We have all said that if the music industry would start gettinig innovative, it might prop up the sagging sales. We have so many choices these days, unlike 20 years ago. Well, here is a new idea that may just to the trick for some.
Last month, UmixIt Technologies, a joint venture between Enterprise Golden Hawk, LLC and Webster Hall Records, announced a business and technology alliance with Cakewalk, developer and publisher of sound software for Windows. Cakewalk will power the UmixIt technology that will let music buyers make their own mixes of songs by their favorite artists'”whilst Microsoft's digital rights technology will ensure that artist copyrights are 100% protected.
"We are excited to take technologies usually available only to professional studios and present them in a way that's accessible to all music fans," commented Michael Hoover, VP of products and marketing for Cakewalk. "We take great pride in our involvement with UmixIt, empowering artists to offer a new, exciting experience to their fans without concerns of piracy."
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Boston-based music software developer Cakewalk is known for such digital audio workstation products as SONAR 3, the core technology for the Media Mixer. Inserting a UmixIt-enabled CD into a Windows PC launches the Media Mixer, which includes a standard-type DAW mix window with various mixing and editing features including mute and solo. Users can create their own mix of the six separate tracks loaded on the CD, as well as add their own instrumental or vocal parts to two additional tracks. Tracks are encoded with a proprietary Cakewalk tool that performs Windows Media 9 Series encoding and applies Microsoft-developed digital rights management. UmixIt Music Technologies is a joint venture between Webster Hall Records and Enterprise Goldenhawk. The latter was co-founded by James DeVito -- the 17-year-old musician -- and his sister Marissa with help from their father, producer (and longtime Columbia Records exec) Don DeVito. Webster Hall Records, like the popular New York nightclub of that name, is run by Lon Ballinger and his family. |
This is
an example of added value for the CD that may be needed in order to compete in the hot entertainment market. Interactive content is an especially nice addition. We have come to expect more in our optical content purchases, after all, DVD movies have added extras for a long time.
Thinking like this can help to re-capture market share for the audio CD and is to be commended. You can read the whole article here. Let's just hope good ideas like this keep coming. According to the Reuters article, Webster Hall Records have released "Tranzworld Vol. 8," compiled and produced by German duo the Warp Brothers and sets by Man With Van and Uunique, using this technique. Good job Webster Hall Records, Cakewalk and UmixIt. Oh, and dare I say it? Microsoft.
Source: Reuters
