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New Features Added to Digital Music Downloads

Posted on: Saturday, 8 November 2008, 13:00 CST

New technology is being used to fill a glaring omission that has existed since the beginning of downloadable music:  the lack of liner notes, lyrics, photos and other information that are typically included with most CDs.

The solution, the first of which will work on Apple Inc.’s iPhone, lies in downloadable artist-branded applications for cell phones and handheld media players. 

The popular band Fall Out Boy will soon release an iPhone application ahead of its December 16 release “Folie a Deux”.  Although the interactive CD booklet looks similar to the group’s Web site, it is far more advanced than the typical PDF files other labels include with their iTunes music. The new app can be accessed directly from the iPhone, and will contain photos, track listings and lyrics from the band's entire discography along with links to purchase its songs from iTunes.

Additionally, the booklet can be automatically updated, much the same way as iTunes and Internet Explorer receive updates. Fall Out Boy will improve its app in the coming weeks, and it will ultimately include microblogging tools, photo uploading, a mobile social network community on falloutboyrock.com and the ability to find other nearby app users with the iPhone's GPS location capability.

Until now, licensing and technology challenges have prevented such functionality from being included in standard music downloads. From a licensing perspective, embedding lyrics into each downloadable song would raise prices, while such files would also not be compatible with all the devices used to play them.

However, the iPhone apps offer an initial workaround to the problem. Indeed, artists like Pink, Snow Patrol and David Cook have already released iPhone apps with features similar to those offered by Fall Out Boy. Pink has streaming video, while Snow Patrol has a touch-screen "game" and Cook has a flickering image of a cigarette lighter that's meant to replicate an actual lighter at concerts.

If these programs are well received, artist-branded iPhone apps may become as commonplace as artist Web sites.   But creating these sophisticated programs requires an investment of both time and money, so labels are being very selective in deciding when to use them.

"We can't do for everybody what we're doing for Fall Out Boy," said Christian Jorg, Island Def Jam senior VP of new media and commerce.

"This is an artist we think has the right target demo, we know the iPhone is successful with that demo and has great capabilities, and we'd like to put a product out there that speaks to that demo," he told Reuters.

Labels are waiting for other devices, including mobile phones and MP3 players with Internet access, and open-development platforms before creating the new apps for their entire catalogs. The 7 million iPhones in existence throughout the world do not represent a large enough market share. However, they may be simply the beginning.  

"This isn't just about the iPhone," said Sean Rosenberg, VP of mobile marketing, sales and business development for Sony Music Entertainment, who worked on the Pink app.

"That's a very small part of the handset market. But, within the music environment and content usage, it's a great place to test out what people like, how they use these and whether there is a long-term play toward packaging not just our music but also our artist's properties and Web site assets in this new fashion so it's easier for fans to interact with on all mobile devices," he told Reuters.

The gatefold LPs and the booklets in CDs were always meant to deepen the interaction between artists and their fans.  Artist Web sites, MySpace pages and YouTube videos have build on the idea, but at the expense of the portable device. Applications that deliver additional content to portable music devices could grow digital music audiences by providing fans new ways to connect with artists.

"The whole experience of being a fan of a band has completely turned upside down," said Dan Kruchkow of Crush Management, which works with Fall Out Boy.

"You used to listen to the radio, watch MTV or go to a show, and that's all you could do. Now, the possibilities are limitless. Anything you can think of, you can do."

Source: redOrbit staff and wire reports

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