Windows 7 NOT good for Recording???

Lifehacker is reporting that Windows 7 DRM prevents any kind of software audio capture. 

One rather feisty (and—surprise!—Linux-savvy) Slashdot reader writes about his DRM discoveries in Windows 7. Along with complaints about seemingly big-software-friendly firewall access and registration DLLs, the author's chief discovery is that Windows 7 doesn't allow for any kind of software audio capture. In other words, if you've got one application playing sound, Windows 7 doesn't seem to allow you to use your same sound card to also grab the audio from that app.

I find this hard to believe.

First up, a LINUX savvy Slashdot reader? 

Really? 

Secondly, doesn't this describe the practice of monitoring what you're recording. I've played a little with the Win7 beta, and didn't have any issues listening to what I was recording (finding stable sound card drivers on the other hand).

Admittedly I didn't spend a LOT of time playing with it (I had work to do). 

Is anyone out there having issues with this?

DRM: Windows 7 Seemingly Blocks Audio Capture @ Lifehacker 

(Oh, and the pic is of my BRAND NEW AKG C 414 B-XLS Condenser Microphone! Woot!)

News Sound Bites - Napster, Sony, Golden Globes and More!

CorePlayer (a play anything media player Windows Mobile users have been using for a while) comes to the iPhone. Play any file, not just what Apple wants you to play!

Sony's plans for DRM-Free Music are retarded! I mean this in the truest sense of the word, as in "to retard progress".

In other DRM news, Napster is going DRM free, likely give up on subscription service?

NO GOLDEN GLOBES FOR YOU! ONE YEAR!!!

Your iPhone can now be used to help you figure out what that song on the radio is...

Sierra Entertainment touting Prototype as the first Video Game to feature 7.1 THX surround sound audio. Sounds good to me.

Odeo relaunching, to become relevant again?

MetaFilter users wax philosophical on the Death of High Fidelity (not the movie), and I agree.

Antitrust lawsuit against Apple?

Well, when one company occupies such a large percentage of the online audio/video market and hardware market, it's bound to come up eventually...

Information Week is reporting on Plaintiff Stacie Somers who filed suit on Dec 31 (Happy New Year?), claiming Apple maintains an illegal monopoly on the digital music market.

Apparently the major point of contention is Apple's unwillingness to support protected media from sources other than iTunes.

The complaint takes issue with Apple's refusal to support the Windows Media Audio format. "Apple's iPod is alone among mass-market Digital Music Players in not supporting the WMA format," it states, noting that America Online, Wal-Mart, Napster, MusicMatch, Best Buy, Yahoo Music, FYE Download Zone, and Virgin Digital all support protected WMA files.

The suit goes on to claim that even though the iPod is physically capable of playing protected media from sources other than iTunes, this feature is deliberately crippled in the player's software.

What I'm unclear on, and what the article doesn't really elaborate on, is the injury to the consumer.

As for the injury to consumers, the complaint says that Apple's pricing is "monopolistic, excessive, and arbitrary," citing how a wholesale $5.52 price difference between 1-Gbyte ($4.15) and 4-Gbyte ($9.67) NAND flash memory modules results in a $100 retail price difference between 1-Gbyte iPod Nano and a 4-Gbyte Nano.
If the complaint is with the software, I don't understand what the price inflation of the hardware has to do with that, other than the obvious claim of collusion with memory makers.

Another interesting point (briefly touched on) is the recent popularity of DRM free music (Sony recently caving for example), and it's unclear what impact that might have on the suit.

Apple of course has no comment.

Read the whole article here @ Information Week

News Sound Bites

Blu-Ray BD profile 1.1, any good? Only two players can use it right now anyway...

Sony sees the light, and drops DRM, is the last major label to do so!

Sirius denied merger, in the red $1.3 billion, subscribers up 38%, good year?

Chuck D wants Def Jam, has 4 point plan to fix it!

Variety: Hollywood discovers Voice Acting more than just "talking"...

CNet slams Washington Post for not correcting RIAA story.

Guardian delivers HUGE collection of niche music sites!

Upgrading your computer monitor might cause DRM conflict in Vista, block Netflix, invalidate other legitimate purchases, only bother paying customers...

Deaf Porn? (via Wired, links on following site might be NSFW)

Avoid "Red Sauce" on your iTunes, buy the real thing instead...

Blu-Ray Playback Problems Linked to Copy Protection?

