Microsoft has scheduled an event in Los Angeles next month to outline its plans for delivering audio and video files over the Net.
A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that Audisee 99 will take place in Los Angeles on 13 April.
In addition to developing its own audio format audio format, MSAudio 4.0, Microsoft is creating an entire platform in Windows 2000 to encrypt, manage, and track digital files as they are passed from one user to the next over the Net.
In doing so, the company may be making an end run around the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which is in the process of evaluating technologies for its Secure Digital Music Initiative. Specifically, the RIAA wants to create a platform for distributing music over the Net that will protect artists' copyrights and, perhaps more importantly, the industry's distribution channels.
"The ultimate goal of the initiative is to enable consumers to access and enjoy music in new ways, while ensuring interoperability among digital products and services so as to enhance the consumer's listening experience," SDMI supporters said in a recent statement. "The specification will protect copyrighted music in all existing and emerging digital formats and through all delivery channels,"
Meanwhile, most of the technology companies involved in SDMI are going full-speed ahead with plans for developing digital download systems. Microsoft is no exception.
In an interview last week, Scott Smith, president of Digital On-Demand, said Microsoft may be trying to "force SDMI to make this [media platform] a de facto standard ... make the package so inviting that nobody will develop another one."
Smith said Microsoft's all-in-one package could cut many other technology companies out of the digital download picture and for that reason may not be well-received by the RIAA and other SDMI members.
