"Rip, download, run, repeat." This could be the future for both home and portable music if MP3 has its way. While the recording industry struggles to come up with its own secure format for delivering music over the Internet, a bevy of new devices are under development to play widely available MP3 files. In the last few months, new portables and car players have been announced, along with some of the first units designed for home stereo systems.
But this week, a company in Edinburgh, Scotland upped the stakes with an all-in-one system that includes a CD-ripper, portable unit, and Internet access device to download songs, sans PC. The MP3-Go system is in prototype stage, and is expected to be available by Christmas in the US$300-400 range, according to Malcolm Thomson, a spokesman for Memory Corporation, which developed the system.
"This is pretty unique, and a major selling point is that it's a non-PC based system," he said. "This is another piece of hi-fi, so you don't have to be PC-literate to use it."
The MP3-Go system is comprised of three separate units: a central storage and compression unit, a portable player, and an Internet-enabled device for downloading MP3 files. The combination provides a complete system for ripping CDs into the MP3 format -- or downloading files from the Net -- and then dropping them into the portable device for customized, day-to-day music selections.
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The Portable Music Store is about the size of a standard CD player and can hold the equivalent of 100 CDs in MP3 format. The portable unit stores up to 60 minutes of music in flash memory. The Internet device will be able to download an entire CD in three to six minutes from the MP3-Go site, the company claims.
To promote the use of its system, Memory Corp. is negotiating with record labels and retailers so that portable users will be able to hook their units into kiosks at record stores and download new singles.
"We've been talking to music shops about this and they are aware of the MP3 culture and will have to start selling music over the Net," Thomson said. "It's a natural progression to download music in record stores.... We've spoken to record companies and they think this is a good way to push music."
Despite a lawsuit filed by the RIAA against Diamond Multimedia's Rio player last October, dozens of technology companies are forging ahead with MP3 portables, car decks, and now, home stereo units.
Even companies like Memory Corp., which are part of the industry's SDMI initiative, are anxious to capitalize on the growing market for MP3 devices, all the while keeping an watchful eye on the industry's plans.
"It's important to note that we are aware of the copy management issues, and are seriously looking into them. This needs to be accepted by the industry," said Thomson.
One measure the company is taking to discourage piracy is a protection plan built into the MP3-Go system. Each unit has a unique fingerprint so that files can only be transferred between that particular player and its station.
