Digital Music Frontier

Before I finally finish my “Organize Your Music” series, which I swear I’m working on, I’d like to just point out that there was some not-so-new news today.

Yeah, Apple finally got around to making the new DRM-free EMI catalog available. I think it is clear to most people by now that this is only the beginning and we will see more and more music become available without restrictions. It is inevitable.

As far as getting a hold of the new DRM-free tunes, Engadget ran a great piece today on how to set it up.

So now that you have found some new music and amassed a terribly large collection of Mp3’s (in my case, 80 GB’s worth), the question becomes, how do you organize and listen to all those songs?

I have a few suggestions to help you organize all that data into something listenable.

Note: The first-first step when doing anything with your Mp3’s, should be to back them up. External hard drives are cheap and easy to use. Don’t be scared. Go get one and hook it up, before doing anything else. Also, I use iTunes, so many of my suggestions are iTunes-centric, and may or may not work with some other player/libraries.

Part I: Fix the tags - In most cases, you’re probably going to have some tag issues. You don’t have all the album artwork, your songs have incorrect track names, etc. This is probably the hardest part of organizing your collection. There really isn’t an easy fix to this problem. You will, at some point, have to go in there and make some changes. (Arrrgggghh!!!) There are, however, some ways to make this process a little less time consuming and frustrating.

Download Media Monkey - Now. I mean right now! Okay, this is only a solution for PC’s, but even if you use iTunes on your PC, download this. Trust me, it will make things a lot easier. You can run it in addition to using iTunes. With Media Monkey you can find files that need fixing a lot easier, as well as using the automatic track information lookup feature to grab all those missing album covers that iTunes couldn’t. Yay!

Tip: I used Media Monkey before moving all my songs over to my new iMac. If you’re planning on making the switch to Mac anytime soon, I recommend doing this first. And if you can’t use Media Monkey because you are already on a Mac, I will talk about some different ways to go about this in my next post. So stay tuned.

Get Rid of The “Unknown Artist” and “Track Number 2’s.” There are some programs (like MusicBrainz ) that will lookup track information based on the length of the song and any other information you may already have and then make a recommendation as to what song it thinks it is. Personally, I wouldn’t bother. If it isn’t already tagged, and you can’t tell right away what it needs to be changed to, it probably isn’t worth trying to figure it out. Save yourself some time and cut the cord. (I know, it’s hard. And you might even lose some good tunes, but remember that we’re trying to organize here.)

Tip: As I mentioned earlier, back up your Mp3’s. Not only will this protect you in the event of a catastrophe occurring, but it will also free you psychologically to make what might otherwise be difficult decisions.)

Part II (Optional): Let iTunes Organize Your Music Files - Since you have already backed up your music files (Yes?), and backed them up a second time, in a new folder, after having cut a few loose and fixed most of the tags, you can now feel secure in letting iTunes move some files around on your hard drive. This step isn’t absolutely necessary, but it does organize things a bit, and may help you out in the future. Go into the iTunes preferences section and select “Keep iTunes Music folder organized.” It might take a little while if you have a big collection.

Now’s a good time to breathe, shake out your fingers, and close your eyes for a minute. We’re getting there, I swear.

I’m going to stop here for now, but my next post will cover some more helpful (and hopefully less painful) steps including, “Using Smart Playlists,” “Using Mp3 Gain,” and “Editing Tags in iTunes.”

But if you just can’t wait, Lifehacker has some great ideas that might help you out.

Oh, and by the way, if you’re on a PC, there is a new way to get rid of that pesky iTunes DRM.

- Apparently, Steve Jobs hasn’t changed his mind on the subscription model, yet. “Never say never, but customers don’t seem to be interested in it,” said Jobs, to Reuters. “People want to own their music.”

Um, yes, this is one of many reasons why eMusic is doing so well. You subscribe to a plan, but also own the music. It gives the labels some certainty, while still allowing people to own the music they download. Sure it would cost quite a bit more, if it involved the major labels, but a hybrid subscription model, like eMusic, from iTunes would be hugely popular.

- Hypebot argues that Apple isn’t really into the whole DRM-free thing. If Apple wanted to, says hypebot, they could have had indie labels selling DRM-free music already. While it’s true that they could have had indies selling DRM-free music (like eMusic) on iTunes, I think that Apple is more concerned right now with putting pressure on the majors. The indies will fall into place later, by their logic. This Reuters article seems to back me up.

- Coming in “late-June”…the iPhone…I wouldn’t be surprised if this inches back even further from the early-June date they gave in January.