You all know how I feel about DRM and copy protection.
I'm pretty much against any ACTIVE protection. I'm a big fan of watermarking and passive protection. Basically any protection that prevents people from playing the content equals, and anything that will link the content back to who originally owned it equals good.
I think content needs to be payed for, and if you buy something and are dumb enough to put it up on the web, well that's your problem...

My problem with active protection is that it doesn't work. It only prevents the paying customers from watching it the way they want to. Anyone who wants to get around it will.

Case in point, Sony's latest batch of Blu-Ray's "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer" and "Day After Tomorrow", both chock full of Sony's latest copy protection, dont play well with older Blu-Ray players by Samsung and LG. There have been other problems reported with BD+ Copy Protection, but usually with special features content not the movies themselves.

Highdefdigest.com has the scoop:

The most severe problems have been reported on Samsung's BDP-1200
and LG's BH100, which are both said to be incapable of playing back the
discs at all. Less catastophic issues (error messages and playback
stutter) have been reported for Samsung's BDP-1000. The discs appear to
play back fine on all other Blu-ray players (including the PlayStation
3), although users have reported lengthy load times of up to two
minutes.
It has been widely speculated that these issues stem from the use of
BD+ copy protection on the two discs. We contacted Fox for comment, but
so far there's no official word from the studio.
Calls placed to both Samsung and LG customer support revealed that
both manufacturers are aware of the issue, and that both are working on
firmware updates to correct it. Samsung promised a firmware update
within "a couple" weeks, while LG said an update is expected in 3-4
days.

Read the rest here.

Piracy hurts Box Office? ... Even During Record Setting Summer?

There is a fantastic article up over at Ars Technica that pretty much sums up how I've felt about the MPAA/RIAA's war on "Piracy".

Despite concerns about the extent of piracy, the movie business has
pulled in record revenues this summer, earning more than $4 billion in
box revenues in the US alone.

Media by Numbers, which tracks such things, estimates that the industry will rake in $4.15 billion
(PDF) by the end of Labor Day. That's despite record-high average
ticket prices of $6.85, up $0.30 from a year ago. That's even despite
claims that piracy is on the rise, and it's harming the industry.

It couldn't be that the movies were just a lot better this year?

It goes on to talk about the lack of forward thinking for technologies. Pretty much the same trap that the Music industry fell into around Napster. If anyone had embraced mp3 back then , I don't think music would be as de-valued as it is today (at least in album form).

Watching the Movie industry scramble to come up with newer and more confusing copy protections (which are usually cracked within weeks
09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0), is pretty self destructive. These measures only serve to stop average consumers from using the content in a legitimate manner. Trust me, anyone who really wants to get around these copy protection schemes will be able to, but those just looking for the convenience of popping in a cassette tape will be sorely disappointed. Something tells me it'll most likely get worse before it gets better.

It's all wrapped up in this "consumers are pirates" mentality (read here for my take on "piracy"). Just because suits can't understand what this technology means, it perpetuates this idea of everyone trying to steal from them. If they would just consider this from a consumers point of view, for just a second, they could stand to make SO much more money. I'll give you two options:

1. Drive to store. Browse limited selection. Pick best of what they have. Wait in line at cash register. Pay, and then be asked for your receipt as you leave by big burly rent-a-cop that saw you pay. Drive home. Spend about 5 minutes or so dealing with plastic wrap, stickers, tabs. Pop DVD in player. Sit through trailers. Sit through commercials. Sit through FBI Warning. Sit through commercial telling you Piracy is wrong. Get to Disc Menu. Play movie.

2. Browse for exactly the movie you want online. Wait about 3-4 hours for it to download (over broadband of course). Burn it to disc. Pop it in DVD player. DVD menu pops up. Watch Movie.

Now, obviously today option 1 is legit Best Buy style, and option 2 is file-sharing, but what if some forward thinking exec saw option 2 and said "Wow, the consumers have already created a business model for us. All we have to do is slap a price tag on it".

Let's say option one is $14.99, and option 2 were $9.99 (no packaging, no shipping, no stocking, no paying snotty employees - just pure profit after data costs) which one would you rather patron?

Check out the Ars Technica article it is a great summary of whats going on, and where we could be.

