The free music revolution could start with Jook

Juniper Foo | Jan 15, 2008

It's near impossible to cover everything at CES, the annual Consumer Electronics Show that kicks off a brand new year with gadgets galore. Not unless you're sleepless in Las Vegas 24/7, grow eight legs and eight heads, and prowl the aisles like you would the nearby Premium Outlets for factory bargains. Then again, we've known some tech geeks to do just that.

However, at the Great Digital Experience, a preshow event held the night before the tradeshow opened, we got a peek at gaming peripheral maker Razer's subsidiary Jook. Its music solution, also called Jook, aims to bring music sharing into the realm of social networking. In short, Jook wants to turn any portable music player into a personal radio station enabling anyone, regardless of their player, to wirelessly transmit songs to people around them.

To effect that, the technology utilizes two parts... a wireless transmitter that plugs into any digital music player (the sample we saw was a dock plugged to the base of an MP3 player), and an indicator unit that seems to be integrated into the headphone cable.

A button on the indicator would allow the user to toggle quite simply between three modes: Me, Us and U. In Me mode, that's the selfish mode where the user listens to his own music without sharing. In Us mode, things get a little more interesting. The user can broadcast his music to other nearby Jook-enabled devices within a 9.2m range, with his Jook indicator light turning red to alert others there's music to tune into. Those wanting to connect will activate the U mode, where their own indicator light turns green to show they are now listening in.

Users will hear the song in real-time, in exactly the same sound quality as the broadcaster.

According to the company's president and CEO Tan Min-Liang, decked out in official red Jook colors at the booth, users can even create a profile, store this on their Jook-enabled devices, and share with listeners or broadcasters. The intent is to take music out of the box, so users can connect and talk about the music they're sharing.

And what about copyright issues? Unfazed, Tan says there is no downloading of music involved. In fact, Jook can only encourage users to purchase a music they've shared and enjoyed. A site will also provide for a forum to encourage interaction and rating of other Jook users' musical tastes.

Those excited about the prospect of a music revolution will, however, have to wait a bit longer. The company is partnering with MP3 player and accessories makers to produce Jook-enabled devices and will only announce the launch of such players at a later date. We don't yet know if the company will be developing Jook devices that can enable older players to join the revolution.

Filed under: Music & Play
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