Archives for 2003

Previous: Rhapsody Does it Better

Nearly everything Rhapsody does right, RealOne Music does wrong. Even the basic data in the index is inconsistent (artist names spelled in 2 or 3 different ways etc.) and frequently inaccurate (wrongly-spelled titles, titles linked to the wrong download files). It doesn’t help that you can’t test the audio associated with entries except by using up one of your paid credits (either a download or a one-shot streamed play), as there is no sample/audition feature in the service.

The most bizarre thing about the search functions in RealOne Music is the way clicks from result listings are handled. As with Rhapsody, results show track title, artist and album, with highlighted links. But when you click on a link, all you get is another search using the linked words (e.g. the track title) as search terms. Strangely, the new linked search often doesn’t include the current result (from which you searched on precise words by clicking) in its results!

I have spent a lot of time searching around RealOne Music, and I have yet to discover a way to retrieve an album detail page (and thus, access to all the tracks on an album) by searching. Even clicking on an album title just brings up another page of search results.

I won’t go into chapter and verse about the glaring flaws in the search functions of RealOne Music, they are overwhelming. The ultimate example of search engine failure: several times, I tried to find an item I had noticed in passing while browsing, and I was unable to locate the item by searching — I knew it was in there, but it could not be found.

If this is the way paid music search and retrieval had to be, I’d say “Give me Kazaa!” Fortunately, there is Rhapsody (not to mention MusicMatch and Emusic, both of which provide useful alternatives). It will be interesting to see how far America Online’s make-over of the MusicNet service will go towards dealing with the RealOne version’s glaring inadequacies.

Next: Back to the Overview

Also:

AudioWorld’s Full Review of Rhapsody (Feb.19 2002)

AudioWorld’s Full Review of RealOne Music (Feb.19 2002)

Napster, the pioneering peer-to-peer file-sharing service that revolutionized the music industry and the online music landscape, was as much a search engine as a way to acquire free digital music files.

The big business players of the music industry finally rolled out their own online music services last year, aiming to fill the void of consumer demand they created by destroying Napster and its relatives.

Most of the news about the paid subscription services (MusicNet, Pressplay, Rhapsody) is flat-out bad: rip-off pricing and usage restrictions, second-rate sound quality, buggy software, poor selection. But there is a silver lining, in that the new services are a big step forward in music search capabilities — at least in theory.

How We Used to Search — Peer-to-Peer

You probably know how Napster and its P2P file-sharing successors like Kazaa work: you install the desktop application, log on to the service, then search for music or other media files of interest by song title or artist name. Just as if you are using a search engine, they retun lists of available files with file names that match your search terms. Then the software makes it easy to download files from the results list with a few clicks.

As search methods go, this is a rough and un-sophisticated approach. Getting results depends largely on the scant and unreliable information embedded in file names. You can gather a little extra insight from other data drawn from the file properties, such as duration and encoding bit rate: for example, you might distinguish between alternate recordings of a particular title and artist by checking the duration, perhaps comparing this information with data from some other reliable source.

Some of the post-Napster alternatives go a little farther, for example by offering classification tidbits derived from the descriptive tags (genre, more complete artist and title info) embedded in MP3 files. In my experience, however, this counts for little, as tag data is typically too sketchy and unreliable.

In a way, the unpredictability of the search process is part of the allure of P2P file sharing. It may be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for, but along the way you might discover all kinds of unexpected musical treasure.

Of course, you might also waste a great deal of time in a frustrating search.

How We Can Search Better

This is where the licensed online music services have a huge opportunity.

Each service has full data for its catalog of content, and can potentially make the data accessible through powerful search technology.

Not only that, but as a by-product of the digital rights management process (copy inhibition and protection), each service also provides its own custom-built application for accessing the content, so the search method can be tailored precisely to the structure of the data.

To the paying subscriber, this should mean it’s easy to find and access music, either known content through precise field searching, or new and unfamiliar selections through style, mood, tempo or other classification matching and comparison.

In Reality… RealOne Music and Rhapsody

To see how the reality of major-label online music services is playing out, consider the two offerings that illustrate the best and the worst of the breed.

The worst of the lot is RealOne Music, offered by RealNetworks as the first outlet for the MusicNet download service it is operating with backing from Warner Music, EMI and Bertelsmann Music (BMG).

The best is represented by Rhapsody, the on-demand subscription service built on Listen.com’s multi-channel radio-style streaming audio service, with major-label content from EMI, Sony Music and Bertelsmann.

RealOne Music and Rhapsody each provide search interfaces that query against both their paid subscription content, and a broader universe of free content and information. Each also provides a database of artist and composer biographies, album reviews, and a recommendation engine that suggests similar artists as you browse through the catalog.

The experience provided by the two services is vastly different, however. To put it bluntly, Rhapsody’s search and browse interface works, RealOne Music’s doesn’t.

Next: A closer look at Rhapsody

Also:

AudioWorld’s Full Review of Rhapsody (Feb.19 2002)

AudioWorld’s Full Review of RealOne Music (Feb.19 2002)

America Online’s version of the MusicNet music subscription and download service, which launched today on AOL’s subscribers-only network, uses the AuthorScript SDK and AuthorScript Burn Engine by Sonic Solutions to power its CD burning features.

Support for CD burning in MusicNet on AOL allows members who browse and purchase music tracks from the vast MusicNet on AOL catalog to burn them safely and legally, directly to CD.

“We chose Sonic’s technology for our CD and DVD burn engine to enable CD burning in our new MusicNet on AOL service because they offer a proven solution that supports a range of recording and playback devices,” says Kevin Conroy, senior vice president and general manager, AOL Entertainment.

AuthorScript is the technology underlying Sonic’s media authoring applications, which have become the Hollywood standard for commercial title production. The AuthorScript API (Application Programming Interface) is a collection of C++ libraries that takes care of all of the low-level processes for converting video, audio, pictures, and graphics into a CD, DVD, Video CD, or Super Video CD disc.

The AuthorScript Burn Engine is an API (Application Programming Interface) that allows developers to quickly and easily add CD and DVD burning to most any software application. AuthorScript handles all of the low-level processes for converting and writing to CD and DVD media; this frees developers from having to tackle the complexities of device control and support and reduces the time to market.

Sonic recently added CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and audio mastering capabilities to AuthorScript via the award-winning Primo SDK technology that Sonic acquired from VERITAS in December 2002. AuthorScript, coupled with the newly-integrated VERITAS technology, offers the most complete set of data, media, and audio formatting and burning modules of any engine on the market. AuthorScript licensees include Adobe, Easy Systems Japan, Microsoft and Sony.

“With the explosive growth of CD and DVD recording, consumers have an almost insatiable appetite for burning their own audio and data discs,” said Mary Sauer, Senior VP of Business Development at Sonic. “AOL is the world’s premier online media company, and with Sonic’s AuthorScript SDK, AOL has the ability to integrate and deliver the most robust CD and DVD burning capabilities, as they have with the new MusicNet on AOL music subscription service.”

AuthorScript Burn Engine Features

• ability to record Redbook audio CDs, single-session and appendable data CDs and DVDs, Video CDs, Enhanced and Mixed-mode CDs, and writing to and from disc image files
• extensive drive format support including CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM
• full functionality on double-byte and single-byte character set operating systems, including Windows 98SE/ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP

Sonic Solutions Web Site