By Rachel Chalmers
The latest release of Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc’s controversial Rio PMP300 player boasts a twist; it comes in a strangely familiar translucent blue plastic case. Besides matching your Apple iMac, the special-edition Rio boasts 64MB onboard flash memory and can store two hours’ worth of digital- quality music. Record labels worry about that music, which can be downloaded from the internet via the MP3 audio compression format. MP3 yields files of excellent quality but it contains no copyright protection mechanism.
As a result, the recording industry has been up in arms about Diamond’s Rio since before it was released. After failing to gain an injunction to prevent Rios going on sale in time for last Christmas, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced that it would come up with a format of its own, the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). But SDMI has yet to capture consumer hearts the way MP3 has done.
In March RIAA was forced to admit that the all-important 15-to-24 year old demographic is deserting the CD market, most likely for the internet and the increasing volume of free music available via MP3. What’s more, RIAA’s contention that MP3s are tantamount to piracy is hotly disputed by legitimate MP3 businesses. From Ice-T to They Might Be Giants, more and more musicians are releasing their own tracks via MP3, bypassing the record labels altogether.
