What do you do if Tascam lets you down, and you’re a sound house dependent on their GigaStudio/GigSampler player? For major soundware development house SONiVOX, the answer was: make your own software.

Somerville, Mass-based SONiVOX has announced “announced the existence” of an in-house software development team. Read: the team has been there already, but they haven’t wanted to talk about it until news broke that Tascam’s GigaStudio was going away.

SONiVOX says they have developed “a universally compatible player technology that focus on intelligent MIDI performance, intuitive interfaces, and the highest sonic fidelity.” It will support not only SONiVOX’s own products, but third party-products, as well. SONiVOX points out their experience working with clients like Motorola, Analog Devices, and Google, on sound software.

The press release apparently went out on Friday, but I missed it. Now, with it clear that Giga is dead, the news makes more sense. Peter Alexander at Film Music Magazine, who also broke the GigaStudio discontinuation story, correctly read the signs as early as Monday. He has a long, excellent opinion piece on that site that laments Tascam’s failure to develop their own, long-promised player. He wrote then:

“SONiVOX, an American company substantively smaller than either Tascam or their publicly traded parent, TEAC, has beaten the Giant to market by creating their own dual platform player for both PC and Mac with product ready for shipping by late July early August.”

Memo: To Sample and Software Developers [Film Music Magazine]

Nor is SONiVOX alone. They join EastWest and Spectrasonics, as Peter observes, along with Garritan, whose Steinway-authorized piano instrument runs on the in-house ARIA Player. And that’s to say nothing of developers like Native Instruments, Cakewalk, Steinberg, MOTU, and Apple, all of whom might be considered soundware developers themselves, running on their own virtual instrument products.

Of course, this also illustrates just how tough the market is for any sampler, even one from a company the size of TEAC. In fact, it seems to be the independent companies who are most willing to keep fighting in that climate.

What remains to be seen is how well SONiVOX can support third parties. If they can do so affordably and effectively, you could see serious migration to their sound platform.

SONiVOX’s own virtual instruments, the first for the platform, are scheduled for release at the end of the month:

http://www.sonivoxmi.com/

We first took a look at the Pacemaker DJ when it was announced in May. The idea is interesting: it’s a mobile 120GB hard drive with touch controls for internal mixing/cross-fading, effects, a separate cueing output, and pitch control, along with rich format support (even OGG, FLAC, AAC). That’s all well and good, but the device will apparently cost US$700.

Barb Dybwad at Engadget optimistically offers that “it’s a relatively low-cost convenient practice setup for DJs on the road or an attractive option for aspiring amateurs.” Hmmm … I normally agree with Barb, but in this case, let’s make that:

• relatively high-cost
• DJs would normally practice with real decks or software, not this
• aspiring amateurs have much more attractive options. (A laptop and Deckadance, for one. Assuming you’ve got the laptop, that’ll set you back US$99 – 179. And you could pick up a basic M-Audio controller for about US$100, and it’ll be easier to control than this.)

Not that you need me to tell you any of that. I’d still like to get my mitts on one to see what they’ve done; I just can’t imagine who this is for. If you know, write in.

Beatportal goes way over the top and asks if this is “a revolution for DJ and youth culture.” Let me answer that question: no. Youth culture? Dude, I grew up in a generation for which Garbage Pail Kids and slap bracelets revolutionized youth culture. Kids don’t really need that much for entertainment. The ones who really define culture tend not to blow a grand on mobile gadgets. And as far as something that is “set to revolutionize the way we think about DJing and mixing,” didn’t laptops do that already?

Still, since I was one of the people arguing for a “pro-level” iPod way back in 2001, I have to admire the idea. It just seems to lack some meat, like recording capabilities, or the ability to really integrate into a DJ setup. Of course, in 2001 I was much more innocent and immature. I’ve been working out, and now I can lift big boy hardware.

Speaking of things you probably don’t want: Dr. Dre-branded headphones manufactured by Monster Cable. I don’t know, maybe they’re great.

We’re just counting the hours until next week, when the NAMM show hits and we get really cool music stuff. Those gadget bloggers in Vegas at CES don’t know what they’re missing.

Beaport Sync is a free, DJ-friendly music player / librarian / mixing app for Windows and Mac. On its surface, it looks like a hook for online music store Beatport and a beginner-friendly DJ mixer (two tracks, auto tempo detection and time stretching, pitch control) — and it is that.

But aside from the ability to mix and cross-fade, Beatport Sync has some features Apple’s iTunes lacks, which makes it potentially worth a download for just about anyone. First, it has real file format support: MP3 / MP4 / AAC / WMA / WAV / AIFF / FLAC / OGG (plus audio CDs, of course). WMA, FLAC, and OGG are all missing in iTunes. Second, it has advanced meta-data editing and file browsing, making it useful for organizing your music collection. What I really like: not only can you backup your library to external media, but you can browse external media, too. It’s a reminder that iTunes remains pretty primitive for listening and organization — it’s added some decent features, but not so much for the desktop listening experience.

Those aren’t a huge deal on Windows or even Linux with various reliable alternative music players, but they’re big news on the iTunes-dominated Mac. Native Instruments tells CDM that they do expect even their die-hard Traktor users may want Beatport Sync as an organizing tool or basic player.