Okay, so I’ve been away for a while. Blogger was creating some real headaches for me so I went ahead and did the inevitable and switched to Wordpress. As you might imagine, the transition wasn’t easy for a blogging newbie like myself, but, I made it…Finally.

Anyway, it was a busy week, and one of the major stories this week involved a new competitor to the iPod, the Sansa Connect.

The Sansa Connect is a 4GB flash-based Mp3 player with wireless capability. With a decent WiFi connection, the Sansa Connect will allow users to connect (I’m seeing a theme developing here) to the Yahoo music service.

I’m not going to do a full analysis, partly because there are already some very good ones, here and here. What is really interesting, though, is how this could effect the nature of next-generation Mp3 players, like the next iPod and the iPhone.

Last week, there was a report that within six months Apple may add a subscription service to its digital music empire.

WiFi devices like the Sansa Connect will make these subscription services more attractive. With the ability to download songs and switch internet-radio style playlists on the go, WiFi Mp3 players give the music fan more ways to listen to and buy music. And as David Card from JupiterResearch Analyst Weblogs points out, this will only increase the chances of a “jukebox in the sky” music future.

In the short term, though, the Sansa Connect may not be the answer. As attractive as it is, it doesn’t have a keypad, so users won’t be able to do a whole lot with the WiFi connection.

There is a device coming out, however, that will have a keypad and an internet connection. The Apple iPhone. Assuming Apple allows users of the new phone to access the iTunes Music Store and make downloads on the go, this will make a big impact going forward. It is also rumored that the next-gen iPod will have WiFi connectivity. Giving consumers the choice to buy and listen to whatever they want, whenever and wherever, can only help the music industry.

Now that one of the majors, EMI, has agreed to drop DRM from their music sold over the Internet, the question becomes if and when the rest of the major labels will follow suit.

I believe that it will be sooner rather than later, but others disagree.

Brian Garrity of Billboard writes,

“Sources at rival major labels are expressing annoyance that EMI is ‘recklessly’ jumping head first into a DRM-free environment without what they view as adequate research and testing about the impact on sales, piracy or consumer demand.The other major labels remain concerned that selling music sans DRM will cannibalize sales. And some label sources are also expressing dismay that EMI’s effort undercuts the industry’s ability to correct the security problems that have plagued the CD format by creating a completely secure commercial environment for digital music.”

I’m sure the other major labels are very disappointed in this move by EMI, the smallest of the major record labels. I think the labels were hoping that they could–with all the DRM restrictions–coax people into buying the same music they already owned on CD, tape, vinyl, yet another time.

But Apple has slowly been pulling them in the opposite direction. First, Apple allowed it’s iPod’s to play unprotected songs–ripped music from CD’s and illegally downloaded music–which is something that Sony didn’t do (and look at how well that worked out for them). And now, it will beginning selling unprotected songs.

The labels have already despaired over how digital downloads of single songs from iTunes have contributed to the slump in CD sales, but sooner or later, the music industry is going to have to find a way to make money selling digital downloads online.

As I have written previously (here and here), and as others have written–most recently, Mark Cuban–the CD as a viable music format is rapidly dying. I mean, really, when was the last time you got home from Best Buy, wrestled the plastic wrap off the plastic case and immediately put the CD in your Discman? Come on! Sure there will be audiophiles and people like my parents who will still buy CD’s, but for the most part the future is in digital downloads.

Brian Garrity from Billboard goes on to say that ‘retail sources’ think it could take a few months to up to 2 years for the other labels to switch to selling their music without DRM on iTunes.

It is pretty apparent that the other major labels are now just going to wait and see how well EMI does with this new deal. If EMI does well, they might drop their firm stand with DRM, but if not, they will try to paint it as evidence that not only does DRM-free not work, but that DRM needs to work.

Maybe more importantly though, is if independent labels make the jump. I know many fans of independent artists would love to buy their music on iTunes, but don’t because of the lower-than-CD quality and DRM. If the independents, who have double the market share of EMI in the U.S., start selling DRM-free high quality downloads and have success, the other majors may be forced into changing their stance or risk losing market share.

I tend to agree with Steve Jobs that by the end of the year around 50% of the music available on iTunes will be DRM-free. The other majors will budge, not necessarily because EMI has huge success, but because they risk losing market share to EMI and the independents.

Essentially, EMI has forced the other majors into a corner. EMI has given the consumers who do actually buy music more incentive to buy their music rather than the music on the other major labels.

So now, the other labels have to make a decision. Unfortunately for them, that decision has already been made.