MXP4: New music format changes to fit your mood, but why?
UK firm Musinaut is hawking "MXP4", a musical format that incorporates various versions of songs into one file, the better to match your disposition when paired with devices that sense your mood. It's doomed, not only because it won't be adopted by mainstream device manufacturers — or really, just not by Apple, which is enough — but also because it puts the onus on musicians to remix their songs multiple times. That's fine for some musical styles, but who wants to hear a "chill" version of, say, Morris Day and The Time's "Cool"? (Okay, I do, but still.)
There's another clear point of failure (and it's not just that Musinaut's website fails the Hyperbole Test for putting MXP4 on the same timeline as Edison's phonograph): Rarely do I want music to change according to my mood. Just the opposite: I mostly listen to specific music to change my mood.
Company page [Musinaut.com via Gizmodo]
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You know what I do when I want music to fit my mood? Pick different music to listen to.
The mood-sensing thing might be a little silly, but the format itself isn't quite a crazy idea. I can see a few applications for a multi-track audio format. Remixes would be the big one, but alternate languages would also work. Or karaoke/instrumental versions. (I'd love to be able to turn off the vocals when I'm trying to read.)
The thing is, I think OGM can already handle multiple tracks, can't it?
Can it sense my complete and utter uncertainty about the future? If so, what music would it select?
I do believe "interactive music" has a future, but this format ain't it.
In the same way that some video games are like interactive movies, someone needs to figure out a way to bring interactivity to music, in some other way than just as rhythm games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band (although those are a lot of fun.)
I just can't quite picture what interactive music might be like under these criteria.
(Well, apart from actual improvisational performance, as in, playing in a band that is jamming.)
You should check http://www.tronme.com its Interactive Music and Video and can be purely controlled with your webcam, you dance and the player remix the track.
Music 2.0/MT9 actually seems (sounds?) more interesting, useful and easy to put in practice.
@Alowishus Can it sense my complete and utter uncertainty about the future? If so, what music would it select?
Philip Glass and Brian Eno. Really that's all it ever plays - their combined canon fills the spectrum. Occasionally though, you may get mashups of the two by DJ Dangermouse.
@#6:
So it just loops the Low and Heroes symphonies then?
"Rarely do I want music to change according to my mood. Just the opposite: I mostly listen to specific music to change my mood."
That works both ways, no? I could set it up to play "specific music" in response to the mood I want to be rid of.
It would be saner to make a player that picks songs based on your mood.
I suspect I'd be listening to a lot of Jonathan Coulton these days.
I can see another way for something similar to work, where you get a music player that detects the songs you usually play when you're in a certain mood and is more likely to play them when you're shuffling. It could also make it more likely to play ones with similar classifications (year, genre, artist)-- so if people tend to put on 80s music when they're feeling self-loathing, it detects self-loathing for them and puts on more 80s music.
Perhaps someone could educate me here:
What's the difference between having several similar tracks bound together in a single file, and having several similar tracks in separate files but with, say, the same "Album" ID3 tag?
The only thing I can think of is that having separate tracks with the same tag allows you to split them and have them on different playlists, and is therefore more convenient. I just can't think of an advantage to this new format.
I can see an application for this type of format in, say, gaming, where your character walks from the fluorescent-lit starkness of an abandoned grocery store into the dripping dank of the zombie-infested underground parking garage. The same background tune, but different moods.
LucasArts tried something like this a while back with some of their PC titles, with some success. I think the system was called iMuse.
Common guys ! Let give them a try at least ; the idea may not be as bad as you think !
By the way : are you sure it's from UK ? I thought it was french !
Keith Emerson say he plays lively music when sad, and down music when happy. Or something to that effect. Being it so, who are we to go against this definitive statement?
I rest my case.
They're trying to create a music format while saying nothing about compression/quality/file sizes?
Doomed to fail. The only way it'll ever get off the ground is it if offers significantly better quality at the same bitrates as mp3 or vorbis, and even then it'll have to fight to not languish in obscurity.
@16 - it's probably a container format rather than a compression format. OGM for instance is a container format that can handle sound compressed as MP3, AAC, Vorbis, etc.
i've always wanted a format that would allow me to "bass boost." i mean the instrument. also, sometimes i want the vocals to not be piercing when trying to listen carefully to the drummer. so using MXP4 to have each instrument, like on the original recording, with its own volume controls.
I agree with STRATOSFYR about multitrack's future. Can't even think about this weird mood music.
I actually played with the mxp4 stuff, and i'm not sure I'm really getting it. Took 140+Mb download of their player and then it only seemed like a basic web-based flash player, but slower.
I ran a search online to find other interesting audio formats including MT9 and iKlax.
iKlax must be the one for this new tech era in my opinion... it actually stunned me on the possibilities - i'd advise to check it out!
I am a DJ using the format to create music, and I love the concept. Each MXP4 file embeds multiple versions/mixes of a song, defined by me, so that listeners can listen to a song that suits their mood. The format allows me to explore different facets of my personality.
I think the MXP4 format is quite cool. While the user can compile playlists based on mood, the MXP4Player alone has nothing to do with the interpretation of the listener’s mood unless it is used in conjunction with the headpiece.
I'm also aware of the format and I it's much more than a feature that can change music based on your mood. That's just one of the applications it has. I'm a songwriter who has been dabbling with it. It lets me look at my must from a different angle which has sent me creativity skyrocketing.
The point of all this is: Almost never getting tired of a piece of music! In the near term, you will pick a song,then tell the player to vary the arrangement 10 or 20 or 50 percent each time it's played. So you get continual surprises.And in an internet age new tracks can always be added to a piece. To me, this is unquestionably the future of music.