As far as DJ-style features, this player is pretty decent for a freebie:

• Two-deck mixer with manual/automatic crossfader
• Pitch control
• Time-stretching and tempo detection, for smooth crossfades even if you don’t know what you’re doing (or you’re, say, folding laundry or cleaning your studio and want the software to DJ for you — it happens)
• Rip and burn CDs
• Access external devices for browsing and backup
• iTunes library integration (no playback support for DRMed tracks, though meta-data will appear)

I’ve been testing the release build since just before it came out, and I have to say, I like it. The player is largely no-nonsense, and in terms of format support and playback fidelity, it’s great. You also have the kind of hardware driver support you normally only get from a pro app. And the ability to browse through all your drives instantly is great.

I have just a few caveats for you. If you don’t like getting a music store advertised in your music player, be aware that Beatport is a prominent choice in the sidebar — and the only one. Of course, that’s not to say you can’t buy online music from Beatport rivals like Dance Tracks Digital, or your local record store for those who like physical media. While it’s an aesthetic complaint, you also get the blue and green Beatport colors, which look like they escaped from the local scuba shop. (Give us an alternative black skin, please!) Some might not like the hierarchical file navigation, though I actually do enjoy it. The one downside I did find significant is that there’s not much in the way of stream and radio support. Electronic-music centric Proton is there, if that’s all you want to listen to, but there’s no equivalent for the integrated Shoutcast support in players like Winamp and Songbird. (Hey, I want J-Pop followed by Turkish folk music, okay? Does that make me less of an electronica fan?)

Still, overall, it’s a great player. If you’re serious about your digital music collection, I’d say this is worth at least adding to your tool belt — and the price is right.

Beatport Sync [Native Instruments]

Previously:
MediaMonkey Review: The Ultimate Music Player and Library Organizer for PC (though, on PC, no reason not to run both)

We’ve seen DJ parties with iPods and now handheld remote controls for DJ software. But what about building mixing features into the portable player itself? That’s the idea of the Pacemaker, a new portable player promised for Fall.

Pacemaker site (Warning: auto-plays music)
Tonium, the mysterious manufacturers’ site

DJ features and mixing are internal to the player, and there’s rich playback support in general. You can cross-fade on the unit itself, and add effects, with dedicated headphone and line out jacks and cueing features. There’s a multi-function touch control for all these features. As a player, it looks great on paper, with a 120 GB hard drive and support for OGG, FLAC, and AAC in addition to the usual MP3, WMA, and WAV. (Apparently no line recording, which would really make this a must-have, but some of the specs are still unclear.) If they don’t botch the design somehow, I can see this appealing to electronic musicians as much as DJs.

1. Line out and headphones crossfaders
2. Pitch bend, cue, loop
3. EQ, sound effects
4. Dedicated headphones and line out jacks
5. USB 2.0
6. 120 GB hard drive
7. Sound to noise ratio of > 100 dB
8. MP3 with Variable Bit Rate, AAC, WMA, WMA lossless, OGG, FLAG, WAV
9. 13 ms input latency
10. 18-hour battery life; 5 hours in DJ mode
11. Mac and PC compatible (assuming they just make it a USB Mass Storage device)
12. Save mixes

We haven’t seen the first product yet, but they’re promising more — “a pallet of innovative products and digital services … Everyone can be the DJ!” Not everyone can be product designers and manufacturers, though, so a lot (build quality, effects quality, usability, actually shipping) depends on the shipping product.

This isn’t the first time manufacturers have talked about creating an “iPod killer for DJs.” A research team at HP had the unusual idea of building a player around a ring, with motion sensors scratching tracks and streaming to other devices for collaboration. Those ideas don’t sound so far-fetched any more, with the Wii popularizing motion control and the Zune popular– uh, implementing wireless sharing. Wearing a music player as a ring still sounds silly, though, and like many research projects, nothing came of HP’s DJammer.

Thanks to Oscar and Louis and Jaan for sending this in!

Enough of whining about Apple, Microsoft, and other hardware players: make your own media player instead. Co-Editor Jaymis has been hitting nasty firmware issues with his iPod, and I’ve been having issues with oddities on Zune. So let’s do things the DIY way and build a player that’s exactly what we want!

yampp, “Yet Another MP3 Player”, is a completely open sourced project. It’s designed to hook up to the commonly-available Nokia 3310 LCD, uses standard parts, and connects and charges via USB. The most recent generation runs off of the ATmega161 CPU, a familiar chip to hardware DIYers. You can expand it with CompactFlash cards up to 4GB, play 256kbps MP3s, and powers off of a Li-Ion battery. PC Gamer even ran a friendly how-to that even a hardware newbie could easily follow; it was the Ultimate How-Tos for Gamers special issue if you can dig that up.

Check the project page first, but the jelu Web-Shop carries all the parts, and promises a complete US$99 player with an enclosure. (Pre-built, but hackable since it’s built on an open source project.) Color LCD? Check. MP3, WMA, AAC, and WAV support? Check.

MAKE is getting into the game, too, with an open source MP3 player kit called the Daisy MP3 Player Kit.

These machines may not save you money, but they could be a better investment in the long run, given their flexibility and customizability. And I expect we could hack one of them to work with Wi-Fi support.

Why build your own? You learn more, have more fun, get something that lasts longer (since you can service it), something you can hack to fit your needs, and something that can even be adapted to work in your latest art installation or custom music instrument. (How about this: a MIDI controller that triggers MP3s for when you screw up your live patch or crash your machine?)