Sony euthanizes Sony Connect

So long Sony Connect, we hardly knew ye. I don't even use iTunes, so truthfully I've never come close to checking out Connect. I'm also not fond of content being locked down into a particular format that can only be played on a particular player. MP3 might not be technically the best, but man, I can play them on my grill if I need to.

This story from Arstechnica discusses some of the challenges facing Connect customers.

Sony's love for proprietary formats and desire to create a closed music-hardware ecosystem à la Apple did it in. Its insistence on sticking with a proprietary format supported only by its own digital audio players garnered little love from consumers distracted not only by the iPod, but by the large number of WMA-compatible PlaysForSure devices.

Sony has posted a Connect Music Service Phase Out FAQ, which offers technical guidance to those who purchased music from Sony's online story. Sony's SonicStage software and older hardware will continue to support ATRAC, but the company says that those who purchased DRMed ATRAC content should rip the music to CD and then re-rip it to MP3 if they want it to play on the new Walkmans. Sony also notes that consumers will be able to continue to use the music in their SonicStage libraries and on players supporting ATRAC after Sony Connect closes. The Connect eBook service will continue to operate after the music store closes.

At least Sony will continue to support DRMed music sold through Sony Connect. When Google decided to close the virtual doors to the Google Video Store earlier this month, the search giant informed its customers that the closure would render the videos unplayable, offering them a Google Checkout credit in lieu of an actual refund instead. After heavy criticism, the company then had a change of heart, promising to issue refunds for purchased videos along with the Google Checkout credits. That's one of the dangers of DRMed content—if the company behind it decides to get out of the business, you may be left unable to view or listen to your content.

That and this quote from the Digg story is just plain fun.

If a music store closes on the Internet and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? Sony has decided that it wasn't cut out for the online music business after all.

read more | digg story

Google to Offer Refunds for their Premium Video Service

Quick follow up to a story I posted last week, Google will be offering refunds to customers that had purchased content through their premium video service.

"We planned to give these users a full refund or more. And because we weren't sure if we had all the correct addresses, latest credit card information, and other billing challenges, we thought offering the refund in the form of Google Checkout credits would entail fewer steps and offer a better user experience. We should have anticipated that some users would see a Checkout credit as nothing more than an extra step of a different (and annoyingly self-serving) kind. Our bad. Here's how we're hoping to fix things:"

This is all well and good, but really I'd still have liked to see some effort made at changing up this business model. I know Google's hands are tied by the studios, but some push into unlocking the DRM would've been nice. I mean, this content will just be gone once it's no longer supported.

I just find it sad that the music industry is just starting to figure out how to make money on audio again, and instead of the movie industry learning from that, we'll all just have to wait while they stumble around for a couple more years...

Read the rest here @ Google's Blog

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Can't earn enough from CD sales? Sell live concert recordings on USB sticks

I think this is a fantastic idea! How sweet would that be to walk out of a concert and just ... well ... buy the concert you just watched. I know of a few coffee shops that have been doing the same thing with local performance for a while, burning CD's and what not, but nothing mainstream yet. Also, you've been able to grab concerts of certain groups online, legally, for free, for a while (like the Grateful Dead for example).

"This is an excellent way of making money out of every live recording an artist makes — usually only one live recording is sold on through CDs/DVDs — and I think people would love to have a recording of the gig that they were actually at, rather than buy a recording through a record store of one random concert. The USB keys could be customised with artwork from the current tour, or contain video footage and photos from the show, which in-turn would make them more collectible.Not only does this let artists and promoters monetise their events more effectively, it’s also one in the eye for the commercial bootleggers. If the concert recording is availabe to buy legally then this weakens the appeal and strength of the bootleggers product, an illegal copy, which is probably going to be of poorer quality than the official product."

It'll probably have crippling DRM though... unless you're the Bare Naked Ladies.

read more | digg story

The need for DRM circumvention | Google selleth then taketh away

Google is pulling their premium video service.
Did you buy anything from them? I had an episode of Macgyver just to check it out.
Well now that's all gone...

Google just demonstrated how completely bizarre and anti-consumer DRM technology can be. Most importantly, by pulling the plug on its service, Google just proved why consumers have to be allowed to circumvent copy controls.

So with no way to get around DRM, we'll forever be perpetually renting our media. Fun!

Should be interesting to see how the Universal Music/Google team up will be since those files will be drm free.

read more | digg story

Survey says: only DRM-free music is worth paying for

I don't trust surveys.

Numbers can be generated to support any claim (83% of all people know that).

