be the month or even year where the music industry puts its hands in the air and recognises that whilst the music is important, what consumers want is interactivity but interaction with compelling content? Watch this space.

For a while now I have been doing talks at various universities or even at the Dana centre (part of the London Science Museum), and the focus of the discussion often falls on the ‘quality’ of audio today.

In essence I find myself stating my case that the MP3 format might have helped the digital music player industry grow, but that it has held back the progress and sound quality of music for the majority of people.

The MP3 was launched at a point in history when memory capacity was limited. The MP3 format compresses the audio which results in the file taking up a lot less space. For example a CD quality file lasting around three and half minutes can be reduced from 38.5 Mb to around 3-10Mb depending on the amount of compression applied. 

Of course ‘compression’ cannot be done without a hit in the audio quality. The MP3 format in effect results in parts of the recording being removed. Normally its the part of the audio which is not crucial to the sound and ‘narrative’ of the music. This results in a range of frequencies being removed. Although not crucial to the listening experience these frequencies are noticeable, especially if played through a decent hifi rather than the standard Iphone headphones. Placed against a CD, a MP3 is clearly inferior for the majority of music genres. However, this reality has not stopped MP3 taking off and being the ‘format’ of choice for the majority of people. Apple have their own version called AAC, but this too is inferior to CD. 

Where as the visual would has not only avoided reducing quality (yes I know compression is used for digital broadcast - but it always has so compared to SD television its a win, win) but its actually gone HD and FULL HD mad. Maybe its because watching things is a primary activity, where as sound takes place whilst something else is taking place for the majority of people? However, I still believe that many people still listen to music just for the sake of listening to music, and hearing it in its full glory is something which most people would appreciate. Why else spend money on that expensive Bose Ipod dock if you don’t care about the sound quality?

Believe it or not audio HAS gone HD. We have 24 bit audio and it can be recorded and played back 192Khz (the frequency at which a sample is taken - the higher it is the more accurate the recording). Its just that, except for the production environment, these formats have failed to take off. Home cinema has helped a little as Blue Ray can support some of these formats, but for most people CD quality sound is still the best they have ever heard, and they live in a MP3 world for most of the time. 

The success of the MP3 format has been the main factor holding back progress. MP3 players were created to play back MP3s and hence new or even older alternative formats were locked out of the consumer offering. However the owner of MP3, Thomson, have now come up with MP3HD. This is excellent news!

What is great about MP3HD is that its backwards compatible with older players. So if you download a MP3HD file but your player can’t play HD files, it will still read it and just play a traditional MP3 version. However, when you upgrade your player then your files are already HD and you haven’t got a wasted download. Now these MP3HD files are not better than CD but are promising the same as CD sound, which is good. However, one assumes that the format could be extended to a FULL HD audio standard with the same backward compatible principles being applied.

The pressure to act is now with the actual download stores and hardware manufacturers to adopt this new standard. We want Amazon and co to offer MP3HD files for download and for hardware to support the files. Clearly download stores won’t jump at this despite the improved experience for customers. This is because of the extra bandwidth the stores will require to be able to send all this data to consumers. Additionally consumers will need fast broadband connections to recieve a file within a reasonable period of time. The latter of these concerns is not really relevant in most of the developed world with broadband fast enough to deliver this for most people.

The earlier concern, regarding the bandwidth download stores will have to use to deliver the files, is relevant. Indeed, this would most probably result in the files carrying a higher price. Though, this might stop the format establishing itself in the first place. Perhaps Thomson should lower any licensing fees required to use the format, at least to begin with, to help it take off?

Either way, its good to see that the quality of Audio is at last being made relevant at the consumer level and is not just an academic issue for the producers and professionals in the industry.

its being reported that Sony refused to allow the Playstation brand to be used on a Sony Ericsson handset. Well those of us in the music industry (and those of us with sources in gadget world) know the real truth. Sony is currently in the process of reorganising its product and brand offerings. Additionally its doing this in such a way, so that they all feed vertically into its actual business model. I.E. not just doing things to propogate technology or for market share, but doing ‘things’ which result in money (always a good idea for a business I say).

We saw earlier in the year how they split with BMG and that SONYBMG are now Sony. Well 2009 or start of 2010 might be the year they do the same with Sony Ericsson. 

Can Sony release a PSP based Iphone killer, able to play top games, stream and download music and movies, and do this over a 3G and WIFI network? For sure, and once the cost is reduced to allow this all to happen without it killing the current crop of batteries they will. Making phone calls on such a device would clearly kill a current battery if you also wanted to run God Of War on it for 2 hours.

