Well, I found this out kind of late, but Branham Group named one of my companies, Project Opus Technologies as one of Canada's Top 25 up and coming IT companies.

I'm pretty chuffed about it. :)

In my previous post, I described a basic music experience that I would like to have. In this convenient experience there are two types of content with two classifications.

A. The two types of content. Let’s call them:
1. Official Content .
2. User Generated Content , or should I say Fan Generated Content.

and,

B. The two classifications of content. Let’s call them:
1. Free Content. Content that is readily offered without thought to compensation.
2. For Sale Content. Content that the owner wishes to make some financial return. It may be offered for free in lieu of other considerations.

So we have four quadrants:

Quadrant 1: Facts

(Top Left)
The upper right quadrant of Free/Official content. This is the metadata and factoids for the song, album, or artist in question. It can also be the meta-media, which the copyright holder is offering openly for consumption, such as album art, liner notes, possibly even lyrics.

Quadrant 2: Original and Fair Use

(Top Right)
This is original and fair use content generated by the fan. This is the reviews, photos, artwork, opinion, etc. It may even be copyrighted material under fair use provisions.

Quadrant 3: Creative Works

(Bottom Left)
This is the creative content developed by the artist(s). This includes audio, video, pictures, imagery, interactive content, etc. Consumption can be “Free”, and compensated by other modes other than money. This can be any type of content not just the typical song, pics, and video. Think interactive digital items. Widgets if you must, but don't limit your thinking to the common Flash widgets populating the web-o-sphere at the moment.

Quadrant 4: Derivative Works

(Bottom right)
This is content that has been remixed, mashed-up, reused and re-published as a derivative work. The question mark represents content that will be anything that reuses column 1 content. Like quadrant 3, we shouldn't pigeonhole this region to video, pics, audio, etc. Also, let's not forget that other artists can be fans, too.

We believe this is the essential architecture for a digital media package solution.

I talked about how the Barenaked Ladies USB music package "Barenaked on a Stick" had some promising ideas around content packaging but the experience was ripped away. So I thought I would describe a simple experience that I would like to have, starting with one of my all time favourite songs.

So, here is what I think a simple recorded music experience could be.

I have a music audio file. Now here is an important point – it doesn’t matter where or how I got it. If you think it matters where I got that file, you should stop reading now. The rest will be lost on you.

In my case the song is Money by Pink Floyd. It’s one of my favourite all time songs.

I want to play it in my music player. Any damn music player I want. In this case my Xbox.

I want the player to tell me some facts about the song.
The album, when it was recorded, who played on it, general liner notes, maybe the lyrics, you know standard factoid stuff.

I would like to be offered more content, too. Give me some videos, interviews, icons, flash movies, and pictures. I never did hear the live solo recording David Gilmore did of Money. Give me that, too.

I would also like to have access to all the fan generated content around the song. Fan art, pics, videos. What part of The Wizard of Oz is playing to Money in The Dark Side of the Rainbow? Does The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz really synch-up? Show me.

I want the ringtones, sure. Whatever.

Gimme the files for my iPod, but can you replace my crappy 128 MP3s (who cares where I got them from) with 256 AAC while you’re at it? Thanks.

Is Roger Waters still touring and performing The Dark Side of the Moon?

Hey, I couldn’t get to Live 8 to see the reunion concert. Could I watch the Live 8 HD recording of Money? Cool.

Oh, and I want to mash-up and remix all the digital media, too. That would be fun.

I want to know when other fans of Money make interesting mash-ups and remixes.

I want to know when that unheard of band in Youngstown, Ohio does the definitive cover of Money. I’ll be the judge if it is the definitive cover by the way, thank-you very much.

Hey if the band ever releases that early demo track of Money from 1970, can you give me that too please. Thanks.

I want everyone to know that I am a big fan of Pink Floyd and Money is one of my all-time favourite songs. It is important and it’s true.

And for God’s sake let me know immediately and give me front of the line tickets if Pink Floyd ever tours together again. I mean it. Don't you dare forget me.

Now understand that’s just one simple experience. One of many, but that’s something I will pay for, but please make it convenient!

What’s your experience?

When Ian Rogers posted his Aspen presentation, I received a lot of requests asking to see what we are building and how they could implement it. That’s pretty exciting, but I wonder how many people have actually thought what a package actually means. Although it is too early to show what we are working on, I think its past time we start talking about it more openly.

First, I think it is important to talk about why we began pursuing an open packaging format for music in the first place. My company, Project Opus, originally began as a service for independent music artists and entertainers to self-publish and distributes their own music with a focus toward ‘local music’. Our intent was to further develop the social networking tools for the filtering of music on the site: mine the long tail if you will. We even built one of the first embeddable music widgets for selling digital downloads.

No one values digital audio files

This seemed like a smart approach, and I think it still is in some respects. Except, I discovered that the economics of offering digital music for sale simply were not there no matter how you slice it. Add to that the fact that many new artists are simply choosing to give their music away. They need to get heard, and let’s face it that makes sense for new artists. I cannot argue against it.