Still, doesn't mean I wont link to a survey with results I agree with!

"A survey of general music consumers shows that concern about the negative effects of DRM are on the rise, and that consumers are beginning to rule out purchasing DRM'd music in big numbers."

read more | digg story

I'm Gonna Buy an Album JUST BECAUSE I CAN: iTunes DRM free ready to go next week?

Apparently EMI is ready to go.
I might actually have to buy something from iTunes. That just feels weird...

"The seeming delay for introducing the new tier of content has been primarily attributed to a desire to offer the entire catalog at once in the unprotected format rather than a gradual rollout. The companies' technicians are simply in the later stages of encoding and hosting the files before they go live, the contact says."


Read the rest here.
someaudioguy some audio guy itunes iphone ipod nano voice over demo production voice acting auditions audiobooks narration

Music is becoming DRM free, but what video?

Shelly Palmer asks this question in an opinion write up at Yahoo News.
Now that companies like Amazon and iTunes seem to be in a rush to abandon DRM on music, a lot of people are asking "what about movies?

Shelly writes up some interesting points, but ultimately boils the whole issue down to one of use. She says (and MAN am I paraphrasing here) is that because we listen to music with only partial focus (which I disagree with) and movies take our full attention, that the two formats will continue to be treated differently. Music files equal small and easy to transfer, movies equal big and harder to transfer.

I know she's just bringing up discussion points, but I really don't like it when DRM discussions are over simplified.

Because of simplistic "point boiling" I have a really hard time talking to actors about their work. Quite a few truly believe that 15 year olds downloading files are why there are fewer sales, and they keep calling that "piracy" (thats a whole other nuther post though). No one seems willing to consider that over charging for physical media (and there aren't a lot of options for getting this entertainment) might be one culprit. I would say that paying as much as $20 for a CD is probably what sparked the original Napster, and yet still, immediately following the creation of the original Napster we saw an increase in music sales (before Metallic started suing fans at least). No one seems to think that continual increases in entertainment costs (for the same level of entertainment "quality") might cause someone to consider alternative avenues for acquiring entertainment (both legal and illegal). Lastly I for one am completely fed up with being treated like a criminal for purchasing content, and because I know my way around a computer (you can't imagine the arguments I've had over file sharing, p2p is a distribution method not guaranteed theft, and saying otherwise is just trying to stifle technological advance).

It doesn't matter what the file is.
It doesn't matter how big the file is.
It doesn't matter what format the file is.

The movie industry is making the same mistake the music industry made. It will cost studios, productions, actors, and consumers a lot of money to realize that they are making the same mistakes the music industry made.

I think as soon as companies stop trying to lock consumers out of content (and consider something really smart like watermarking to find exactly WHO is spreading stuff), the sooner we all start making A LOT MORE MONEY!

Read Shelly's article here...
someaudioguy some audio guy movies music tv voice over radio production voice acting demo auditions

The Origin of a Music Pirate

Again, I'm not a huge fan of The Consumerist, but from time to time they get something like this.

Those of us a bit more technically inclined have probably been bothered by DRM for a while now, and I know it can be really frustrating dealing with family who don't get what is happening, trying to explain why widget 'A' wont play with gadget 'B'.

This is a letter from a supposed music fanatic who got burned. It looks like the frustrations we Techs have had, are starting to trickle into the general population.

I've devoted a not-inconsequential chunk of my life to collecting music; to tracking down obscure records, cassettes, 8-Tracks and CD's of all genres and styles. And now apparently that is all but over. Music has somehow evolved from tangible things into amorphous collections of 1's and 0's guarded over by interested parties as if they were gold bullion. How so very sad.

I would like to think that someone at a place like Rhino would care enough to not let these kinds of things happen. But alas, my suspicion is that anyone who would have been cool enough to work at Rhino in their heyday some twenty years ago would never be so callous, foolish or shallow to allow these kind of absurdities to occur.

Since I've resigned myself not to waste any more time with the music business, I suppose I'll have to resort to purchasing used CD's & records, or having my friends occasionally make me a copy of one of their newer CD's.

Call it piracy. Call it whatever you want. But at least I tried. I gave you several chances and you failed miserably at every level.

Read the rest of his letter here, and you should. It's a good read, if a little sad.
someaudioguy some audio guy voice over music piracy riaa mp3 technology voice acting audiobook