Have any of you worked with any of these kits? Want to suggest others? Let us know!

And I know I’ll be asking for one of these kits for Christmas instead of an iPod or Zune.

For Microsoft people who are reading this, let me just say, I look forward to syncing my custom music player to Windows Media Player 11. Really.

[tags]hardware, players, MP3, DIY, hacks, electronics, homebrew[/tags]

Microsoft To Give A Cut Of Every Zune Sold To The Recording Industry — Though It’s Not Clear Why [Techdirt]
Microsoft Zune: Paying off the Industry One Label at a Time [Gizmodo]
Microsoft Strikes Deal for Music [New York Times]
Trying Out the Zune: iPod It’s Not [New York Times, David Pogue Review]

Now, of course, here in CDM Country readers and staff alike are hardly iPod fanboys and girls. We like playing music, and we play it on whatever works. I actually want to like Zune; it has a clever hardware design and a well-designed interface, and it’s something different in a market that has been iPod-dominated. But here are the main issues for me:

1. It’s not really a Wi-Fi device: Imagine being able to connect to Zune as a normal Wi-Fi storage device, to load and offload files, to sync your media library? Forget buying songs over Wi-Fi; why not be able to connect it to your home network? (Even Linux and Mac would work over Wi-Fi, too.) No can do. An entire Wi-Fi feature is wasted on an over-hyped sharing feature.
2. You can’t share your own files: Microsoft could become a surprise hero to the indie music market, to (ironically enough) Creative Commons lovers and the music maven audience. All they have to do is let you share files to which you own the rights — MP3s of your own band, for instance — with other people. Instead, you’re limited to the same DRM that’s applied to purchased music. That doesn’t make any sense, as Pogue observes for the NYT.


3. You can’t record: One of the things I love about the Windows players is that they have recording ability, often featuring not only internal mics but line-in capability. That makes the average Windows media player a much more versatile investment than the iPod. Not so with Zune, though, sending me back to PlaysForSure players like the iRiver clix (which, incidentally, can be made to work with other operating systems if you have the savvy to install some device drivers).

I received my first MP3 file over ten years ago, as a zip archive spanned over three 3.5″ floppy disks. In the time since there have been advances in codec, hardware and software players, metadata formats and online sales, but after more than a decade the humble MP3 is still a dominant force in computer based music listening.

In my time as an MP3 consumer I’ve used a plethora of players, both hard- and software. In the early days, developers racing to add new features had me switching and trying out new applications regularly, but by the late 90s I was a dedicated Winamp user, even through the troublesome Winamp3 days. This all had to change. When faced with a year travelling and working in Europe I decided to retire my trusty 256MB “James” and replace him with a shiny, white, inevitable, 20GB (3rd Gen) iPod. After considerable wrangling (warning NSFW language and unrelated ranting in comments) I grudgingly switched to iTunes, which is an ok piece of software. Really. If all of your music comes to you via iTunes music store or major label CDs you’ve faithfully purchased and ripped (after reading and understanding any included EULAs) then you probably won’t ever need or want another media player. iTunes also has some truly fantastic features: Coupled with judicious iPod-based rating while travelling, Party Shuffle and Smart Playlists changed how I listen to music.

However, If you’re a discerning music listener. If you consume music which is copied from friends or MP3 Blogs, acquaintances with bands, records digitized from your dad’s vinyl collection, or if you occasionally change computers, use multiple computers or multiple ipods, then iTunes will eventually cause you grief.

It’s not the most full-featured application either. Apple’s “less is more” philosophy does make for friendly, simple software, but a quick look at Apple’s supplied Applescripts give you an idea of the basic functions they haven’t bothered with.

Enter Mediamonkey

MediaMonkey is amazing. I’ve been running it for 3 months now and still feel like I haven’t scratched the surface of what it can do. Here’s a quick feature overview from the site:

• Organize music and edit tags in your audio library with a powerful, intuitive interface
• Automatically lookup and tag Album Art and other metadata
• Manage 50,000+ files in your music collection without bogging down
• Play MP3s and other audio formats, and never again worry about varying volume
• Record CDs into OGG, MP3, FLAC and WMA files
• Convert MP3s, OGG, FLAC and WMA files into other formats with the Audio Converter
• Synchronize with iPods / MP3 players effortlessly and convert tracks on-the-fly
• Party Mode, which allows users to make requests while protecting your library from being modified.

There’s a freeware version or you can pay US$19.99 for the “Gold” version ($39.99 for a lifetime licence to all future updates). The commercial features include:

• Increased Speed CD Burning
• File Monitor (automatically updates library)
• Advanced Searches and AutoPlaylists
• Advanced Portable Device Synchronization with on-the-fly format conversion (list of devices supported)
• Unlimited MP3 encoding
• Virtual CD / Previews
• Advanced Filters
• Sleep Timer

I use MediaMonkey more than any other piece of software on my machine, it’s loaded just about 100% of the time, so for me $20 equates to just about no money for something I’ll be running for 16 hours each day. The free version includes the advanced 3rd party scripting abilities though, so you may not even need the Gold licence to get the what you want out of the software.

Reasons Not to Use MediaMonkey

Just to get the major shortcomings out of the way early:
It’s PC only, sorry Mac users, but fortunately the Apple platform’s tighter integration and the huge quantity of 3rd party applescripts available will let you emulate many of these functions.
It’s not the most beautiful user interface and tends to feel a little cluttered. There are a few skins available but I’m sad to say I ended up settling for the default “brushed metal” style skin.
It has a lot of features and options. I personally consider this to be a strength, but if you’re scared of right clicking or want something that “just works”, perhaps iTunes or Winamp is more your speed.

