[Moonshadow]

Is it the death of the album or the saviour of the music industry?

It might just be both.

From today consumers will be able to walk into a store, select up to 74 minutes of music from albums or singles, and walk out with their own compilation CD.

They will still pay, but only for the songs they want, not the B-sides, the album fillers or the vanity tracks only the singer's mother could love.

Sanity Music, through its Sanity, HMV and Virgin stores, will introduce "music kiosks" where customers can use touch screens and a vast digital library to order tracks and have the CD and packaging created on the spot.

Full Artical

Well if you can go in and select songs, why not movies (coming soon I guess).

But what caught me was the and have the CD and packaging created on the spot WOW instand CD Covers.

Means that places like this will get very busy when your DVD cover has some text on it and probably a VBF rating logo.

[JupiterPrime]

Ive been saying for years that Music should be like that - Id have no problem paying for the music I want, what I object to is paying for music I DONT want, and thats what I think made DL'ing music such a big issue.

I havent paid for a shred of music since the last millenium (HOW COOL IS THAT TO BE ABLE TO SAY THAT???)simply becasue I thought that MUSIC as an entity suffered greatly from the whole music downloading situation - artists felt they werent gonna make the jillions, so they didnt give a crap what they put on the track and I havent felt that the music we've gotten over the past 5 years has been worth a damn.....certainly nothing like we had since BEFORE the issue was an issue. The only thing that has seemed to survive is Rap and Hip/Hop music and lets be honest...who gives a shit? only the brutha's and the teenie boppers...you tune into any music channel any time of day....there it is....music is crap today...add to that all the American Idol propaganda, and it just leads to nowhere - commercialization...when radio stations play 20-minute commercial spots during the times you are in your car and you hear maybe 2 songs (or half a topic on any talk radio) on a 40 minute drive home....you have to wonder.

Ever since ive been able to buy my own tracks and pick and choose what goes on my CD, ive been experimenting with paying-per-track....so far ive been ok with it.....ill pay the 0.85 to 0.95 for a single track, but I want MASTER QUALITY just as I would have gotten if I bought the commercial CD....that is the issue....making sure you get the quality as well, and most people either dont know to check, or dont care, and that is a problem when the RIAA is able to make money bilking people for individual titles and giving crap quality and only giving the good quality to those who buy the whole Bullshit CD

if im paying for it, im paying for it whether Im buying 1 song or 15...i should get the premium quality either way.

[ozsplace]

I agree with JUP, there are so many songs on most cds that are utter crap. I would rather pay for a cd full of songs that I select then buy 5-6 cds to get the songs I want. I don't remember that last time I bought a cd and I used to work in a music store...

[gbk33]

Well said JP. That has been my biggest problems with place like iTunes. It may be fine for the 13 yr old who doesn't care, but I do care about the quality. They don't even give you the option of what choosing the compression for mp3's. If you want higher quality, then you have to choose their proprietary format. They will always be looking for new ways to rip us off. The RIAA is nothing but a bunch of Lawyers in sales postions.

[gbk33]

on Moonshadow's comment about eventually having the same option with DVDs - might be kinda cool to put something like the Star Wars Trilogy on a single Blu-Ray disc. I might be getting ahead of myself.

[JupiterPrime]

In keeping with the topic, I honestly couldnt say what the situation holds in regards for movies, becasue we're not really comparing apples and oranges...15-16 tracks on a CD, one movie on a DVD - where's the comparrison?

Now with the whole BlueRay or HdDVD, whichever way that goes, there is a possibility of of something like what GBK says....I'll tell you how I would like to see it...walking in to a store and visiting the "DisckDemand" video kiosk and going: (and mind you....FULL QUALITY is key, so there should be no compressing of data - it either fits or doesnt fit from Master Quality)

1. SdDVD or BlueRay disc? (pressing BlueRay)
2. This media has "Z" capacity availalbe - Please select your content:
2A. Select "Contact" (and then pick which special features to go with it...commentary, subtitles, extras, etc.)
2A1. That requires "A" bandwidth..."Z-A" remaining - More? End?
2B. Select "Dune (Dino DeLaurentis)" ...add specific features...
2B1. That requires "B" bandwidth..."Z-(A+B)" remaining - More? End?
2C. Select "Return of the King" ...add specific features...
2C1. Maximium Bandwidth has been exceeded by "(A+B+C)-Z" Please make an alternate selection
2D. Select "ALIENS" ...add specific features...
2D1. That requires "D" bandwidth..."Z-(A+B+D)" remaining - Due to media bandwitdh limitation, no further selections from the available databse can be added.
3. Confirm Selections, subtotal cost
4. Confirm subtotal
5. Continuous Play? or Menu Selecable Arrangement? (adding menu will add "M" bandwidth and will incur an addition cost of $2.50)
6. Confirm Play options
7. Compile disc
8. Process complete

"Your movie compilation disc is being prepared and will require "X" time to press (Stamp, not purple bottom burn). Your order number is "Disc101". Please take this receipt to the Video Department desk after "X" time has elapsed, to retrieve your media...Thank You for using hte DiskDemand Recording Kiosk"

Yeah...I could live with something like that.

[gbk33]

you should try and sell that idea. I'd buy discs like that. It would make the cover requests section at places like this crazy. "Um yeah, could somebody make me a cover that has Contact, Dune, and Aliens with these special features, and could I have it by Friday, ummm yeah, thanks."

[JupiterPrime]

well the cover situation is a completely detached issue - we're just talking about being able to custom make your MOVIE collection, in much the same way we can currently custom make our MUSIC collections.

I dont think that its a very viable option, but you just know that some shmuck at the MPAA or some major studio is dreaming it up and figuring out how to best screw the customer at the same time.....why? because for the very reason in your previous thread....it will complelety negate the need and nullify the usefullness and usability for sites like "these", which will make all the studios dance in the streets, somewhat effective putting a damper on piracy with reagrd to a "niche" customization genre that would be able to moderately hold its own in relation to the single product option

[joliom]

All those music kiosks they're carrying on about are only offering 128 kbps MP3/AAC/WMA files on a CD-R with the option of adding a label. It's no different then what you can (and probably already are) doing at home right now. I suppose it's nice for folks who don't own a computer, or have internet access or a printer, but for the rest of us it isn't much of a revelation. Like Jupiter said, I would only be interested if they offered uncompressed WAV files, pressed discs rather than burned ones, or silk-screened labels. Otherwise, who cares?

[sf49ers_08_80]

I can't imagine that this will be that successful.