In
the era of the 12-inch vinyl LP record album, the album cover was itself and
art form - not simply the pictures but also the "liner notes" in
which musician or musicologist would write about the recording inside or the
large world outside. On the back of his 1964 album "The Times They Are
A-Changin'," Bob Dylan filled the back cover with 2,000 words of
free verse titled "11 Outlined Epitaphs" that mused about such maters
as literature and the mass media.
Then
came the five-inch compact disk, whose digital technology gave a new precision
to recorded sound but whose "jewel box" container presented a
tablet too small for serious liner noting. That's one reason the 12-inch LP is
enjoying a mini-revival in some pockets of the music world.
But
now, after almost a decade of compact disk dominance, liner notes may be on the
verge of a comeback - not as mere words, but as a multi-media art form
digitally incorporated into the CD itself.
Maybe
of the mainstream record labels are still tentative, waiting for the industry
to adopt technical standards. But some independent recording companies have
already issued so-called "enhanced CD's" in which the music is
supplemented with video excerpts, spoken narration or other flourishes.
Placed
in an audio CD player, these disks play the music just like any regular CD and
would be priced about the same. But when slipped in the CD-ROM drive of
a personal computer, the disks spring to life.
Heyday
Records, a San Francisco-based label, recently
released "Big White Lies," an
enhanced CD by an new performer, Chris von Sneidern. The computer
material introduces listeners to Mr. von Sneidern and his music with
behind-the-scenes video clips, the text of each song's lyrics and the
performer's own spoken comments about each track.
Another
example comes from an Australian company, Pacific Advanced music Studios, known
as PAMS. The disk is an enhanced CD containing six different audio mixes of a
single song, "Sooner or Later," performed by the group GF4
(four young women who formerly called themselves Girlfriend). On the computer,
the listener con navigate through an interactive press conference, visit the
band members' homes, go "backstage" or watch GF4's music video of
"Sooner or Later" (a disco-flavored version of a 1971 hit by the Grass
Roots).
While
the content may seem puerile to anyone past adolescence, GF4's
"fanzine" approach shows how artists can use enhanced CD's to convey
bits and pieces of their personalities. But in the absence of technical
standards for encoding such material onto an audio CD, Pacific Advanced Music
Studios and Heyday have each taken their own approach - exactly the sort of
anarchy that the big labels hope to avoid.
Pacific
Advanced puts the multimedia bits and bytes near the center of the disk, space
that conventional audio CD's lave lank. Heyday, by contrast, uses the first
audio track on the disk - which is fine when the disk is played on the
computer.
But
Heydays' approach exposes a standard audio CD player to such potential peril
that on the "Big White Lies" disk Mr. von Sneidern loses top billing
to a printed warning" "CAUTION! When playing this disc on your
audio CD player ... Skip Track 1!"
On
some older CD players, the multimedia coding on track 1 could produce loud,
speaker-rattling cacophony is the audio playback head tried to decipher it.
Even if such instances are rare, major labels would be unlikely to release
enhanced CD's using Heyday's approach because of liability risks.
"Someone
in Idaho could turn up their stereo on track 1, it kills a cow, and they will
sue Polygram," jokes Ted Cohen, a Los Angeles-based music consultant who
has worked with new media for more than a decade.
Disks
that play on both a personal computer and a CD player are nothing new, of
course. Most of today's multimedia PC's include the software to play audio
disks. And some music CD-ROM's from interactive auteurs like Peter Gabriel
and Todd Rundgren will play in a standard audio CD player - if the
listener skips ahead to the second track.
But
the music CD-ROM's designed as an interactive computer software - and priced
like software at $30, $40 or more - are not intended for passive listening.
Instead, like Mr. Rundgren's "No World Order," the computer CD-ROM's
allow the listener to mix snatches of music to create entirely new
compositions.