Now that the lightweights have left: I am so in love with this software. It has evolved how I listen to and organize music. When using iTunes I would actually put off downloading albums or tracks from mp3 blogs or other non-mainstream sources, because I knew I’d have to go through the annoying process of tagging and importing so the tracks would show up and sync correctly to my iPod. I ended up using a separate program to audition downloaded tracks before importing them into iTunes. I had also put off changing media players as I have built up years of ratings and statistics which I couldn’t bear to lose.

Switching from Another Player

On installation MediaMonkey detects whether you have iTunes, Windows Media Player or Winamp installed and offers to import all of your rating and playcount information from those programs. When moving from iTunes the only thing left behind was my Smart Playlists. MediaMonkey calls them Autoplaylists and they follow a slightly different format, so you’ll have to make new ones. Autoplaylists allow most of the filter criteria within iTunes (with the notable exclusion of playlists-within-playlists), and plenty of extras including 3 “custom” fields, which you can rename and fill with information of your own devising. This is quite typical of MediaMonkey, while the default program has plenty of features and some cool new ideas, it’s the customization frameworks built in which makes it so powerful. If you’re one of the aforementioned discerning music listeners you’re hardly going to need me to hold your hand for the basics of a media player, so instead I’m going to touch on some of the more advanced features and superb 3rd party scripts and customizations which have me hooked.

MediaMonkey’s Included Coolness

Auto-DJ is like iTunes’ Party Shuffle, but integrated with the normal Now Playing window. If your queue is running out of tracks, Auto-DJ will automatically add new tracks to keep at least 10 upcoming songs at all times. These tracks can be chosen from the entire library, or from a specific playlist.

Auto Organize Files allows you to move and rename files from within the program, so moving previously imported and played tracks from a download directory takes 3 clicks (or 2 shortcut key combinations) rather than the painful open-explorer-move-files-and-locate-them-manually process within iTunes.

Copy and Delete from within the app. Want to send a track to a contact, include it in a project directory or delete something horrible you never want to hear again? Both drag/drop and shortcut key copy/paste work from anywhere in the program, and when deleting a track from the library or a regular playlist you have the option of deleting from the playlist, from the playlist and library, or removing it from the computer as well.

Album Artist Display: Album Artist was only just added to iTunes 7. It’s been part of MediaMonkey since before it was called MediaMonkey, and it has helped me solve an issue I’ve had with media players since I started using them: How to tag and name compilation albums.
Without the Album Artist tag compilation tagging has always been a kludged affair: I had my compilation tracks tagged with the artist as “compilation name” and track name as “track artist – track name”, which isn’t a particularly intuitive solution.
If you use the musician’s name in the “artist” field, then the various tracks from a various artists album will be spread throughout your library. If you use the compilation or dj name as the artist, then those tracks won’t show up with others by the same musician. The Album Artist tag solves this by allowing you to have it both ways.
For instance: If I was to purchase and rip So Fresh – The Hits of Spring 2006 (which I believe to be around volume 572 of the groundbreaking So Fresh series) I would tag the tracks with “So Fresh” as album artist and the musician (or fashion victim) as artist. So if I want my library to display my whole So Fresh collection in all its glory I can sort by Album Artist, whereas if I’d like to see all of my Pussycat Dolls tracks I can sort by Artist.

Find More From The Same: To quickly locate related tracks without rearranging the library you can right click on any track and choose “Find More from Same” artist, album, genre, year etc.

Half Star Ratings: I’ve always had problems dealing with a 5 point rating system. It’s just not enough flexible enough and left me with hundreds of 3 star songs which, really, aren’t 3 star songs. I probably wouldn’t choose to listen to them if presented with a list, but they’re definitely not 2 star tracks. 2 star is for all those annoying hip hop skits and infuriating “hidden tracks”. MediaMonkey allows for half-star ratings, and it also differentiates between “unrated” and “no stars” (bomb). Note that iTunes has been able to display half-star ratings since iTunes 6.0.2, but you need an applescript to set them and they don’t actually do anything.

Advanced 3rd Party Stuff

The MediaMonkey Add-ons page displays a relatively paltry assortment of plugins. However, it is designed to be compatible with the Winamp 2 API, which opens up several thousand other options. However, apart from the Audioscrobbler plugin I haven’t really explored this option, beause the user developed scripts are crazy delicious.

Looking at the official scripts page may again lull you into a false sense of disappointment. Apart from the excellent Magic Nodes there isn’t much there. To find the really great stuff you need to jump into the Scripts and Components forum. To me this is the program’s greatest weakness, all of the very best functionality is hidden away and completely disorganized. This is vaguely understandable as most scripts are constantly under development, so forums are great for people to discuss modifications and updates, but I’d love to see a scripts wiki or user scripts list on the main site. Of the 5200 registered forum members I’m sure a couple would be happy to keep this updated. There is an “All Scripts” thread on the forum, but it’s woefully out of date and presents as an unwieldy list. Most scripts also need to be added manually to MediaMonkey by copying the script code from a forum thread, creating a new file in the MediaMonkey scripts directory and pasting in the code, once again not the most friendly process if you’re trying to discover new functionality.

