One Click Away! - The revolution of digital music in Bangladesh
One Click Away!
The revolution of digital music in Bangladesh
Digital Music has swept the entire world in recent years. Who knew that the three-letter word MP3 (Mpeg-1 Audio Layer 3 Format), developed in 1999 would spark off a digital music revolution? Now, listening to ones favourite tunes is literally a click away. Faysal Islam and Faizul Khan Tanim writes about how the revolution started, its current state and the impact it has had worldwide.
Iami has a daily habit of listening to music early in the morning. He heard from his friends about an album, but, didn’t manage the time to listen to it. He sits in front of his PC with his coffee and logs on to his favourite online music store and searches for that album. It’s right there on the front page and he proceeds to buy it online. And, within seconds of paying, the album is available for him to download.
In merely 10 minutes, he downloads the album in his PC and transfers it to his ipod (digital mp3 player), walks out from his apartment with his headphones on, listening to the latest songs.
As we embrace the ipod age, we say adios to the days of audio cassettes. The sales of CDs are on a global decline with the obvious rise in digital music distribution. On any given second, more people are listening to music in digital format than the physical product. The young generation finds it convenient to listen to music through their computers and mp3 players; and, advancement in technology every day makes it easier even for a casual listener to shift to digital music. Internet has paved way for a global music warehouse where you can find music from every genre, every language and every time period. To be frank, more and more artists are using the digital music revolution to share their masterpieces with the listeners.
Mp3, the most commonly used digital audio format for music distribution, has played a major role in bringing this revolution to the mainstream audience. Invented in the late 80’s by a team of German engineers, the format went public within a few years and the extension ‘mp3’ was introduced around 1995. The format compresses larger files of other formats, making them smaller without losing too much quality. It became a global phenomenon after 1995 when free mp3 software like Winamp became available to the public. These made it easy for an average user to create, play, collect and share mp3s.
Other formats soon followed. Within a year or two, formats like wma, rm brought more and more people into digital music. Leading Software companies like Microsoft (Windows Media Player) & Real Networks (Real Player) played major roles in bringing this revolution to the mainstream audience. Napster, world’s 1st peer-to-peer (P2P) music sharing service was launched soon after. It changed the way digital music would be distributed by introducing a technology that allows people all over the world to share music easily.
Suddenly, a global trend started which led to more and more P2P softwares being released and, more people began joining the digital music scene. Controversies surrounding copyright of digital music was the global topic. Many P2P softwares including Napster were shut down by record companies & artists’ organisations like RIAA.US Senate passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which allowed more copyright protection and a way to penalize infringement of copyright act. It also led to the start of a new way to distribute digital music…through legal online music distribution.
In Bangladesh, this has become a burning issue as well. Record label owners from around the city alleged that the local music industry is still in its infant stage and this world-wide phenomenon of digital music and illegal reproduction is actually harming the most.
Nazmul Haque Bhuiyan, convenor of music against piracy (MAP) and proprietor of record label G-Series said, ‘as technology keeps on developing, new forms of digital media will be available. But ripping CDs into mp3s is actually a misuse of using digital media. The illegal music sites in Bangladesh should be stopped immediately.’
He also stated that government should strengthen the copyright act and, the selling of pirated CDs and DVDs on footpaths should be stopped instantaneously. ‘As these open shops have no addresses, the pirates cannot be caught,’ he added.
Bhuiyan along with another director of a reputed audio label
welcomed the idea of selling music online from a website. They remarked that the amaderGaan.com’s initiative is a bold one.
Owner of another record label said, ‘it’s wrong for people to steal music by ripping audio CDs to make mp3z. Selling of digital music from online shops is a more viable, legal, and safer alternative to stealing. And, therefore, for the very existence of our industry, illegal distribution should stop.’
The introduction of ‘ipod’, a digital music portable player, by Apple led to the rise of ipod generation. Within months of its release ipod became a worldwide status symbol. Its catchy design with easy features and adaptations have made it one of the most recognisable consumer brands and led to the further rise in the use of digital music among the mainstream audience. Apple soon launched ‘itunes store’, world’s 1st legal online music store making it easy for people with ipods to buy albums directly.
Once again, technology made it easy for everyone to get music - this time legally. The ipod generation grabbed the concept with both hands and itunes became the biggest music store in the world. More and more legal music stores arrived in the scene and albums are now very easy to buy online. According to RIAA, Online sales contribute to around 12% of total sales of music and the number is on the rise.
Our own music has slowly but surely entered the digital music revolution. With the rise of internet usage in Bangladesh, especially in urban areas, the introduction of portable digital media players and mp3 phones, more and more people (notably the young generation) are tuning to digital music. A big number of music sites and online communities dedicated towards Bangla Music have taken this movement further. Aspiring artists and bands have been using internet and the digital music revolution to promote and share their works to get feedbacks from listeners worldwide.
