New Front in Digital Wars: Recording of Satellite and Internet Radio

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/9547005.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/9547005.htm</a><br /><br /></div>"<i>Technologies that let people record satellite and Internet radio broadcasts digitally are opening a new front in the recording industry's war on music piracy. Until recently, the music industry focused its efforts on the widespread sharing of music files online. But a proliferation of software that make recording radio streams a breeze now has recording companies worried. The latest trouble comes of a hardware/software combination that has catalyzed a new type of backdoor recording. A program called TimeTrax, developed to record broadcasts from XM Satellite Radio's PCR receiver, spurred huge demand for the receiver from XM subscribers. And for that reason the PCR appears to have been discontinued. TimeTrax lets users store XM broadcasts, channeled through the PCR receiver, on a computer as individual tracks in the MP3 or WAV formats. Recordings can be scheduled at different times over multiple broadcasts. Since the TimeTrax program debuted on the Internet earlier this month, XM retailers like St. Louis' XMFan.com saw a crush of demand for the PCR units, which first hit the market about a year ago for under $50. PCR receivers were selling for upwards of $300 on eBay on Tuesday, and the founder of the company that distributes TimeTrax said XM's lawyers had written him asking that he stop selling the program.</i>"<br /><br />I'm assuming it is only a matter of time until Satellite Radio is encrypted to stop recording digitally. Coupled with comments by <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=46005">Jack Valenti</a>, this new "front" could be closed before we even get to enjoy it.

[Felix Torres]

Yes, it's just a matter of time...

The sad thing is, this is a war that doesn't have to be fought.
Sirius has a deal in place to deliver their satellite radio stations via DISH network which highlights the fact that their programming doesn't need to be sent over their satelites to get to customers.
Which is to say that, to reach PC users, Sirius and XM don't *have* to have special hardware; they could simply stream the audio across the internet, much as Musicmatch, Rhapsody, et al, already do.
In fact, using Janus, they could deliver to their customers an off-line playback capability using current generation digital audio players as compelling in its own right as PVRs are for video.
For many of their stations, they already know the day's playlist in advance so they could stream a Janus protected package equivalent to the whole day's broadcast, overnight, to be synched with the receiver.

There's lots of unexplored uses for this kind of technology and lots of potentially profitable business models...
Folks just need to get the blinders off.

[James Fee]

Currently on DirecTV, my TiVo doesn't have the ability to record any of the music channels. When I tune to them, the PVR capability is turned off. There are times when I'd love to record a show and listen to it another time, but I can't.

[that_kid]

Yup that's why I use snapstream. If it's there I can record it. Plus with all the highend soundcards on the market it's easy to take the analog or digital stream and record it. It only takes one copy to make it to the net(not that I share my stuff, i'm stingy with my media :wink: )

[mcsouth]

Anyone see the irony of this story? Since the development of the software that allows recording of the audio content, the popularity of the players, and the subscriptions that go along with them, has skyrocketed......and the companies involved want to kill the software!?!?!?! The RIAA has had the blinders on for so long, that the entire principle of "build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door" is entirely lost on them! The fact that people are willing to shell out $300 for players, and $10/month for subscription indicates that money is not the issue.....but the RIAA still doesn't get it......

Unbelievable that they can be so dense about delivering what their customers want - the ability to buy access to and listen to music on their own terms. Maybe if companies and the RIAA could think for two seconds to come up with a reasonable model that fit everyone's needs, we could get away from this constant round of battles....at least it provides lots of entertainment value in threads like this.

[Felix Torres]

Unbelievable that they can be so dense about delivering what their customers want - the ability to buy access to and listen to music on their own terms. Maybe if companies and the RIAA could think for two seconds to come up with a reasonable model that fit everyone's needs, we could get away from this constant round of battles....at least it provides lots of entertainment value in threads like this.

Well, the thing is that there are very influential folks that shall go nameless to prevent flames, who insist that the *only* model for digital music is to replicate electronically all the constraints of the plastic-bound CD, that there is no real business to be built out of streaming, or caching, or, ahem, renting music.

Never mind that the single biggest market for music are teens focused on whatever happens to be hot *this* week (aka BILLBOARD top 100) rather than middle-aged (or older) males interested in jazz or classical music.

The markets (plural) exist for *multiple* business models; there is ample room for competing visions; it is *not* a zero-sum game.
But the RIAA and at least some of the media moguls need to get out of the "you wanna listen--buy it" mentality.

The good news is that *some* outfits *are* listening to what actual and potential customers are saying. *IF* consumers actually vote with their dollars as these services are introduced (big if) then maybe things will change.

These folks just need to understand they are in the entertainment business, not the CD, business.

Change is inevitable; only the pace of change is at issue.
One dinosaur is gone; Valenti finally retired.
Others will follow him, willingly or not, and a new generation of media executive will take over. But it will take some time before the fossilized thinkers of all ages are gone...

[Felix Torres]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5880117/

The story has been picked up by the AP with a few details on other programs that digitize streaming audio and the RIAA "solution"; a broadcast flag for digital radio...

So, yes, the battle is engaged...