However, I have plenty of time on my hands, so I have spent several nights gleefully wading through forum threads and testing out scripts to bring you a list of my favourites.

Jaymis’ Favourite MediaMonkey Scripts

Magic Nodes is fantastic. Outwardly it works like Smart Playlists, allowing advanced dynamic filtering, however Magic Nodes lets you use SQL filtering for increased awesomeness, and also displays the results in a tree structure. Example Magic Node strings can be found here.

Auto Album DJ: If you reach the end of your Now Playing list, this script adds a randomly selected album to play next. Minimum tracks, average rating, minimum rating, genre etc. are customizable within the script code.

ScrobblerDJ is another automatic playlist filler. When the final track in now playing is reached this script queries Last.fm for a list of similar artists, then chooses a track from your library from one of those artists. This can cause a bit of a “feedback loop”, filling your playlists with similar, popular artists, but this is great if you’d like to stay within a certain genre or mood, and if the playlist starts going awry you can pull it into a new direction by dropping a track of your intended mood on the end.

Radio Free Monkey is a playlist creation script which weighs tracks based on rating, how long they’ve been in the library etc.

Rate Played Song: If an unrated track is played through to the end, playback is paused and a ratings dialogue pops up.

Predefined Rating creates shortcuts for rating and moving between tracks, allowing you to rate albums quickly.

TweakMonkey allows you to tweak startup settings (volume, auto-play, shuffle, repeat, startup playlist, randomize playlist on startup, startup node) and hide nodes you’re not interested in.

Play History Node: Like having a local last.fm which actually your stats when you play the tracks, rather than a week later when you don’t care anymore.

Extract Fields
allows you to re-tag files based on their current tags. This is useful if you’ve used the aforementioned kludged compilation tagging system instead of album artist tags.

This is only the tiny subset of the available scripts which I’ve found useful or exciting. For more check out the Scripts and Components forum, or the wiki which I’m sure is coming any day now, right? Devs?

Quirks and Requests

MediaMonkey’s thickly piled awesomeness hasn’t made me blind to the problems or aspects which could do with some improvement. Obviously the script discovery and installation system needs an overhaul. I’d like to see an associated filetype extension for MediaMonkey Scripts, or at least some kind of packaging system which will install them for you, rather than having to manually create files and drop them into directories, which feels archaic and will prevent less advanced users discovering how great the program can be.

Tagging or rating the currently playing track will cause the audio to skip. This is an issue as basic as Apple’s longstanding lack of gapless playback: It should not happen, and a remedy should be of highest priority. It took Apple 5 years to add gapless support to the iPod, let’s hope MediaMonkey fix this sooner.

The shortcut keys are rather incongruous: [ctrl + p] for play? [ctrl + n] for next track? These should at least be customizable.

On my dual monitor system (driven by a Radeon X1600) the program always opens in the primary monitor, no matter where it was located when last closed. I’m guessing this may have something to do with the clever, svelte “now playing mode”, but this behaviour is well documented in the forums and doesn’t occur with any other program I run.

Some iTunes features which could do with porting

Smart playlists able to reference other playlists: This opens another level of advanced playlist creation. Examples here, here and here. Apple’s Smart Playlists are also able to match “all” or “any” rules, which can be very useful.

Start Time and Stop Time: Allows you to skip those annoying hip hop skits or “hidden track padding” at the beginning and end of otherwise good music, removing pointless banter and 15 minute silences from your playlists.

Skip Count Displayed: I believe MediaMonkey keeps count of skipped tracks, but it would be useful to have this information available for display and playlist creation.

The Verdict

Fantastic. iTunes 7 has caught up a little and is on another level in the looks department, but it doesn’t come anywhere near the abilities of this Monkey. If you have a PC you owe it to your music, give MediaMonkey a try.

CDM got some early exclusives on the future of Microsoft’s media plan and PlaysForSure, including an explanation of why Zune isn’t part of the PlaysForSure program, thanks to Dave McLauchlan of the Windows Media Group:

Microsoft Not Turning Back on PlaysForSure with Zune Player
MTP, Portable Player Standard? Microsoft’s McLauchlan Sets Us Straight

At the time, Microsoft wouldn’t say anything publicly about its upcoming player. Now, it has made its Zune announcement official. Translating the marketing-speak is too painful for me today, so you can read the press release after the jump, but here are the interesting points:

1. Wireless sharing: As widely predicted, the Zune will feature wi-fi music sharing, via Zune-to-Zune connections. Microsoft also promises a “platform” for sharing music and video. Sounds interesting; as long as this eventually involves the ability to freely stream VJ sets and sound files in any format I want anywhere I want, I’ll be really happy. (Okay, that could be wishful thinking …)
2. Share recordings: The portable music consumer product makers generally don’t seem to understand that lots of people make their own recordings. So it’s comforting to see among the sharing features that you’ll be able to share “homemade recordings.” (Homemade, I think, is in contrast to the DRMed music purchased for the Zune, which will have plenty of sharing restrictions — but all the more reason to stock up on your own stuff and non-DRMed music and share that instead.)
3. Surprise! Hip music! Microsoft apparently wants to build its street cred by pre-loading indie music on the device. The device will feature music from “DTS, EMI Music’s Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records, and V2/Artemis Records.” Sup Pop? Ninja Tune? Quango? Wow, we might actually get some music we like. And meanwhile Apple is shilling with John Legend. Am I in bizarro world?

