Where's the digital jewel case?
By Ryan Block 
posted Apr 10th 2007 10:12PM
posted Apr 10th 2007 10:12PM
Physical media may be on its long way out, but if Cover Flow has taught us anything, it's that having album art is still a crucial part of experiencing records. We definitely missed the big, bold album art of 12-inch vinyl when we made the jump to CD, but living in digital audio has only recently started to get decent in last couple of years, between devices with larger color displays and automatic cover art downloads in Windows Media Player and iTunes. So what's the next generation? Ironic Sans proposes the digital jewel case, a throwback to simpler times when we bought all our music on easily scratched plastic discs that came with colorful paper inserts. The scary thing is we'd totally buy one, provided it did all the things we're still missing, like display liner notes, lyrics, album art, and everything else in the CD insert. It'd also have to serve as a controller for the music, naturally, but we'll take what we can get for now. So, who's going to standardize the album art / insert digital format?
sounds awesome - i hope they make one in 12" format as well. this would be great for parties and such - i'd love to have all of my old punk albums displayed. but it's probably me just being lazy when it's time to clean up all the albums on the floor and put them back alphabetically when everyone leaves.
Fishes,
narco.
They already have this - its called buying the CD and ripping it to MP3.
I have always wondered this, too. I have always loved having something tactile, particularly with the older computer games. (Nowadays it's just the CD and a piece of paper with install instructions if you're lucky. Back in the day, there were 50 page manuals and if you were lucky all sorts of bonuses like bags containing no tea).
If they provided album art and 'bonus information' with downloads on services like iTunes, a lot of that loss would be recovered and the transition would be eased for weirdos like myself. It would be nice if you could pop out your audio player while and browse an album information document with stuff like cover art and (more importantly) the little blurbs and "about the artist" things.
It doesn't totally replace the missing tactility, but it makes the loss a bit easier to deal with. With some imagination, those sorts of extras could be /better/ with digital distribution thanks to the many different formats available.
Just anything disconnected from the rest of the content that looks free is nice.
Ah crap! I double posted...
:(
I have always wondered this, too. I have always loved having something tactile, particularly with the older computer games. (Nowadays it's just the CD and a piece of paper with install instructions if you're lucky. Back in the day, there were 50 page manuals and if you were lucky all sorts of bonuses like bags containing no tea).
If they provided album art and 'bonus information' with downloads on services like iTunes, a lot of that loss would be recovered and the transition would be eased for weirdos like myself. It would be nice if you could pop out your audio player while and browse an album information document with stuff like cover art and (more importantly) the little blurbs and "about the artist" things.
It doesn't totally replace the missing tactility, but it makes the loss a bit easier to deal with. With some imagination, those sorts of extras could be /better/ with digital distribution thanks to the many different formats available.
Just anything disconnected from the rest of the content that looks free is nice.
@BobTurbo and other Flamebaiters
You're a troll. You're not even a good one. (A real troll knows to call it the RDF. Make a note.)
If it weren't for idiots like you causing Mac/Win/iPod/Zune/AppleTV/Xbox360 holy wars among the fanbois, then maybe we could all have a decent discussion.
Yutz.
Let's just hope whatever standard is adopted breaks the limits imposed by jewel cases, i.e. static information in a fixed page size. What must be achieved is an extended standard for album metadata (lyrics, acknowledgments, etc.) but also a way to make liner notes totally dynamic: HTML, Ajax, Flash, what have you. Maybe the liner notes metadata is just a URI...
I don't care, I just want the music. Un-DRMed of course.
who cares..... honestly...
How about a 12 inch fold-out poster or book with the liner notes and artwork and whatever else that had a serial number you could use to obtain the music? I still prefer buying the CD and ripping, myself, but I imagine a format like that would be good for indie bands who want to sell stuff at their concerts but don't want to go to the (modest, but considerable when you're a poor musician) expense of having discs printed.
Multi-touch. Large screen, wide aspect, embedded in the wall and wirelessly connected to your music storage. Piece of cake, 2 years tops.
As a specific controller unit, I'd consider a CD case sized touch screen device. With wireles USB on the way, you should be able to walk around with it or park it near your listening area in a stand.
As for a format, PDF probably covers most of the bases, but for artists/labels that want to go a little further HTML/XML/Flash might add a little pizzaz.
Remember that the unit will be used in conjunction with a media player, so any high quality/long length audio and/or video should probably be routed to the regular player.
Couldn't sideshow devices for vista now do this?
"automatic cover art downloads in Windows Media Player and iTunes." -- and now Rhythmbox. I was startled when I did a yum update on my Fedora box the other day, and Rhythmbox started showing cover art.
For any mac owners out there, they should really try out the original version of coverflow that was bought out by Apple and integrated into iTunes. You can find it here: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/28115
Flipping through albums feels a little less robotic than the iTunes version and is more like you are actually flipping through your CDs. (for example, the artwork responds to where your mouse is on the screen). This is great for parties (in addition to front row) if your computer is hooked up to a tv.