On the forefront of online music movement is amaderGaan.com, by far, the most promising music site dedicated to promoting Bangla music through digital media. Last year, it took a revolutionary step and introduced legal music distribution from Bangladesh. It is now possible for people living outside Bangladesh to buy albums of leading record companies through amaderGaan.com’s online shop. While the majority of Bangla music distribution is being done for free, the legal selling concept is slowly gaining momentum, informs amadergaan.com officials.
Online Communities have also managed to promote our music throughout the world. Once again, amaderGaan.com is leading the pack with the biggest online community of Bangladesh, where musicians and fans interact heavily on a daily basis. Sites like Uginc.org, tunesbd.com among others play a significant role in promoting the underground scene.
Many artists and bands have websites, giving fans a chance to get to know more about them. Internet is also bringing in Bangladeshi talents from all over the world into limelight and through the digital music revolution they are managing to reach out to a global audience.
The overall future for digital music looks bright as more and more people embrace it and make it a part of their daily life. Copyright controversies present the biggest block to this movement as parties involved work to create awareness. However, Bangladeshi Music is slowly heading towards an overall digital music revolution and it won’t be very long when Jami gets all his music…digitally!
Timeline - History of MP3
1987 - The Fraunhofer Institut in Germany began research code-named EUREKA project EU147, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB).
January 1988 - Moving Picture Experts Group or MPEG was established as a subcommittee of the International Standards Organization/International Electrotechnical Commission or ISO/IEC.
April 1989 - Fraunhofer received a German patent for MP3.
1992 - Fraunhofer's and Dieter Seitzer’s audio coding algorithm was integrated into MPEG-1.
1993 - MPEG-1 standard published.
1994 - MPEG-2 developed and published a year later.
November 26, 1996 - United States issued patent for MP3.
September 1998 - Fraunhofer started to enforce their patent rights. All developers of MP3 encoders or rippers and decoders/players have to pay a licensing fee to Fraunhofer.
February 1999 - A record company called SubPop is the first to distribute music tracks in the MP3 format.
1999 - Portable MP3 players appear.
The revolution of digital music in Bangladesh
Digital Music has swept the entire world in recent years. Who knew that the three-letter word MP3 (Mpeg-1 Audio Layer 3 Format), developed in 1999 would spark off a digital music revolution? Now, listening to ones favourite tunes is literally a click away. Faysal Islam and Faizul Khan Tanim writes about how the revolution started, its current state and the impact it has had worldwide.
Iami has a daily habit of listening to music early in the morning. He heard from his friends about an album, but, didn’t manage the time to listen to it. He sits in front of his PC with his coffee and logs on to his favourite online music store and searches for that album. It’s right there on the front page and he proceeds to buy it online. And, within seconds of paying, the album is available for him to download.
In merely 10 minutes, he downloads the album in his PC and transfers it to his ipod (digital mp3 player), walks out from his apartment with his headphones on, listening to the latest songs.
As we embrace the ipod age, we say adios to the days of audio cassettes. The sales of CDs are on a global decline with the obvious rise in digital music distribution. On any given second, more people are listening to music in digital format than the physical product. The young generation finds it convenient to listen to music through their computers and mp3 players; and, advancement in technology every day makes it easier even for a casual listener to shift to digital music. Internet has paved way for a global music warehouse where you can find music from every genre, every language and every time period. To be frank, more and more artists are using the digital music revolution to share their masterpieces with the listeners.
Mp3, the most commonly used digital audio format for music distribution, has played a major role in bringing this revolution to the mainstream audience. Invented in the late 80’s by a team of German engineers, the format went public within a few years and the extension ‘mp3’ was introduced around 1995. The format compresses larger files of other formats, making them smaller without losing too much quality. It became a global phenomenon after 1995 when free mp3 software like Winamp became available to the public. These made it easy for an average user to create, play, collect and share mp3s.
Other formats soon followed. Within a year or two, formats like wma, rm brought more and more people into digital music. Leading Software companies like Microsoft (Windows Media Player) & Real Networks (Real Player) played major roles in bringing this revolution to the mainstream audience. Napster, world’s 1st peer-to-peer (P2P) music sharing service was launched soon after. It changed the way digital music would be distributed by introducing a technology that allows people all over the world to share music easily.
Suddenly, a global trend started which led to more and more P2P softwares being released and, more people began joining the digital music scene. Controversies surrounding copyright of digital music was the global topic. Many P2P softwares including Napster were shut down by record companies & artists’ organisations like RIAA.US Senate passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which allowed more copyright protection and a way to penalize infringement of copyright act. It also led to the start of a new way to distribute digital music…through legal online music distribution.
