Despite a crazy battle loaded with political drama (among other things), it would appear that digital music has finally come to be accepted and loved. Nothing proved this point greater than Apple's iTunes store being declared the number one music retailer in the world, beating out Wal-Mart in April of 2008.
The one major downfall to digital music from a sales perspective, is that while single tracks continue to sell well, full album sales are down significantly. To help combat this, the "big 4" - EMI, Sony, Univeral and Warner - apparently banded together to propose a digital album format that would include liner notes, lyrics and art work.
The concept was presented to Apple some 18-months ago and allegedly rejected.
Recently, word got out that the Big-4 went ahead to develop their own format, supposedly called CMX. CMX would play independent of iTunes and include everything mentioned above plus video. The news indicates that the format will be soft-launched in November on a trial basis.
Here's where it gets interesting: Despite reports that Apple initially scoffed at the idea of CMX, they recently announced their own digital album format called Cocktail, which is slated to launch in September.
Is this Apple responding to a threat? Can the record labels sell enough music independently to make up for lost revenues on CD sales? Will consumers be receptive to a digital album? (I mean let's face it - everything that made albums worth collecting died along with vinyl).
On one hand, I'm happy to see the labels finally embracing the digital format. On the other, I see two potential issues with this CMX / Cocktail battle:
1) I'm not convinced that consumers who embrace digital music will be receptive to a digital album - particularly CMX if it doesn't play in iTunes.
2) I'm wondering what will happen if Apple and the labels go head-to-head in yet another format war.
You can read more about the two formats in this TIMES ONLINE UK article.
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