DataHiding^TM
IBM Electronic Music Management System

The watermarking technology of IBM's Tokyo Research Laboratory (TRL) was adopted as the Watermarking Processor Tool of the IBM Electronic Music Management System. The tool allows recording companies and studios to embed highly transparent "source watermarks" such as Copy Control Information (CCI), Usage IDs and International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) into digital audio data. The embedded watermark survives down-sampling, AAC and MP3 compression, copying to MiniDisc (MD) via analog, and various types of audio signal processing. The TRL technology is applicable to both CD-quality and DVD-quality audio data.

On February 8, 1999, five major record companies, BMG, EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music, and Warner Music, announced that they were joining with IBM to conduct the first-ever market trial of a system that permits convenient and fast distribution of full-length, CD-quality albums to consumers in a highly secure form over the Internet. The trial will be conducted using an IBM-developed delivery system, Electronic Music Management System (EMMS). Over 2,000 albums will be available for download during the trial, which is expected to begin in the spring and last for more than six months.

Background Story of the Music Recording Industry

Digital business brings big opportunities and big risks. The following table shows the sales of recorded music in the USA. CD offers a quality of sound that analog recorded music has never been able to offer, which is why it drove a remarkable growth of recorded music sales from 1988 to 1995. But the recent advance of compression technology and the popularity of the Internet are harming the music recording industry because of the prevalence of casual illegal copying over the Internet. Now the music recording industry is demanding that consumer electronic manufacturers and information technology companies provide a secure music management framework for both physical and electronic distribution.