Music labels attempting to launch new digital music format

Rarely do I encounter a story about a technology initiative that seems so obviously doomed to disaster right from the start. This time it's a plan from the big four record labels, which want to develop a new music format preliminarily called CMX, which will compete with MP3 and other music formats that have long been established on the market.

CMX is a direct response to Apple's "Cocktail" project, which is being designed to add extra material to music tracks as an attempt to recall the heyday of glossy alburms and, hopefully, boost sales (and, likely, prices) along the way. Cocktail-enabled tracks will come with lyrics, artwork, and even music videos that ride along with the audio files. Same thing with CMX. Oh, and there's no immediate word on any DRM affiliated with these tracks -- but I'm wagering there will be.

Curiously, the record labels actually claim that they approached Apple with the idea, and Apple said it wasn't interested -- only to announce its own proprietary plan in the space shortly afterwards. Apple's response is purely "in case ours catches on," as the labels put it. And I can believe that story, but it doesn't really make much of a difference in the end: If devices aren't built to support CMX out of the box, especially iTunes and the iPod line of MP3 players, it simply won't be used by anyone -- especially if CMX tracks cost more than a regular MP3.

Will Apple support CMX? I seriously doubt it. The company is notorious for shunning all but the most mainstream of file formats. The iPod still doesn't support WMA files, for example. And formats that are much desired by small and/or vocal groups of users, like Ogg Vorbis, have found little toehold in the industry as a whole, relegated to being supported by tiny niche players.

Meanwhile, it seems like it's full-speed ahead for the quixotic CMX, which the labels say they plan to unleash in November as a "soft launch" with just a few titles. "To see what people like," they say.

Well, I can tell you right now what people don't like: New music formats.