New-Media Pioneers Talk Art, but Commerce Rules

In the new-media industry, that ill-defined collection of CD-ROM developers, cutting edge musicians, Internet aficionados and others who are pushing the bounds of new technology, people like to talk about art. New types of software or new electronic publishing techniques or new ways of tying computers together are seen as a means of creative expression, as new palettes for digital Picassos.

And that’s all well and good, even laudable to a certain extent. Yet there’s often an element of disingenuousness in this outlook, a willful refusal to acknowledge the extent to which new technologies are shaped by capitalist imperatives. For digital technology is an extraordinarily expensive medium, and now more than ever it’s impossible to separate what a technology can do from how it will be sold.

This contradiction was painfully evident the other night during an event in the VIP room of the House of Blues, the quintessential new-media industry venue. Instead of the predictable middle-aged men in pin-striped suits who normally people corporate press gatherings, there was instead a roomful of young, ebullient hipsters, the type of folks that someone--Wired Magazine, perhaps?--had in mind when they coined the term Digerati. One of them set the tone by informing me, when I asked what brought him there, that he had been “making music and doing a little venture capital and just wanted to see what was going on.” Uh-huh.

The subject of the event was a technology sharing agreement involving a San Francisco software company called Macromedia and a San Rafael music company called Ion. As business deals go, it was fairly small-scale. Macromedia, which makes the software “tools” that are used to create multimedia computer programs, would incorporate into its main product some software developed by Ion. The technology would make it easier to create a new type of compact disc--known as Enhanced CD, or CD Plus--that includes not only music, but pictures and written lyrics and other information that could be displayed on a personal computer.

As a rule, software tools are a deadly topic for anyone but a computer programmer, and sure enough the low point of the evening was the technology demonstration. But everybody had a nice opportunity to wax enthusiastic about what these tools will make possible.

Mostly, they talked of art and artists and creative expression. CD Plus was a whole new medium; just as the cover art on vinyl record albums provided a platform for drawing and painting, and MTV offered a vehicle for creative video, this new technology would add another artistic dimension to the silvery CD.

Young, cutting-edge musicians would be the main beneficiaries. In a cluttered music arena, CD Plus would offer a way for up-and-comers to separate themselves from the pack. The software tools would provide a practical way to exploit the creative possibilities and build a base of technically proficient CD Plus developers.

But as I listened to all this, I kept thinking about the story on enhanced CDs that had appeared in this newspaper just a few weeks earlier. It discussed the creative possibilities but also noted another crucial aspect of the whole issue: CD Plus generally will cost more than music-only CDs, and the record companies regard them as replacements for existing CDs, not supplements.

Thus, if the new format catches on, it may well mean an across-the-board price increase in the compact disc market. And, to be perfectly frank, it’s not at all clear to me that the addition of, say, “interactive” liner notes that highlight the words as the music plays, or a few computerized pictures of the band, will be worth $3 or $4 or $5 more a disc.

When I asked about this--party pooper that I am--the response was, first, denial. CD Plus discs won’t cost more, or at least it isn’t clear they will cost more. People will create the enhanced CDs to express themselves, or at least to differentiate themselves in the market. But major record labels have already said they intend to charge more, I protested.

And the answer that came from the Ion Vice President Albhy Galuten was: “We can’t talk about business models here.”

Well, on one level, that was fair enough. The subject at hand was software tools, not marketing strategies for CD Plus, and when I phoned them a few weeks later, Ion co-founders Ann Greenberg and Ty Roberts certainly had plenty to say about pricing issues.

Still, it struck me as a rather revealing evasion. For technology does not exist in a vacuum, especially not in the hyper-competitive new-media industry of the 1990s. To modify a well-worn concept from Marshall McLuhan, “The medium is the model.” The interesting thing about a new technology is how it is deployed. And in the case of enhanced CDs--which will cost at least tens of thousands and often hundreds of thousands of dollars more to produce than regular CDs--that will almost certainly be determined by the profit-driven record conglomerates.

After the presentation, Macromedia Chairman Bud Colligan, a smart and thoroughly unpretentious man, needled me for being too cynical, and perhaps I am. But there are dangers, for both producers and consumers, in this confusion of art and commerce. Purveyors of new technologies can get so caught up in their own creative vision that they lose track of what’s really going on in the world. That’s arguably why Apple Computer failed to dominate the PC market, and is certainly why many CD-ROM products have flopped. Buyers risk getting swept along by a tide of false promises.

And as I thought about all this, I realized why I always find these new-media events a little bit odd. With executives in pin-stripes, the goals are clear: They are looking to make money. With new-media visionaries, they’re looking to promote creative expression and change the world and, oh yes, make a little money as well. They want to have their innovations and eat them too. Good luck.

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Jonathan Weber is assistant business editor for technology at The Times. He can be reached by e-mail at weber@news.latimes.com.