Zune’s focus seems to be music discovery and sharing. Whether Microsoft actually pulls that off or it’s just marketing hype, it’s nice to see them trying, at least — even if they aren’t giving Last.fm a run for its money any time soon.

Anyway, that’s how I put it. Here’s how Microsoft puts it, in marketing speak:

Microsoft’s Zune Delivers Connected Music and Entertainment Experience

Built-in wireless technology lets consumers share experiences device to device.

REDMOND, Wash. � Sept. 14, 2006 � Marking the next big milestone for its Connected Entertainment vision, Microsoft Corp. today unveiled details of the first products to be released under its Zune™ brand. Designed around the principles of sharing, discovery and community, Zune will create new ways for consumers to connect and share entertainment experiences. The Zune experience centers around connection � connection to your library, connection to friends, connection to community and connection to other devices.

â€Å“The digital music entertainment revolution is just beginning,â€Â? said J Allard, vice president, design and development, at Microsoft, who is leading the charge for building the family of Zune products. â€Å“With Zune, we are not simply delivering a portable device, we are introducing a new platform that helps bring artists closer to their audiences and helps people find new music and develop new social connections.â€Â?

The Zune Experience

Available this holiday season in the United States, Zune includes a 30GB digital media player, the Zune Marketplace music service and a foundation for an online community that will enable music fans to discover new music. The Zune device features wireless technology, a built-in FM tuner and a bright, 3-inch screen that allows users to not only show off music, pictures and video, but also to customize the experience with personal pictures or themes to truly make the device their own. Zune comes in three colors: black, brown and white.

Every Zune device creates an opportunity for connection. Wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing lets consumers spontaneously share full-length sample tracks of select songs, homemade recordings, playlists or pictures with friends between Zune devices. Listen to the full track of any song you receive up to three times over three days. If you like a song you hear and want to buy it, you can flag it right on your device and easily purchase it from the Zune Marketplace.

Zune makes it easy to find music you love â€â€? whether it’s songs in your existing library or new music from the Zune Marketplace. Easily import your existing music, pictures and videos in many popular formats and browse millions of songs on Zune Marketplace, where you can choose to purchase tracks individually or to buy a Zune Pass subscription to download as many songs as you want for a flat fee.

To get started with great music and videos out of the box, every Zune device is preloaded with content from record labels such as DTS, EMI Music’s Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records, and V2/Artemis Records.

Zune Accessories

To enhance the Zune experience, three accessory packs help Zune users enjoy their music where they want to, at home or on the road. The packs and the individual accessories, all designed exclusively for Zune, will be available at launch:

o The Zune Car Pack includes everything needed to hit the road with a Zune device, such as the built-in FM tuner with AutoSeek and the Zune Car Charger.
o The Zune Home A/V Pack enhances your experience in the home through five products that integrate Zune with the TV and music speakers: Zune AV Output Cable, Zune Dock, Zune Sync Cable, Zune AC Adapter and the Zune Wireless Remote for Zune Dock.
o Zune Travel Pack is a set of five products designed to keep friends and family entertained on the road: Zune Premium Earphones, Zune Dual Connect Remote, Zune Gear Bag, Zune Sync Cable and the Zune AC Adapter.

Providing consumers with additional options to customize and personalize their Zune experience, Microsoft is also working with leading accessory manufacturers Altec Lansing, Belkin Corp., Digital Lifestyle Outfitters (DLO), Dual Electronics, Griffin Technology, Harman Kardon and JBL, Integrated Mobile Electronics, Jamo International, Klipsch Audio Technologies, Logitech, Monster Cable Products Inc., Speck, Targus Group International Inc. and VAF Research

The Future is Bright

In addition to the features available at launch, built-in wireless technology and powerful software provide a strong foundation to continue to build new shared experiences around music and video. As Zune evolves, the device can be easily updated. The Zune software on your PC will let you know when these updates are available for download.

About Zune

Zune is Microsoft’s music and entertainment platform that provides an end-to-end solution for Connected Entertainment. The Zune experience includes a 30GB digital media player, the Zune Marketplace music service, and a foundation for an online community that will enable music fans to discover new music. Inspired by the vast and varied community of music fans, Zune focuses on helping emerging artists shape the digital canvas. Zune is part of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division and supports the company’s software-based services vision to help drive innovation in the digital entertainment space. More information can be found online at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/zune.

There has been absolutely no official correspondence from Microsoft regarding any plan to *not* support Windows Media DRM nor subscription services. The Zune team has specifically not answered any questions related to technologies like subscription and the DRM mechanism behind it.

I think where people are getting confused is that we have confirmed that Zune will not be a member of the PlaysForSure program. PFS is about much more than subscription or DRM although those are two important components. However, a device can meet (or not meet) PlaysForSure certification on the basis of something as simple as the implementation of MSC.

So, not to make ANY claims or “hints” about what features Zune will ship with (the device will ship this year, so more news will be forthcoming) – but it is not necessarily a correct assumption to believe that because the device will not be part of the PlaysForSure program that it won’t use Windows Media DRM nor support subscription. I should also be clear that PlaysForSure isn’t going away. Microsoft remains committed to an ecosystem using Windows Media technology that a large number of partners have committed to. However, there are really two strategies in the market right now – cross-brand ecosystems (PFS) and singular brand ecosystems (Apple). The former is gaining in share and units sold, but the latter has enormous share and won’t give that up easily.