In Bangladesh, this has become a burning issue as well. Record label owners from around the city alleged that the local music industry is still in its infant stage and this world-wide phenomenon of digital music and illegal reproduction is actually harming the most.
Nazmul Haque Bhuiyan, convenor of music against piracy (MAP) and proprietor of record label G-Series said, ‘as technology keeps on developing, new forms of digital media will be available. But ripping CDs into mp3s is actually a misuse of using digital media. The illegal music sites in Bangladesh should be stopped immediately.’
He also stated that government should strengthen the copyright act and, the selling of pirated CDs and DVDs on footpaths should be stopped instantaneously. ‘As these open shops have no addresses, the pirates cannot be caught,’ he added.
Bhuiyan along with another director of a reputed audio label
welcomed the idea of selling music online from a website. They remarked that the amaderGaan.com’s initiative is a bold one.
Owner of another record label said, ‘it’s wrong for people to steal music by ripping audio CDs to make mp3z. Selling of digital music from online shops is a more viable, legal, and safer alternative to stealing. And, therefore, for the very existence of our industry, illegal distribution should stop.’
The introduction of ‘ipod’, a digital music portable player, by Apple led to the rise of ipod generation. Within months of its release ipod became a worldwide status symbol. Its catchy design with easy features and adaptations have made it one of the most recognisable consumer brands and led to the further rise in the use of digital music among the mainstream audience. Apple soon launched ‘itunes store’, world’s 1st legal online music store making it easy for people with ipods to buy albums directly.
Once again, technology made it easy for everyone to get music - this time legally. The ipod generation grabbed the concept with both hands and itunes became the biggest music store in the world. More and more legal music stores arrived in the scene and albums are now very easy to buy online. According to RIAA, Online sales contribute to around 12% of total sales of music and the number is on the rise.
Our own music has slowly but surely entered the digital music revolution. With the rise of internet usage in Bangladesh, especially in urban areas, the introduction of portable digital media players and mp3 phones, more and more people (notably the young generation) are tuning to digital music. A big number of music sites and online communities dedicated towards Bangla Music have taken this movement further. Aspiring artists and bands have been using internet and the digital music revolution to promote and share their works to get feedbacks from listeners worldwide.
On the forefront of online music movement is amaderGaan.com, by far, the most promising music site dedicated to promoting Bangla music through digital media. Last year, it took a revolutionary step and introduced legal music distribution from Bangladesh. It is now possible for people living outside Bangladesh to buy albums of leading record companies through amaderGaan.com’s online shop. While the majority of Bangla music distribution is being done for free, the legal selling concept is slowly gaining momentum, informs amadergaan.com officials.
Online Communities have also managed to promote our music throughout the world. Once again, amaderGaan.com is leading the pack with the biggest online community of Bangladesh, where musicians and fans interact heavily on a daily basis. Sites like Uginc.org, tunesbd.com among others play a significant role in promoting the underground scene.
Many artists and bands have websites, giving fans a chance to get to know more about them. Internet is also bringing in Bangladeshi talents from all over the world into limelight and through the digital music revolution they are managing to reach out to a global audience.
The overall future for digital music looks bright as more and more people embrace it and make it a part of their daily life. Copyright controversies present the biggest block to this movement as parties involved work to create awareness. However, Bangladeshi Music is slowly heading towards an overall digital music revolution and it won’t be very long when Jami gets all his music…digitally!
Timeline - History of MP3
1987 - The Fraunhofer Institut in Germany began research code-named EUREKA project EU147, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB).
January 1988 - Moving Picture Experts Group or MPEG was established as a subcommittee of the International Standards Organization/International Electrotechnical Commission or ISO/IEC.
April 1989 - Fraunhofer received a German patent for MP3.
1992 - Fraunhofer's and Dieter Seitzer’s audio coding algorithm was integrated into MPEG-1.
1993 - MPEG-1 standard published.
1994 - MPEG-2 developed and published a year later.
November 26, 1996 - United States issued patent for MP3.
September 1998 - Fraunhofer started to enforce their patent rights. All developers of MP3 encoders or rippers and decoders/players have to pay a licensing fee to Fraunhofer.
February 1999 - A record company called SubPop is the first to distribute music tracks in the MP3 format.
1999 - Portable MP3 players appear.
Comments
I was reading this awesome article until came towards the section where you were talking about amadergaan. why do you think amadergaan doesn't have any credible stand against the other illegan downloading sites? bcos they themselves are the ones created this group of illegal distributors until they claimed "legal" distributors. Its more like promoting a culture with a self inflicted disease! i hope you'll write about how to stop the illegal downloading of our UG band albums.
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