Normally when we hear of radios getting promotional music or samples, they usually get them on CD from the labels ready to play over the radio or review. With music often pirated before the albums or singles officially hit the stores, many music labels are aiming to move to a more secure method of promotional music distribution.
Digital Media Technologies, inc. has announced its own proprietary digital distribution system known as Promo Only MPE 1.1. This software can download entire albums and samples online and offers previews with multiple label support. When a user downloads a song, a unique ID is embedded in the song which is unique to the user and their PC. The track is also encrypted and locked to the user's PC. Each song access is also tracked, thus allowing the labels to see who is accessing what tracks.
So far, Promo Only has exceeded 1,500 registered users using its service and Universal Music Group (UMG) has made use of the service to securely distribute over 200 tracks to radio broadcasters. With multi-label support, Promo Only is aiming to take on more record labels.
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"The new build was modified with the customers' ease of use in mind," said Dean Ernst, Director of the MPE project at Promo Only. "The response to version 1.1 has been unprecedented and reflective of the overwhelming number of users signed-on to date." Promo Only MPE has a highly sophisticated security system that locks down the distributed content and allows labels to track who is accessing their property. Each song is uniquely encrypted so that only those with the MPE program can access it. In addition, an ID code specific to each individual user is applied when a song is requested; meaning that only registered users can access the song and, once installed, the ID cannot be moved to unauthorized computers. Read the full article here. |
While this method may stop or make it difficult for radio presenters to pirate promotional content for review, this will unlikely stop any listener from recording the songs off the radio, especially when it comes to higher quality digital radio. For example, even if the recorded quality may not be the same as the original promotional track, it will not stop someone from placing the recorded track online.
To the unsuspecting P2P downloader, most would assume as long as the tracks sound fine from start to finish, they must have been sourced from the original media. In fact, in previous years when cassette recorders and tapes were popular some people use to tape their favourite tracks off the radio. In one case, I heard a listener call into a radio station to request a song, but the caller said that she wanted to record it. Then the radio presenter started going on about illegal taping, however he did play the requested song. Oops. :p
Source: Music Industry News Network