Just as Samsung sells RAM to Apple, but makes PlaysForSure devices too – Microsoft is electing to build an ecosystem around the Zune concept, but remains committed to the PlaysForSure ecosystem which many partners have joined us with.

That should be good news for Windows Media loyalists. If you look long enough at Microsoft’s bizarre Flash teaser for Zune, pictured below, I’m sure you can find many more details, in allegorical form.

Coming Zune: Zune Teaser Site [Official]
Music Site, Regina Spektor, the NYC pianist/singer whose quirky music is featured in the otherwise slightly disturbing Flash trailer

Public relations representatives from Microsoft declined comment on this story, though they did provide the standard line:

Under the Zune brand, Microsoft will build a community for connecting with others to discover new music and entertainment and will deliver a family of hardware and software products�with the first products shipping in this year.

While there are no spokespersons available for interviews, I wanted to ensure that you received the following statement from Chris Stephenson.

â€Å“Today we confirmed a new music and entertainment project called Zune. Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year. We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow consumers to explore and discover music together.â€Â?

–Chris Stephenson, GM of marketing, Microsoft

You may also want to check out these Zune-related blogs from people at Microsoft working on the project. Zune Insider and Madison and Pine.

So, there you have it: the blogosphere will be the place to watch this story. It’s a real study in contrast, ironically, between the relatively open cultural climate at Microsoft as far as press relations (even if they may just be baiting some stories) and the intensely closed atmosphere at Apple. Though, in fairness, I’m regularly in touch with folks who work for Apple. Which is funny, because I just got a really great tip from an Apple blogger on an awesome new FireWire audio interface he’s working on, and h–

Kidding. I’m kidding. (Sorry, Apple-ites; couldn’t resist.)

There has been a lot of criticism of DRM, but in the process, a lot of people have missed the details on Microsoft’s MTP. I advocated using the older USB Media Storage Class (MSC) connection method because it’s compatible out-of-the-box with Mac and Linux as well as Windows. But I did note that MTP isn’t itself “DRM,” since many of its features are unrelated to music, let alone music DRM. That launched a semi-interesting debate with Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow, and in the process we learned many of you really can’t stand Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow.

The best way to learn something about a technology, though, is to talk to someone who actually develops it. Dave McLauchlan from the Windows Media Devices Group at Microsoft wrote me privately to rebut some of what I said, make some corrections, and set the record straight on the Windows Media devices and specifically MTP. Dave is himself a musician — see his music site, and note that even though he works for Microsoft, his music is available on iTunes via CDBaby and in non-DRMed MP3 downloads. His response isn’t the one-sided DRM advocacy you might expect, though he has some pragmatic points to make about DRM, as well. Most interesting to me is some of the insight he provides on how these technologies are evolving for music use. I stand by my claim that musicians should consider sidestepping labels and selling non-DRMed music direct to their listeners. But there’s plenty to be learned here.

Dave writes:

Microsoft’s MTP vs. USB Mass Storage Class

I’m not sure where “UMS” as an acronym came from – certainly not from any of the official sources, and definitely not from the USB-IF Device Working Group where it was conceived (and is still recognized as) MSC – or Mass Storage Class.

Ed: Note that the original article was referring to iRiver, who in fact refer to this in their support documentation as “UMS”. I picked it up from them. But if anyone knows what it’s properly called, Dave would, and in fact the USB-IF Device Working Group also calls it MSC, not UMS. Correct your acronym use accordingly. -PK

Anyhow, DRM can be implemented on MSC devices. In 1999 Microsoft developed “Portable Devices DRM” or PD-DRM as part of our Windows Media DRM 1 package. PD-DRM worked on MSC devices, and was specifically for the scenario of downloading music. The problem with PD-DRM was that it didn’t allow for a bunch of scenarios that content owners and download stores wanted – namely subscription support, limited number of playbacks, mobile phone support, direct and indirect license acquisition, DVD players, set-top boxes, silent licensing, pre-delivery of licenses, backup and restore of licenses, network device support, and so on. The list was extensive.

In order to implement all these new features, there needed to be a protocol that tied music objects on a storage volume with the license nodes that govern the use of that content. Actually, it is better to consider it this way – MSC presented a storage volume as just that – a disk drive. Objects on the drive were “files” and were discrete and unrelated entities. There was no mechanism to “tie” one object to another. In fact, MSC at its core is just a protocol that provides a means to read out sectors on a drive. The fact that MSC has become ubiquitous in OS’s is more related to the fact that FAT has become ubiquitously supported.

Anyhow, with no relation between files on a volume in MSC, there needed to be a protocol that supported relations between objects. PTP already existed in the camera world and so Microsoft set about developing MTP to support all media devices – not just cameras. PTP/MTP considers objects to be entities with properties and upon which operations can be performed. That allows for a WMA file to have associated DRM licenses on the volume – but which are separate objects (or files in the FAT world).

MTP as a Cross-Platform Standard

MTP is currently under submission and evolution in the USB Implementers Forum. Microsoft has committed to giving the USB-IF the MTP specification gratis and a sub-group called the MTP Working Group working under the Device Work Group is presently working that specification through to a v1.0 candidate. When that occurs, the Board of Directors of the USB-IF will vote and hopefully install our specification as USB-IF MTP v1.0. The work group that is chartered with that effort is made up of 17 companies, and is chaired by Microsoft (specifically by me).

