Part Two: Music industries on the Internet
Early attempts at digital music delivery
In March 1993, the International Federation of Phonographic Industries issued Music Industry, Electronic Delivery and Copyright, a report which is quoted as stating that "it would be contrary to all logical expectation if electronic delivery did not substantially supplement, if not replace, the existing retail systems for marketing phonograms".[12]
Two months later, IBM and Blockbuster proposed the first commercial system to realise the concept of digital music delivery. The scheme was to take the form of in-store manufacturing kiosks at Blockbuster's retail outlets - the company would store and transfer music files which could be written to CD on customer demand. The artwork and packaging could also be designed and assembled at the store. The intention was to streamline the process of music retailing for Blockbuster by decreasing the volume of stock warehoused and distributed, and by easing stocktaking problems.
Since the musical product would be distributed to the retailer via computer network directly into the company's sound file storage space, there would be little need for traditional distribution channels. The largest record companies, who also owned the largest distribution networks, objected to what they saw as a threat to their existence and refused to support the project by refusing to supply music should the project go ahead as planned. Since major labels represented 85% of total music sales at the time, this was a major blow to the development of the project, and to the concept of the electronic delivery of music in general. [13]
the Internet Underground Music Archive
The Internet Underground Music Archive was established in November 1993 by Robert Lord and Jeff Patterson, two students of the University of Santa Cruz who met on the Internet, and who were joined by Jon Luini, a musician who was in four bands at the time. Keen musicians themselves, the aim of the project was to promote unsigned bands by offering information to the world in the form of text, scanned band photographs and downloadable sound files . Utilising cutting edge technology at a time when the music establishment was firmly against electronic delivery, and proclaiming "the future of music distribution " [14], IUMA created for themselves an immense high profile in the media that began with the San Jose Mercury News in November 1993 and grew to include some of the most respected outlets in the US - Time, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Rolling Stone.
IUMA 's aims were clear –
to change music distribution as we know it. Even if IUMA don"t accomplish this task, at least we are showing people that free distribution over long ranges without an actual material product is possible. We are showing that bands with little commercial appeal, and no money, can now reach thousands (actually, millions) of people who might be potential fans. [14]
Music was submitted to IUMA free of charge, and encoded using MPEG technology. A media kit of the band was then constructed, which included a text file of the band's biography, product ordering and contact details, a bitmap of the product's artwork, usually between 40 and 70Kb in size, and up to five minutes of digitised music. The process of preparing sound files for the Internet included
sampling with 64x over-sampling -89dB SNR sound digitiser at 44.1kHz in stereo (that's true CD quality), then compressed from 13.7:1 to 6:1, depending on the original's sound quality, using the MPEG sound compression standard. [15]
The resulting sound files were between 1Mb and 5Mb in size, with a mono recording half the size of its stereo equivalent.
The entire package would be between 1 and 5Mb in size, with the average song around 2 or 3Mb.These details could be downloaded by anyone with Internet access and listened to using special decoding software which could also be downloaded free of charge from IUMA 's site.
The company began as an ftp (file transfer protocol) site where the text, audio and image files were available for downloading separately, but in keeping with IUMA 's use of new technologies, a World Wide Web site was soon developed, accessible via the Web's first navigator/browser, Mosaic . Mosaic allowed IUMA to create an user-friendlier graphical interface between music fans and the company's featured bands. Though Mosaic offered none of the advanced page layout features which became standard with the development of Hypertext Mark-up Language - background colour, text wrapping, borders, tables, forms - it did offer an aesthetically-pleasing site that became a definitive point of contact for music fans connected to the Internet.
As the Internet grew in popularity and unsigned bands sold more products due to their inclusion on IUMA 's site; the company developed their site and extended their services.
Homepage of the Internet Underground Music Archive
There are now links to other services for unsigned bands, such as an A&R service which links to major labels, the Berger Joint - an exposition magazine for IUMA 's featured bands, and a sound library which has grown considerably over the past five years. Inclusion on IUMA 's site was originally free, though a donation was suggested. Eventually, IUMA began charging a fee for the service, starting at $20, then $70, and has now reached $240 for their basic service. This includes one song, up to two pages of text, two images and online merchandising capability, as well as some optional extras. As well as the original MPEG format, sound files are now available from IUMA 's site in Liquid Audio, Real Audio and uncompressed digital audio (.au) formats.
The problems encountered by IUMA along the way were the same as those encountered by anyone who was to dabble in electronic distribution of music over the Internet, and led to the music establishment frowning upon this new technology and dismissing the Internet as a passing fad. The main problems with distributing music on the Internet were summarised by Billboard in an article on IUMA in February 1994 -
- "There are limitations to the Internet . The system is notoriously difficult to navigate, and because no-one is actually in charge of the network, there appears to be no effort to make it more user-friendly."
- "There are technical limitations...It can take as long as thirty minutes to transfer a three-minute song over phone lines, depending on the connection and the user's equipment."
- There were also "problems with the protection and payment of copyright holders. In an attempt to side-step the establishment, Lord and Patterson have walked into a minefield of legal questions that are just now coming to the fore in the copyright community". (Billboard, February 1994.)
the Bulletin Board System (BBS)
The Bulletin Board System is a type of community software that allows individuals to dial up private networks to interact and trade opinions with others who share similar interests.
The BBS systems were an important part of creating the "virtual community" that has become associated with the World Wide Web over the past few years - a feat which was technically unachievable before the development of the Mosaic /Netscape browser software. Speciality music bulletin boards were the electronic equivalent of fan clubs, being a place for likeminded individuals to meet and discuss their favourite artists or genres, but were far more interactive than traditional fan clubs.
Demand for BBS increased rapidly in the late 1980s and early 90s and many specialist music bulletin boards appeared. Early music bulletin boards include SonicNet, Rocktropolis, Jazz Online and Cyberden, all of which extended their services and online presence into Web-based systems. The aim of this integration into the World Wide Web was to extend the reach of the community served by each company and to embrace newcomers to the Internet, especially since many users left the BBS system for the World Wide Web as its accessibility increased. [16]
Music sites have reacted differently to their relocation to the Internet . Jazz Oline's original ambition was to become the Internet's Jazz hub, and offered several interactive services, including the Jazz Jukebox, Jazz Radio Online, Jazz Catalogues Online, Jazz Times Online, The Jazz Graphics Art Gallery, CD Cover Graphics Gallery and Jazz Education Online. The company even provided Web development services for the larger jazz labels (Blue Note, Warner Jazz and Verve) before reinventing itself as a much more streamlined, highly targeted online jazz magazine.
Jazz Online homepage (July 1998)
Rocktropolis developed its concept of a "virtual city" when the company was purchased by N2K in early 1996, and now comprises part of the rock family of N2K's large network of music sites.
Rocktropolis homepage (6th July 1998)
SonicNet, the BBS company which has achieved the greatest success on the Web, were less concerned about presenting music guides online, but rather, focussed on presenting music news and online music events. The site offered big name chats and cybercasts, online events and music news long before many of today's hi-tech sites. As a result, SonicNet have become one of the most dynamic music sites on the Internet, constantly upgrading and developing its services in the fast-moving world of Internet technologies.