SunnComm Trying To Plug The Analog Hole

from the listening-to-music-is-bad! dept

The anti-copying technology companies keep trying to one-up each other by making the life of the consumer ever more annoying. The latest is that SunnComm has bought a company named Darknoise Technologies that claims to have a technology that will fix the "analog hole" of music copying. That is, if you have some music and you play it over some speakers, someone (gasp!) could record that music using standard recording equipment. Of course, people have been able to do this for ages, but Darknoise claims they do something to the music so that if anyone tries to do this, the recorded copies sound terrible. It's a little unclear how exactly that works, but it's yet another example of the industry trying very hard to offer less to consumers. Already, if you're making an analog copy, the sound quality is noticeably degraded, which has always been one of the reasons why it's never really been a huge problem. However, now that the entertainment industry thinks everything is a problem, they'll probably jump on this solution. At this rate, how long will it be until the industry tries to impose a solution that makes you pay for each song every time you try to listen to it? On top of that, they'll probably add in some technology to figure out how many people are within listening distance and charge you for each one. Once again, this does nothing to improve the consumer experience, and does a great deal to harm it. While the recording industry may still believe that's a good business practice, they'll regret it. It simply opens up huge opportunities for smart companies to offer products that consumers actually want and enjoy.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2004 @ 9:34pm

    They won't try anything that makes us pay per play


    The only problem with the pay-per-play idea, where we have to pay each time we want to listen to a song, is that it relies on the songs being worth a relisten. Instantly, most of the sensations the labels trot out in the hopes of getting everyone under the age of 14 to buy into the fad before they march a single new fad out next year, most of these would be pointless: they'd have to drop the first-play price down to reasonable levels to offset the higher per-play cost - unless they're blizzard.com - and that would enable people to discover just how untalented these sensations are. The loss in revenue would be crippling to the fortunes of the Britneys, Avrils and JayZs of the world.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Adrian Anders, 5 Feb 2004 @ 5:33pm

    At some point people will just say "SCREW DIGITAL"

    This case is yet one more reason why DJs will for the most part only spin with vinyl. Perhaps if it gets bad enough, everybody will go back to analog technology. Ironic, huh?

    ATA

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Peter Jacobs, 14 Feb 2004 @ 6:10am

    SunnComm / Quiet Tiger / DarkNoise

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Susan Terry, 3 Jun 2006 @ 1:31pm

    Rent

    I am the owner of a business where sunncomm/quiet tiger is storing stuff and they have not paid rent for many months. Shall I dispose of all your stuff?

    link to this | view in thread ]


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