4 ms·

My friend and I have a crazy idea that in the future, all songs will be binary executable code running in a sandbox similar to Vx32 or NaCl. This would allow yo

by et1337 10y ago

My friend and I have a crazy idea that in the future, all songs will be binary executable code running in a sandbox similar to Vx32 or NaCl. This would allow you to edit parameters and change the song to fit the rest of your playlist. The next step is to keep the binary locked away on a server and stream only the resulting audio to the client, and suddenly you have a major piracy disincentive.

jfoutz 10y ago
Follow your dreams. The harder it is to listen to music, the more likely I am to listen to a file from a kid who held a microphone to a speaker. Or not even bother. Make the experience easier than file sharing and you win. I don't mind paying for music, but if I'm paying, I don't want any stupid hoops.
catern 10y ago
Maybe I don't understand. Is this a joke? Is it not already perfectly possible to edit a song and make it fit your playlist? And how would streaming the audio from a binary be a disincentive for piracy, except inasmuch as on-demand streaming is more convenient than piracy?
- et1337 10y ago
  Sure you can edit a finished, mixed song, but it takes a lot of skill, and realistically no one's going to do it without stems. If a song is an executable, it can expose user-friendly adjustable parameters. So one song could have infinite variations. A pirate could record one of those variations and share it, but that's much less valuable than the executable / stems.
  - wallacoloo 10y ago
    What kind of adjustable parameters? I'll admit I'm intrigued by the prospect of songs that vary slightly on each play-through (e.g. slightly different drum fills, different solos, etc), but I suspect this is distinct from what you're suggesting. I'm also of the belief that piracy of digital arts is largely a cultural thing & that attempts to prevent it by force will never be more than marginally successful at best. That said, I have zero evidence to back it up. It's something I'd like to investigate, but I don't know how.
    - jack1243star 10y ago
      An example would be dynamic soundtracks in games, which can change during gameplay. (New Doom, FTL, etc.)
  - rzzzt 10y ago
    Around 10 years ago, Digimpro came out with something similar; they introduced a custom audio format and a standalone player that let you change playback parameters and switch between alternative tracks: http://web.archive.org/web/20051215034341/http://www.digimpro.com/about.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20051215034341/http://www.digimpr... Don't know what happened to their technology later on.
- djsumdog 10y ago
  I totally read it as a joke. Wait...it's..it's not a joke? I'm so confused.
svantana 10y ago
While in essence I think it's an interesting idea, there's nothing that stops it from happening right now, except lack of market demand. It's also going to be moot as audio analysis technology improves (I'm looking at you Deep Learning) -- we'll be able to parse audio tracks into their semantic/perceptual components and thus any form of editing will be easily applied.
vidarh 10y ago
That's similar to how things was on the C64. There were no standard formats for music, but a defacto "standard" for drivers to play them, where people would write their custom driver routines so that e.g. if you loaded the track at $1000, you'd call $1000 to initialise it, then call $1003 once per vertical blank. Some drivers would have parameters that could be adjusted. A lot of the time the driver remained identical for a lot songs but many composers had their own that they kept tuning from track to track. > The next step is to keep the binary locked away on a server and stream only the resulting audio to the client, and suddenly you have a major piracy disincentive. Except we'd just capture the audio. It achieves nothing. Consider that in the 80's, we'd commonly tape things by connecting a tape recorder to our radio, and pres play+record at just the right time, or even by putting a taper recorder in front of the speakers.

by et1337 10y ago

jfoutz 10y ago

Follow your dreams. The harder it is to listen to music, the more likely I am to listen to a file from a kid who held a microphone to a speaker. Or not even bother. Make the experience easier than file sharing and you win. I don't mind paying for music, but if I'm paying, I don't want any stupid hoops.

catern 10y ago

Maybe I don't understand. Is this a joke? Is it not already perfectly possible to edit a song and make it fit your playlist? And how would streaming the audio from a binary be a disincentive for piracy, except inasmuch as on-demand streaming is more convenient than piracy?

et1337 10y ago
Sure you can edit a finished, mixed song, but it takes a lot of skill, and realistically no one's going to do it without stems. If a song is an executable, it can expose user-friendly adjustable parameters. So one song could have infinite variations. A pirate could record one of those variations and share it, but that's much less valuable than the executable / stems.
- wallacoloo 10y ago
  What kind of adjustable parameters? I'll admit I'm intrigued by the prospect of songs that vary slightly on each play-through (e.g. slightly different drum fills, different solos, etc), but I suspect this is distinct from what you're suggesting. I'm also of the belief that piracy of digital arts is largely a cultural thing & that attempts to prevent it by force will never be more than marginally successful at best. That said, I have zero evidence to back it up. It's something I'd like to investigate, but I don't know how.
  - jack1243star 10y ago
    An example would be dynamic soundtracks in games, which can change during gameplay. (New Doom, FTL, etc.)
- rzzzt 10y ago
  Around 10 years ago, Digimpro came out with something similar; they introduced a custom audio format and a standalone player that let you change playback parameters and switch between alternative tracks: http://web.archive.org/web/20051215034341/http://www.digimpro.com/about.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20051215034341/http://www.digimpr... Don't know what happened to their technology later on.
djsumdog 10y ago
I totally read it as a joke. Wait...it's..it's not a joke? I'm so confused.

svantana 10y ago

While in essence I think it's an interesting idea, there's nothing that stops it from happening right now, except lack of market demand. It's also going to be moot as audio analysis technology improves (I'm looking at you Deep Learning) -- we'll be able to parse audio tracks into their semantic/perceptual components and thus any form of editing will be easily applied.

vidarh 10y ago

That's similar to how things was on the C64. There were no standard formats for music, but a defacto "standard" for drivers to play them, where people would write their custom driver routines so that e.g. if you loaded the track at $1000, you'd call $1000 to initialise it, then call $1003 once per vertical blank. Some drivers would have parameters that could be adjusted. A lot of the time the driver remained identical for a lot songs but many composers had their own that they kept tuning from track to track. > The next step is to keep the binary locked away on a server and stream only the resulting audio to the client, and suddenly you have a major piracy disincentive. Except we'd just capture the audio. It achieves nothing. Consider that in the 80's, we'd commonly tape things by connecting a tape recorder to our radio, and pres play+record at just the right time, or even by putting a taper recorder in front of the speakers.