Tech company Bach Technology has just launched a new digital music format that’s designed to offer a little bit more to the consumer compared to traditional MP3 files. Labeled as MusicDNA, the new format is designed to offer more information along with the actual audio track to enhance the “entire emotional experience of music,” and is being proposed as a way to entice you to pick up your music from legit sites instead of getting them from illegal sources.
MusicDNA is still essentially an MP3 audio file, but it combines the audio track with more data, like lyrics, images, and updates from the artist or retailer to let you know about tour dates, releases, and maybe even their latest Tweets. Basically, this gives you the ability to not only check out U2’s latest track, you might also want to see what Bono’s currently up to. Users have the option to pick the updates that they want to have, so you don’t have to worry about being bombarded by, say, Seal’s schedules and images when all you really want is the complete lyrics to “Crazy.”
The new format will also include more metadata tags and descriptors that newer players can analyze to give you a better audio experience. MP3 files usually come with the basics, such as artist names, albums, and genres that traditional players can sort out; MusicDNA starts out with 14 descriptors that include Key, Mood, Color, Tempo, Instrument Density, and others that supporting players can use and analyze to give you a better, smarter playlist that can fit your mood.
Bach Technology is currently working with retailers and music labels for support, but the files should be compatible with newer music players such as Apple’s iPods.
Sounds like a good plan overall, although we’re a bit skeptical about it actually replacing basic MP3s. While it’s true that we might want to know if Rage Against the Machine will ever come up with new stuff, that doesn’t apply to every song and artist in our iPods.
Case in point: We currently have Snow’s “Informer” loaded on our iPod—a song that’s been around since 1992 and we still don’t know what this guy’s rapping about. But we don’t really need to check out the lyrics or get any kind of info from the artist or label. Sometimes, you just want to listen to something, you know?
Fun-fact-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-this-post: Okay, after 18 years—basically the time it takes for a person to grow into an adult–we finally looked it up, and here’s how Informer’s chorus goes:
“Informer, ya’ no say dada me Snow me I’ll go blame, a licky boom boom down.
Detective mon a says a did a me Snow me stab somewhere down the lane, a licky boom boom down.”
Well, there you go. 18 years and we still don’t know what “a licky boom boom down” means.
Tags: Digital Audio, MP3, MusicDNA, Portable Audio
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