Digital album packaging will improve in 2008

There is a reason people still buy CDs more than they do digitalalbums. Actually there are several, but viruses that come along withmusic via peer-to-peer sites (P2P) and a concern over digital rightsmanagement (DRM) aren't the only culprits.

Digital music files just don't provide the same amount of contentthat a CD package does. That includes liner notes, extended album artand lyrics. Buy a digital album today and all you get are a list oftracks and (maybe) a thumbnail image of the album cover that you can'teven read.


It's one of the reasons music fans still turn to P2P networks fortheir music. In addition to providing music free of charge and free ofDRM, P2P sites in many cases also include digital copies of such extrastypically found in the CD. According to label sources and piratenetwork tracking firms, fans downloading full albums from BitTorrentsites almost universally choose files that include scans of the CDbooklet over those that don't.


Of course, there is little that can be done with those scans otherthan view them on a computer. Imagine if the music industry and thedigital music services got together and offered an official way toaccess the same content, but make it available on portable devices aswell as make it interactive.


There are two ways to accomplish this. One is working directly witha digital music service and hardware developer to ensure all this newcontent has an outlet. The other is to go it alone.


For the former, iTunes is the most likely candidate.


Although hardly life-threatening, iTunes is facing new competitionfrom Amazon and a variety of social networking sites. While it has madegreat advancements with the iPod, iTunes' innovation has been slow. Theservice looks and operates much like it always has. The only newfeatures are in video.

  In 2008, look for Apple to make nice with its label partners byoffering a bit more with each download, such as lyrics and moreinteractive album art.

Rather than thanking so-and-so producer for doing such a greatmixing job or their family for support, digital albums can providebehind-the-scenes footage of the producer and band at work, or perhapsa "making of" featurette, interview Q&A, family photos/video, etc.


One area to look for such innovation is with the CDVU+ and MVIformats created by Walt Disney and WMG, respectively. Technically theseare multimedia CD formats, not digital music formats. But bothrepresent a step toward expanding the way all involved view a musicproduct.


Both add what can best be called "digital magazines" to a CD that,when inserted into a computer, allow fans to access videos, link toonline features, lyrics and more. These physical products represent thebridge between old-school CDs and the digital future. As labels focuson selling more digital albums instead of individual tracks in the newyear, expect them to learn from these experiments and begin creatingsimilar all-digital packages as well.


Reuters/Billboard