Market forces are driving the price point of digital audio files down towards a marginal price. Note I am not using the term music – it is my opinion that people clearly value music. People just don’t value the format it is being delivered in anymore.

Why are consumers not valuing the audio files?

To understand this I think we need to look at recorded material we did value. In my opinion recorded music purchases are about experiences. Until recently recorded music has always had a package that enhanced a fans experience.

First there was vinyl.

1. Convenience. I can listen to my favourite music on demand. This was the most important reason I bought an album. Convenience trumps everything.
2. Collectablity. It is an expression of who I am and my social status.
3. Connection. with the artist or band. Albums included liner notes, pictures, notes, artwork, poetry, rants, stickers, etc.

The Dark Side of the Moon was one of the first albums I ever bought.

Then there was 8-track and cassette.

Tapes significantly reduced the quantity and quality of the “stuff” that connect me with artists, but it added a new element:

4. Portability. I could take my music with me. I could share my music with my friends more readily, which made them more collectable. Portability also enhanced convenience. Flipping through cassettes in your car or home was easy. You could be a bit rougher and less careful with a tape than with vinyl.

I bought The Dark Side of the Moon in 8-track. That was a mistake. I bought it again as Cassette.

Then there was CDs.

CDs provided the same as a cassette, but they also introduced:
5. Durability. I had friends who had bought the same piece of Vinyl or Cassette multiple times. We thought CDs were unbreakable and forever.

I bought The Dark Side of the Moon in CD as my cassette was worn out and sun bleached.

Now, I know many people would argue that CDs also provided consumers with an improvement in fidelity. Although true, I would argue that was not the reason for the global consumer adoption of CDs. Clearly, fidelity took a hit with the move from vinyl to tape, but that did not stop their adoption. A lesson should have been learned here convenience trumps fidelity, too.

Then there was MP3s

This lesson was ultimately learned with the MP3 revolution. Which introduced another element to convenience:
6. Ease of acquisition. I could get a song within moments of hearing it for the first time. Through official routes are still difficult, which just pisses us off.

MP3s are the definition of convenience and convenience trumps everything. However, in the consumer conversion to MP3s everything else around music has been completely stripped away. We are left with just a file on our hard drives with a thousand others.

I DID NOT buy The Dark Side of the Moon as a digital download.

Why are people less likely to pay for music – even though they have ultimate convenience?

People will pay for convenience but when the cost of delivering convenience is near free. That will be the price. But for many of us recorded music is something more than just the audio file. What of collecting and connecting? Mp3s do not provide:
- collectablity. Everyone can have an MP3 so how can it be collectable or be a reflection of me?
- connection. MP3s have been stripped of all contexts. It’s just a file on my hard drive.

It’s time that we reintroduce these two characteristics to the recorded music experience. However in doing so, we need to remember that convenience trumps everything.

If we get it right I will buy The Dark Side of the Moon again.

I would like to introduce MIXXMAKER.com, a new service from my company Project Opus.

Originally this was a simple prototype we made in July 2007 for a much larger project still in development, but when we played with it at the office we REALLY liked it as a separate product. So we decided to "tune it up" and explore making it a service.

It's pretty simple after you install the MIXX Maker application on Facebook:

1. You theme your MIXX by completing the sentence:

"I want music that..."

2. You then send a MIXX request to your friends with impeccable music taste.
3. They upload a song that suits the theme of your MIXX with a comment or two on why they are suggesting that song

Upload a song? Yes. Upload a song.
We had thought about providing URL linking or a search function to some free libraries, but when you want to suggest a song, chances are you have it on your hard drive, iPod or CD and you do not want to go hunting for it on the web. That's why you are suggesting the song after all isn't it? So, to make this possible MIXX Maker is tied presently only to Facebook. We use the friends API to legally (our lawyers said we were good) make digital MIXX Tapes (MIXXs) that you can share with your friends. We hope to add the service to other Social Networks with good friends APIs.

Hosting all the files and providing all that bandwidth is actually a costly enterprise to maintain. Our objectives is to explore ways to make money around this service assuming people like it and use it. So in the end for this product to be successful, people need to buy music or money needs to flow toward copyright holders. It's that simple, really.

To that end we have shown it to a number of major labels and industry partners. Everyone seems to like it. Most are taking a wait and see attitude. Though the good people at Nettwerk Music Group are giving it an endorsement right out of the gate, which we appreciate and they are setting us up with some interested parties to help monetize the service. Still, we are open to any and all introductions.

Please give Mixx Maker a try, and let us know what you think.

UPDATE (January 6):
We got some good coverage already (and we were hacked, too, but we're back up.)
Mashable: Get Your Lazy Friends to Make Mix Tapes For You
Tech Vibes: Project Opus Brings Back the “Mixx” Tape
Mathew Ingram: MixxMaker: Facebook meets the mix tape