There are currently MTP implementations on PC, Mac, Linux, PalmOS, Unix and so on. Given that the vast majority of MTP devices today are music players, it comes as no surprise that Apple has not implemented MTP on OS X. However, there is no reason they couldn’t in the future if they so desired. You might draw a conclusion that such non-PC implementations may flourish upon the publication of MTP as a USB-IF standard – there has been that speculation, I guess we’ll just have to see. But, there isn’t a reason for the scarcity of those implementations today – aside from the business justification and market demand.

Until the USB-IF ratifies the MTP v1.0 specification we’re developing in that forum, MTP can be downloaded freely from MSDN:
MTP Specification @ MSDN

Microsoft absolutely is advocating MTP as a standard. We hope it has an impact on the marketplace – and the reasons for us doing this are clear. Firstly, we never charged $$ for MTP specifications, so it wasn’t ever a money-spinner for us. Secondly, we want to do everything to encourage device vendors to adopt MTP since, for each device that supports MTP, that is one less driver we have to ship in the box. If all devices could work with the MTP class drivers that ship with Vista, then we’ll approach the panacea of broad device support with high quality inbox drivers.

Given the vast majority of what were once “blue screens” were attributable to bugs in third party drivers – reducing the customer’s dependency on these drivers is crucial to building a more stable system.

On why MTP isn’t implemented on Mac:

I see very little motivation to develop an MTP implementation on the Mac while the iPod still commands such a market presence and of course doesn’t support MTP. Now that MTP digital cameras are shipping (and MTP/IP wi-fi cameras) you may start to see a breadth of support developing.

Apple wouldn’t have to implement MTP in iPhoto to support cameras – MTP is forwards and backwards compatible with PTP – but… plugging an MTP camera into an OS that supports only PTP limits the user experience to what we have today. With MTP, we introduced significant performance enhancements for large files/large numbers of files, media extensions, etc… which applications won’t be able to take advantage of without MTP support. However, basic connectivity will still work.

Ed: I still dream of a day when device makers go after the Mac market as a way to combat iPod, for real competition in this space, but I know there are a number of reasons why this is an unrealistic expectation. Zune for Mac? Hey, it’s still possible. In the meantime, I’m happily shuttling my iRiver U10 between my two Windows PCs and two Macs. -PK

[Digital Rights Management]

Contrary to your article, Windows Media DRM has been very broadly adopted, particularly with the announcements by Motorola and Nokia that they’ll be supporting MTP and DRM in their media phones. We expect that adoption to grow rapidly.

Ed: For the record, and since I had to look it up to recall what I originally said, here’s my original statement: “very few companies want to pay a license fee for this technology because Apple’s dominance means there’s no market.” In fact, quite a few do, so technically this was unfair, though I believe I was trying to refer to the lack of Linux- and Mac-based players. But Dave has a point here, one I don’t argue with. -PK

Digital Rights Management

But, that doesn’t really address the crux of the issue, which is that:

1) DRM is a tool, most people confuse their frustration/unhappiness with protected content as being a function of the DRM when it really is a function of the business rules the content owners decide upon when they encode their content. The same Windows Media DRM was implemented by the folks behind “Weed” (www.weedshare.com) which enabled the sharing of media on Kazaa, BitTorrent, etc… The flexibility is absolutely there – provided the major record labels decide that is the way they want to go.

2) People confuse digitally downloaded content with CDs. People assume they have the same rights to use digitally downloaded content as they do CDs. In fact, in many countries it is still technically against the rules to rip CDs for playback on devices. Digital downloads come with a very different set of conditions which most people ignore when they install their player, or purchase the content. While I wish digital downloads were more flexible in usage just like the rest of us – I acknowledge the right of the content owner to dictate the usage rules.

Bottom line – and the point I’ll make in my rebuttal is simply that as musicians we probably all believe in the right of the owner of content to decide how that content should be sold. As a muso, I have some of my own content available on my website for free download – I’m cool with that. However, the owners of the mainstream music that we like to listen to have decided that they want to play by different rules. And that is fair enough – as consumers it is our responsibility to decide whether those rules are going to work for us or not. If not, go buy a CD or if so, download to your hearts content on some subscription site.

But… in neither case is it really fair to blame the DRM mechanism for simply enforcing rules laid down by another party.

Musicians, Choice, and DRM Alternatives

Ed: The above prompted me to suggest that musicians might want to consider selling directly to consumers. -PK

I completely understand your point about musicians and electing not to go the route of DRM. There really is no reason why someone couldn’t open a store selling un-DRM’d independent content. You could still sell in WMA format, but give 99% of income back to the artist and not wrap the tracks in DRM.

Or… you could wrap them in DRM, but allow infinite transfers, burns, copies, etc… with no license expiration.

So far the major online stores haven’t seen the value in this, but the opportunity still exists. I for one would be willing to try it with my music…

Ed.: The major online stores would be happy not to do this and take a sizable cut for the privelage; I think it’ll be musicians doing their own sales and pocketing the change. Dave, if you try it, I’ll put my money where my mouth is! But regardless, there’s nothing stopping you from listening to non-DRMed WMA — or OGG or MP3 — on your Windows Media-based iRiver clix. -PK

There’s plenty to debate on all sides, but it’s nice to have discussion that’s open and based on accurate information. I really appreciate the time Dave took to talk about these issues so thoughtfully and in such detail.