PC Magazine reports Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI have developed a new digital album file format that appears to be in direct competition with Apple’s new “Cocktail” format. CMX – and Apple’s Cocktail – two different music-file formats that essentially do the same thing. Sound familiar? This time out, one is backed by the major label record companies and the other by Apple.
The new CMX digital album format packs in songs, art work, linear notes, lyrics, and videos. In all, it’s strangely similar to the Cocktail format introduced by Apple a few weeks back. The labels had apparently approached Apple with their proposal for the new format and were rejected by the company.
“Apple at first told us that they were not interested, but now they have decided to do their own, in case ours catches on,” a label representative said in a recent interview. “Ours will be a file that you click on, it opens and it would have a brand new look, with a launch page and all the different options. When you click on it you’re not just going to get the 10 tracks, you’re going to get the artwork, the video and mobile products.”
No word yet on how precisely the two file formats will differ–or whether CMX will work with iTunes, the world’s largest music store.
