Sony have managed to slip some nifty new features into its latest Blue Ray players. These improvements allow the Blue Ray players to quickly convert video files for use onto a PSP or Sony Media Player. This is COULD be great news for PS3 owners as often this kind of software upgrade finds its way into PS3 firmware upgrades. This would mean users who use PlayTV could easily convert the files for use on the PSP without having to export to a PC or Mac first. 

The more hardware like the PS3 or computers in general can have conversion software built in the better for all of us. What would be great is if its implemented at a system level so that the moment the user tries to copy content from one machine to another, whether its video or audio, its automatically optomised for that hardware. This would take the ‘techie’ element away and result in making it user friendly to the vast majority of consumers out there.

Hey Mr DJ, as Madonna once said, wanna put a record on? Or something like that anyway. DJs have been with us for some time and its become quite an art form. Loads of music lovers who are already musicians or who never got to grip with traditional music production have embraced this art form as way of making their mark on the creative process. 

The impact a DJ can have on a venue, due to the DJs taste in music and feel for the room is crucial to a venue or club’s success. Additionally once taken to a new level, completely new pieces of music can be born from the clever use of turntables and DJ equipment, from delays, samplers and the like.

Activision it seems loves DJing too. So much in fact, thats its next big music game, following Guitar Hero, will be DJ Hero! For me it makes total sense, more so than Guitar Hero. Over the last few years DJs have already been ‘mixing’ MP3s connected to controllers which didn’t actually have a record on them. You can even get a piece of hardware which takes the motions from a traditional set of decks and uses them to control MP3s.

Hence, there is no reason why the game can’t do everything these existing systems allow for the professionals. Except It will do more as its a game. It will be competitive, allow for Net play in some way and perhaps use the video and microphone elements of the consoles. However, what it will also mean from the perspective of the content owners, is that its a new download store. Thats right, if you have already bought music on Itunes, or Guitar Hero I bet youll need to buy it again in the new DJ format (mind you if you could use your OWN MP3s or Guitar Hero tracks that would be awesome). What would be available? Music videos I would imagine - it could actually reboot the market for music videos. In fact you could have a video mashup section too, which only worked with images.

Lastly, it would offer a much lower difficulty access level for wanna be DJs, and bring more people into music on a creative level, which cant be a bad thing. The new Nintendo DSi is already seeing this trend and embedding it into its design. The DS lite despite being a huge success, can’t play music (what can’t nowadays?!), so with the DSi upgrade Nintendo have implemented this missing feature. However, is it just another IPOD? No, Nintendo have also taken the DJ route. Its more of a creative tool than a ‘dumb’ player. Music can be slowed down, sped up and even have its pitch changed. Like Activision, Nintendo can see that people want to be able to do things with content, whether it be their own, or someone elses. 

So, it would seem we are now ALL going to become the DJ.

Wanna put a record on?

As demonstrated here, it seems that the UK will not get tough with those who download music (mainly) and film (secondly, with games following on from that) illegally. Other countries, lead by France, will be (or have) legislated on this issue.

However, despite France’s very aggressive laws, it will be interesting to find out how many people France will be pursuing through the courts on this issue. They are adopting a three strikes and you are out (disconnected from the net) system, which is what the BPI in the UK would like to see.

I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point a human rights organisation took a test case to the European Court for Human Rights to fight for our basic human right to have access to the democracy of all technologies; the internet. So we may find that this new law never really gets into ‘gear’ anyway. After all, when someone commits a driving offense, you can take away their right to drive, but not to access roads. I know thats not the strongest legal analogy/comparison, but you get the indicative point I’m trying to make. Hence, if the UK is not going to legislate, and if France’s efforts will be undermined via the courts, how do we move forward? How do we stop piracy?

Well, as discussed on our podcast (music industry news), the main two methods which are immediately available to us is education and changes in business models. However, our approach to education should not just explain that its ‘wrong’ (which is often counter productive and patronising). Instead, it should be a form of education that explains who is involved in making content so that consumers or non-consumers can start to relate to those who are losing out.

The second method is to bypass it altogether. FInd new income streams, whether they be ‘real world’ (such as tours etc) or changing the link between the person, or persons paying for the music and the actual consumer of the music. For example companies which are setup to offer free music (streamed or downloaded) but which is paid for by banner ads etc.

However, surely the future is about tagging all audio with metadata, and then making sure that data is read by all major OS platforms. Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, NXE, Sony XMB etc etc. Just as with the game consoles and mobile phones, its becoming normal for users to have to input credit card details into their machines so that content can be bought and accessed all the time. Well, if we had a working, fully supported metadata system, then as a piece of music or film was played, money would automatically be taken and delivered to one’s local collection society (to be shared amongst the named creators and IP owners). Does this mean we would be paying for everything we listen to or experience?

It doesn’t have to. Some sites would offer ‘free to listen/download’ experiences as they would have purchased a global license (paid for via advertising for example) and the consumer would not be charged from downloading on that site. However, should the consumer wish to pass the file onto the web, then anyone downloading it would activate the metadata contained within it (as it would ‘know’ it wasn’t a direct download from a licensed site) thereby causing the OS to charge the users credit card/mobile phone bill.

What happens if someone wants to transfer content from one machine to another? As long as the OS could recognise it was a machine to machine connection (similar to HDMI being ‘aware’) then it would allow it at no cost.

This might sound very complicated, but I doubt its more complicated than the current ‘lack of system’. Also its designed to make the rules clear, and provide an income for everyone. What stands in its way?

1. Hardware/software companies continuing to support their own files and formats to help boost a certain type of platform.
2. Collection agencies not working together. Something which is not getting better. Europe has a plethora of them, which in 2009 is looking very outdated. If the whole of the USA has only a handful, how come Europe has agencies for everyone country, with some countries having more than one?!!?
3. Civil Rights campaigns, complaining people are being charged to access information on the web. Someone will need to tell them that content owners, and creators have rights, copyrights, which need to be respected too. No one ever protested about having to buy a book or even pay a small fee to borrow it from some libraries (via a joining charge or local/national tax). 
4. We now have millions users with ‘old’ hardware and software already out there, which would not be compatible with this proposed system (without a software update - not possible on all devices). The longer we wait to create the system, the harder it will be to implement it without disenfranchising large members of the audience. Trying to service both audiences, would be similar to the effect of having DRM in files whilst still selling non-protected audio CDs.

If a system of metadata is not going to work, or cannot be implemented then all is not doom and gloom. However, what it means is that we will have to rely on education and alternative business models (alternative from just digitzing the traditional record label model, still pursued by many) exclusively. Not a disaster at all, but it will mean that the debate on the rights and wrongs of piracy and more importantly, the monitory value of music will never end.

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?

As rumored earlier today and then commented on us, todays press conference has confirmed that there will be a Beatles music game. However, as we predicted and commented on, it will NOT be a ROCK BAND game in itself.

The Beatles NEVER leverage their content across brands and hence this will be a standalone product which will only play Beatle Content.

What this means in practise is still to become clear. I’m sure the hardware out there will work, but as opposed to downloading new songs into the pre-existing game it will probably be a new piece of software offering its own portal to the Beatles Digital Store.

We’ll report more once it becomes clearer. This is a bold step for the parties involved in the Beatles IP. It’s a coup for EA games and MTV, the publisher and owners of Rock Band.

Read some more about it HERE