By
contrast, the coming enhanced CD's are intended primarily for listening - with
the interactive line notes added as a marketing device at no extra cost to the
consumer. That's the idea behind an enhanced CD from the Seattle rock band Alice
in Chains, now under development by Sony Music, even as Sony awaits
resolution of the industry-standards issues. Intended as part of a new music CD
to be released by the group, the enhancements will include sound samples of all
the music on previous Alice in Chains albums and a history of the band.
"Enhanced
CD's will replace standard CD's in two or three years," predicts Norman
Beil, vice president of new media at MCA Inc.'s Geffen Records label.
"They provide so much value for the customer, and open up new forms of
expression."
Just
as importantly, he adds, the new disks could curtail the widespread public
practice of dubbing audio-cassette copies, of CD's because bootleg tapes would
lack the multimedia embellishments. "Once listeners get accustomed to
this," Mr. Beil said, "they will never again accept an audio-only
product."
But,
oh, those pesky standards.
The
track 1 problem is probably resolvable, if the
industry decides to follow Pacific Advance's example, or whatever other
solutions the folks in the audio labs dream up. What's important is that all
record producers and CD manufactures agree to adopt the same approach.
But
there are a variety of technical parameters to be worked through, before
enhanced CD's can be played in various makes and models of machines with the
same consistency of standard CD's. Sony and Phillips N.V. of the Netherlands,
which jointly developed the original CD standard introduced in the early 80's,
are now preparing their recommendation for a set of enhanced-CD specifications
that are expected to concentrate on manufacturing and mass-production issues.
"They
are now looking at a way to make as seamless of a transition as possible,"
said Mr. Cohen, who has worked with both companies. "It's not a greed
thing. Sony and Phillips are being so tenacious when it comes to the standard
because they want all disks to play in every audio machine. If there were no
standards, it would be chaos."
The
Sony-Philips standard is expected to be adopted by the Recording
Industry Association of America, the music industry's main trade group.
Computer
software companies are also weighing in. The Microsoft Corporation and Apple
Computer Inc. are offing competing development tools for use by the creative
programmers who produce enhanced CD's. The disks sold to consumers will be made
to work on all personal computers, whether they use the Microsoft Windows or
Apple Macintosh operating systems; but Microsoft would like to see Windows
tools used by music producers as a way to demonstrate that Windows is not
business-only software.
While
personal computers running Microsoft Windows software greatly outnumber
machines using Apples' Macintosh software, Apple's machines have long been
preferred by artistic types, including Mr. von Sneidern, Mr. Rundgren and Mr.
Gabriel. To court the music industry, Microsoft recently invited more than 100
record industry representatives to its headquarters in Redmond, Wash., for an
up-close look at the company's system.
Even
if not all the attendees adopt the Microsoft development tool, the gathering
"accelerated the momentum toward enhanced CD's," said Mr. Beil, of
Geffen Records, who was on hand. "There were executives from different
labels eyeing each other, realizing that they all were interested in doing the
same thing."
Albhy
Galuten, the record producer behind the Bee
Gee's 1977 best seller "Saturday Night Fever," among others,
demonstrated an enhanced CD featuring the Canadian group Crash Test Dummies
to several record labels earlier this year. Mr. Galuten was instrumental in
stimulating interest in enhanced CD's among record companies and software
developers. For now, he favors keeping the process low key, and sacrificing the
high profile roll outs that are common for new technologies. Instead, he feels
that companies should quietly test market the first enhanced CD's . This
would have two important purposes: Providing initial customer feedback, and
ironing out the inevitable technical glitches.
"CD's
are now the only digital technology that retains the general public's
confidence," he said. "If we rush these products out before they are
ready, it wouldn't just ruin the interactive liner notes idea. It could harm
the entire CD industry."
Technical
issues notwithstanding, the enhanced CD promises a new artistic outlet for the
people who make music. Quincy Jones, the entrepreneurial musician and
record producer who is assembling an expanding media empire, including a
multimedia company called QD7, said the enhanced CD represents the return of
liner notes - in updated form.
"This
gives artists and infinite amount of space to express themselves," Mr.
Jones said. "And the listeners get to know what the album's really
about."