However the other stumbling block is a simple one. As part of their deal with Ericsson, one assumes Sony can’t actually make phones. Hence, by buying Ericsson out they will be free to move in this direction.

Battery life will be the technical stumbling block, but huge progress is being made in that area.

Sony Ericsson have already been releasing some great music and video enabled phones, and recently Sony have released (or about to release) a beautiful OLED powered competitor to the Ipod Touch (excluding any decent game functionality). A bringing together of these technologies along with PSP intergration would make an awesome device for us techies. 

However would it be a new paradigm in the world of music and content? Maybe it would be too techie for ‘Joe the Plumber’ or even ‘Arthur the Academic’ who listens to music and podcasts whilst on the tube. Also, is the PSP brand worth much? The first PSP has hardly been a life changing success, and often confuses those into thinking all it does is play games. Meanwhile Apple are busy rebranding the IPOD/Iphone brand into making people realise its also a gaming platform.

For example, the PS3 does EVERYTHING. In fact it has to be one of the best multimedia boxes ever created! However, people don’t see the value in the price. Why? Because consumers perceive it as a games console and never realise what else the machine can do, and does really, really well. 

However, what if Sony canabalised their brands and products and eventually sold all phones/devices as Playstation and advertised it as Playstation with Music. Playstation with Film. I’m not suggesting these are particulary great marketing phrases - the point Im trying to get across is that they need to redfine what the word Playstation or PS means to consumers. Make it clear that its a way of saying ‘this device means fun and leisure, ALL your leisure.’

No one wins points for being subtle. Clever adverts which imply but never say what you can do, might be great art but don’t sell ideas or products. Imagine this: ‘Hey, what you are playing on your phone?’ says character A. Character B responds ’some music by …., then Im gonna watch an episode of Lost, and tonight Ill play some Killzone.’

If all the content named was popular or classic, and if all of it was owned and ONLY available via Sony online shops linked to the hardware - and if that was made upfront, and clear with the consumers. Surely then, they would have a total solution and a great business model?

Its been rumoured on a number of sites now that Itunes will be dropping DRM. Well hurrah if they do. Lets quickly go through the pros, and cons of this decision. 

Cons -

From Apple’s perspective they loose a reason to buy an IPOD or to keep buying an IPOD. Traditionally music bought was tied into that piece of hardware. It would not play on anything else

Music which is exclusive to the Apple’s, Itunes Store can be copied and shared with as much ease as any other material.

Pros - 

For the last two years, people have been able to buy music, legally, without DRM from a number of players in the market. That music would work on an IPOD. So Apple’s business model had actually become a barrier to them growing the Ipod market, as consumers would soon become use to the idea of music download interoperability (remember in the early years, Apple were not the only company with closed DRM).

It should also be noted that the Ipod has now grown beyond its original functionality. Its now a phone, a games machine and slowly becoming a business smart phone which is competing with Blackberry. Hence, there are lots of different ways Apple can make sure it still has content exclusively tied to its hardware by having the best business applications and games to play (adapted uniquely to its hardware). 

Apple still has the Itunes store, and for many that is of value in itself. The Apple hardware, with a dedicated ’streamlined’ (some people think that the Itunes Software needs a MAJOR makeover) software application for purchasing and managing content is a major plus. There are still very few competitors with a fully joined up experience such as Apple’s (Sony are slooooooowly getting there with their PS3 and PSP platforms).

All we need is the record labels to allow Apple to lift DRM across its entire catalogue. Does this mean Apple was always telling the truth when they said it was the Record Companies that forced DRM on them? Well I suspect, that yes, in their continual fear of anything which is not some form of physical distribution system they did insist on DRM. However, I reckon that Apple then saw how they could make it proprietary and use it as a way of making sure no one could ride their success in developing the Ipod platform. 

That market reality has now gone, and now we look forward to a world where, music at least, has no locks on it. The question remains will the Movie Industry follow suite and also allow Apple to unlock the films and tv shows? That would be superb boost to the world of legal digital content, and would result in many more people embracing it.

After all EMI recently stated that since they had lifted DRM via a number of download sites they had not seen an increase in illegal sharing. Those that want to break the law always will, and for the rest of us, if the price is right, if we feel we own the content and can use it across all our hardware without being punished - well we always buy it.

After all we can STILL buy it on CD/DVD and rip it with ease. If companies were THAT concerned with stopping Piracy they would have stopped making CDs and DVDs by now!