The Big Blue has been working hard behind closed doors developing a new digital distribution systems with some of the biggest US record companies. Called the Madison Project, the agreement is a milestone for the music industry that is currently in complete disarray about how best to approach the distribution of audio via the Internet.

Recent cases against the popular format MP3 have brought matters into the public domain after years of underground status - but it is going to be a lengthy process to find a solution to protecting an artists rights. One issue that still remains a mystery is that we have no idea what type codecs and encryption technology it is going to be based on.

What is interesting about this announcement, (not that we could find anything on IBM’s site about it, yesterday’s FT all the way for us old boy) is that Sony, Warner, EMI, Universal and other record companies are all working together to sort the problem out. Whether this IBM solution is in fact the ultimate solution is yet to be seen, but for now, it’s a definite step in the right direction.

http://www.ibm.com/