Just as I pointed out in January, the sound of what is being sent into the cloud needs to improve, if for no other reason than to avoid trying to figure out how to cram a “record” into your iPod. Seriously, for those that are my age, it’s unfair for us let those brought up on listening to audio in the mp3 format think that’s the best music can sound. For those that have never heard the sound of a vinyl LP you owe it to yourself to hear all of what the artist labored to put into the music, especially the parts the mp3 format has had to discard.

I know, I know, you’re going to say that the human ear can’t detect the difference between a vinyl album, a CD, MP3, WAV, etc. I’m sorry, I disagree. I hear a difference. And it’s especially noticeable in the MP3 format, the most popular format for portable devices and online streaming. The reason it is the most popular, if you didn’t already know, is that it is the smallest file size. An MP3 file is a fraction of the size of, say, a WAV file. File size is directly related to download time.

So what do we do about better sound quality on “the net?” First, don’t settle. If you can find a way to make that audio sound better then do it. Start with a Variable Bit Rate setting if you can. VBR allows the music to be compressed in places where the full audio spectrum will most likely not be missed, a fade in or out for example. Another option would be, with such advances in bandwidth and more and more access to higher speed connectivity, offer your audio in the WAV format. I’ll take a WAV over MP3 any day.

Whatever the case, I refuse to settle for what we now accept for high-quality audio. I don’t believe going back to vinyl is the answer. Memories of the cracks and pops of an over-played album and the need for the pennies on a tone-arm are enough to keep me away from climbing on that bandwagon.

If, as Eliot Van Buskirk of Wired commented, vinyl is the nail in the CD’s coffin in his article back in December, and is the best we can do then I would have to be very disappointed in technology. And, to date, I’m not.

Look I have great memories of opening that new album (I still distinctly remember taking the shrink wrap off that debut Boston album…sigh.), but beyond the romance of it all, I don’t want to go back. Hey, I liked the show Happy Days…it doesn’t mean I wanted to slick my hair back and do the stroll. Let’s move forward.

Have you got some tips for improved audio? Let’s have em.

…do everything I can to make the adoption of “new media” as easy for everyone as possible. We “early adopters” can’t forget that most folks are still digesting the internet as a whole, much less all it has to offer. There is so much more going on than Google, iTunes, and text messaging.

…remember there is a difference between sending a message and conversing. Spend more time talking face to face or on the phone with people. Text, e-mail, etc. are great for quick thoughts but can never replace the emotion of a great conversation.

…work to improve the quality and the content in my writing. I write more now than I have in years and I want my blog posts to be more than articles. I want them to inform, inspire, and entertain all at the same time. (Okay, this one is going to take a lot of work.)

…work to improve the quality of the audio online. I was listening to my son’s iPod the other day and realized that we’ve taught people to settle for audio quality that is, to put it politely, not so great. When we adopted the CD we sacrificed some depth to our audio, just as we did when we started using audio tape. Now that we are using the internet as our main source of music we have sacrificed even more or that sound quality. I heard a record the other day and I was blown away by the sound I had been missing. If you have some vinyl around you should do the same. (If you have no idea what a record is, please seek one out…maybe your attic?) I had become use to the sound of an mp3, probably downloaded a terrible bit rate. I will do whatever I can to hear more of what the musicians and performers worked so hard to put into their recordings.

…work to improve the quality of video online. The same challenge faces us with what we see online. With the advent of HDTV the bar has been raised even higher. What I see on my Smartphone should look just as good as what I see on cable.

…convince advertisers that the “new media” audience is of incredibly high quality and is worth more than a traditional media user. There are already scores of studies highlighting the incredibly high recall rates for online advertising (even higher with a mix of media), we need to get the advertisers to respect that and think beyond “cost per thousand.”

…enjoy more time outside the ether so that I can bring more reality into it. Pull myself out of the screen, away from the keyboard, and off the cell phone. I need to go outside and take a walk whenever I can. In fact, there’s a new layer of snow and a crisp morning waiting for me right now…

Happy New Year!

This post can also be seen at RemainComm.com

What does all of this have to do with Downloadable media? How will media delivery and consumption evolve on the Internet? It is helpful to look back to understand a likely pattern to emerge in the future. Back in 1995, one of the hottest destination on the web was a site which hosted a lot of user generated content. Geocities was eventually bought by Yahoo for twice the price Google paid for Youtube. As the web matures with professionally produced content and applications, the Internet traffic patterns are consolidating with the top 50 or so destinations driving a majority of the traffic and audiences. As we look into the future of video (and audio) on the Internet, I see a trend where the audiences will “go to” a few (consolidating) major web destinations on a regular basis, and a super large majority of consumers will “visit” their own “personal storage” on a super regular basis. Let us call this exploding personal storage as “my site”. My site is where all of my media is delivered to me. There are two forms of download deliveries which will end up my in my site (a) RSS based subscription content delivery (ex. using an application like iTunes, or the soon to arrive Adobe Media Player) and (b) Direct Downloads (ex. using applications like BitTorrent, iTunes store purchases, ripping web video with Real Player, etc.)

So why ADM? Media companies have known for a long time that content needs to be delivered to be successful. For example, Fortune magazine would much prefer to sell you a subscription for a fifth the magazine retail price. Therefore it is a no-brainer to assume all content producers, large and small, will want to prep their content for automatic delivery to subscribers. As consumers continue to snap up large high def TV screens, their tolerance for low quality web video is going to wane in preference to higher quality HD downloads. The problem now, is who pays for all this high quality content on “my site”? Clearly I will pay for the stuff I purchase from a content store. The majority of the content on my site will be free. It is becoming obvious that advertisers have a major role to play in making content free on my site. But there are a lot of open questions. ADM can begin to help answer some of these questions. Questions like – What are the standard forms of acceptable advertising on “my site”? How much should advertisers pay for “my site” audiences? What personal information, if any, should I disclose for the privilege of free content on “my site”? How is all of this measured? Can much of this be standardized in a manner acceptable to consumers, publishers and advertisers? Can the grand bargain of free content for advertisements be well understood and largely acceptable to “my site” audiences?

I founded Podbridge in 2005 to help monetize the “my site” audiences. Over the last two years we have seen a rapid expansion of the medium. Increasingly it is more video content. Big companies like Adobe are joining Apple in adopting RSS subscription media delivery. Many well funded peer-to-peer companies have come into existence to legitimize p2p download content. New attempts to bridge the media on the PC to the Television – ex. Apple TV and Sandisk’s TakeTV. In light of this type of continued expansion of the download medium, we announced today, we are changing the name of our company to VoloMedia (derived from the Italian word volo: flight) reflecting our company’s mission of helping publishers unlock the value of their video and audio content while enabling advertisers to reach the emerging and valuable “my site” audiences. At the end of the day, all of our endeavors will have been for naught if we do not end up in an environment of expanding opportunities for consumers to access to highly desirable downloadable media. That is the vision.