So, I’m finally getting some quality time to myself, sitting down listening to some music on my Media Center, controlling iTunes from my iPod Touch. Maybe I’ll listen to the new Duffy album I just bought. (I like buying music. Hell, if I’m not gonna buy someone else’s, why should I expect anyone to buy mine!)And hey, it’s great! I wonder who produced it? And who arranged that great Warwick Avenue track? Where was it recorded?

Now, of course, If I’d bought the CD, I’ve have all those details, or some of them anyway. But who buys CDs anymore? Crappy plastic jewel cases that just break when you open them, oversized discs designed in 1982 with the storage capacity of, well, a crappy CD. Heck, I’ve got a nosering that can store 10 uncompressed CDs worth of audio on it, and it won’t scratch either (though it does chafe a bit when I put it in).

So, I’m stuck staring at a thumbnail of Duffy, which is not all bad, but not entirely satisfying either. Sure I could go to Google and Wikipedia and find out about Duffy’s blocked nasal passages and the foiled plot to kill her stepfather (true!), but that’s not the point. I want the propaganda! I want the edited version. I want to know how much Duffy and her record company want me to know! I want the digital equivalent of a 12″ sleeve, preferably a gatefold. But I’m still staring at a thumbnail of Duffy. And yeah, it could be worse, but it’s not what I want.

And then I got to thinking (in a Carrie Bradshaw kind of way, but hopefully not as vacuous), about all the music that’s been illegally downloaded over the past few years. Billions of dollars of the stuff, allegedly, if you believe the record companies. Because every time someone downloaded that really disappointing Madonna album no-one could listen to more than once because it was so rubbish, they “literally” robbed €17.99 from the music industry’s pocket. Of course, this is a very dumb way of measuring the losses due to illegal downloads, and everyone knows it.

But then, why do people download illegally? Because it’s easier than buying online? That used to be true, but not so much anymore. Even without a credit card kids can use services like textatrack.co.uk to buy music on their mobile phones.

Do people illegally download just because they can? Sure, maybe to an extent, but we could all walk out of a supermarket without paying and quite likely get away with it, but we don’t.

So why do people do it? The answer is painful and simple: they don’t believe music is worth it.

The music industry is in big trouble right now. Sales are on the floor, and that’s before the recession. The “illegal downloads are killing the industry” excuse doesn’t wash anymore. Even without the P2P nightmare, record companies are close to dying, and they need a lifeline. Simply put, record companies have got to figure out a way to put value back into music, as the perceived value of purchasing music for the average consumer has all but disappeared.

So what could they do to help the consumer rediscover the value of music? I think at least a small part of the answer is staring them right in the face. It’s the part I’m not staring at right now, as the cover of the Duffy album etches into my retinas. They need to find the digital media equivalent of “album art”.

You see, in the golden age of music buying, we never bought music purely for the music – it was all the other stuff as well! It wasn’t even just the 12″ sleeve, with all the nice artwork and the cool info. It was walking down the road with the 12″ sleeve under your arm which said “I like so and so,” but actually said much more. It said, “I belong”.

The possible synergies between handheld devices, social networks, media centers, cloud computing etc and music are endless. Imagine, for a start, more interactive digital artwork, with simple animations and interactivity; not just a pdf that the printer sent to the duplicator, but a flash-style version of it, which opens up for you as you listen to the album on your iPod

Or how about music videos that incorporate you into them? Add your photos and be part of the animation. Or, albums that automatically invite you to a special “discounted concert club”. Or songs that are actually little applications which allow you to remix them or add other elements etc, even ones which store the actual patches/sounds used so you can play or even change the melody. I don’t know! Crazy stuff like that! I’m just making stuff up. Think of your own ideas!

Of course, the music industry have tried to use “multimedia” to sell, or enhance the sale of music, with things like extended CD-ROMs, or DVD/CD double sets, or album web sites. The problem in the past has always been that the device used for listening to music (CD player/MP3 player etc) and the device used to interact with the added value multimedia (the computer) were different, often in different places (sitting room/bedroom versus den/office), and most importantly were associated with different activities (pleasure versus work). Now, the devices are the same. THE SAME! This is big, big news for the music industry, but I’m not sure they even know it yet.

Just this week, Apple announced iPhone OS 3.0, which will,amongst other things, allow apps on your iPod to access the music on your iPod. It will also allow apps to incorporate e-commerce features. These sort of features, which will soon become available on all mobile OSes, if they aren’t already, could allow the music industry to leverage the newfound synergy between music player and mobile device which could be at least a small part of the saving of the music industry.

The search for the digital gatefold is on!

Tags: Digital Artwork, Music, Music Business, New Media

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 12 03123u31e01 ppm0131 3 123 3103e pm and is filed under Macintosh, Music, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.