Geffen’S Motives Questioned
When Geffen Records released the previously unavailable Aerosmith song “Head First” as a computer file on the Compuserve on-line network last month, it was heralded as a technological and commercial triumph. Compuserve subscribers with PCs were able to download the song for free and listen to it at their leisure.
But some hackers are wondering just whose side Geffen is on. Where other on-line songs that are just as long as the 3-minute-14-second “Head First” take less than 10 minutes to download, or transfer into a sound file, it takes from 60 minutes to several hours to download the Aerosmith song, depending on the speed of the modem being used.
At stake may be nothing less than the future of the record business. If songs are available for free through a computer’s phone line, this leaves record labels, manufacturers and retailers out in the cold.
The current state of technology makes it impractical in terms of time and computer storage space to download an entire CD, but several computer companies are working to remedy the matter.
More urgent is the matter of copyright. On the vast information network known as Internet, music fans have been making songs by popular acts available for free for some time. Several major recording labels are in the process of deciding whether they will lobby for copyright protection on Internet.
“Head First” is significant because it is the first song by a major rock band released exclusively via computer. While Aerosmith will receive no royalty or profit from the song, not everyone thinks the gesture is altruistic.
“What Geffen is trying to do, quite clearly,” said Tim Nye, who operates the on-line alternative music service SonicNet, “is convince the public that the technology isn’t there to make this a viable way of distributing music.” Nye said it should take no more than 40 minutes to download the song.
Luke Wood, the marketing director at Geffen, agreed that “people are starting to understand the problems of this technology” because of the difficulties in downloading “Head First.” But he denied that the company had willfully extended the song’s downloading time. “I think we’re trying to embrace this technology instead of turn people away,” he said.
The downloading time is so long, Wood said, because the quality of sound being offered is so high: The company has used a stereo, direct digital copy of the song as opposed to the less-fidelity-conscious transfers other companies have used. Nonetheless, because “Head First” will no longer be in digital format after being downloaded (digital information cannot be transferred over telephone lines), what computer users hear is what Geffen Records calls a “broadcast quality” version, similar to what it would sound like on the radio.
“We did it because it can be done and is cool and is fun,” Wood said, “but also to show there’re these other issues involved, like how do you collect copyright fees?”