Liquid Audio and Internet Underground Music Archive announced a partnership Wednesday, bringing Liquid Audio's streaming audio technology to one of the Web's first ongoing music sites. IUMA will feature the jointly developed IUMA Music Player starting 1 April.
Danny Johnson, the creative director of IUMA, says the choice of Liquid Audio was based on a combination of the superiority of Liquid Audio's streaming capability, extensive audiophile sound controls in the encoder, and an interface that is more artist-friendly than Liquid Audio's primary competitor, RealAudio. Liquid Audio allows more information - such as band background and contact numbers - to be delivered with the sound files. In later versions of the software, Liquid Audio will allow users to listen to a group of songs at a lower bandwidth, and decide whether to download and buy a high-bandwidth, hi-fi version.
"We're always pushing for ways that enable musicians to make a living outside of the big music industry," Johnson explains. "Liquid Audio is one step closer."
"We're usually pretty conservative when it comes to audio formats," says Johnson. "We didn't jump on Shockwave, for instance, when everybody thought it was the next big thing."
Although Johnson says IUMA will continue to use RealAudio, he predicts that Liquid Audio will soon be the preferred audio format on the Internet. Johnson points out, however, that IUMA embraced the MPEG format because IUMA believed that it offered superior sound. MPEG hasn't proven to be very popular.
Besides IUMA, Liquid Audio is used on Music Boulevard, 911 Entertainment, and the Web site for City of Industry, a new Orion movie.
RealAudio continues to be the most popular streaming audio format on the Net.
"It's gonna be tough to go against RealAudio," says Kim Danders, producer of RadioSegue, a weekly digital culture radio magazine. "There are a lot of good products and formats out there, but it's hard to beat whatever's dominant."
