[Edgard Varese]

Okay have entered "delete" into all of the disaggregated posts above.

For the two of you still interested: here's a collection of links relevant to UMG's audible watermarking of audio files:

http://www.umldigitalops.com/wnsupport/documentation/eFolioWaterMark.html#top
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=89818
http://www.umgefolio.com/
http://www.mediascienceinternational.com/products/studiocdn.aspx
http://studiocdn.umusic.com/
http://markany.en.ec21.com/

Quoted from the documentation page for studiocdn:

StudioCDN uses MSI MarkAny audio watermarking.

This is the same system used by eFolio, ASPEN, InGrooves, DigiPlug, the CD burning stations in North America and many bureaus like MediaDisc in London.

The MarkAny system will successfully re-watermark a file previously watermarked by MarkAny. You do not need to worry if the file you are sending is already watermarked. If the file was originally watermarked by StudioCDN, it will match back to the originally uploaded version, guaranteeing your recipients have a first generation watermark for the highest audio quality.

The MarkAny system does not clash with the Watermarking used by PlayMPE. If you send a file through both systems both watermarks are detectable.

Currently StudioCDN watermarks 16bit audio only. We plan to support 24bit audio in the coming months.
Watermarking can be disabled by selecting the Do Not Watermark option in the client. This is available to Production users who are in the correct group, and appears in the standard client after a quick authentication test. If you wish to be added to this group you will need to show the business requirement for you to access this feature with approval from your management.
StudioCDN does not currently watermark video, although it is planned to offer this in the future.



So it sounds like UMG has the whole DG and other classical labels catalogue to "re-watermark.". Perhaps that will happen; I won't bet on it. And perhaps it won't sound contaminated afterwards; but I won't bet on that, either.

 
I really appreciate your investigation of this.  I hope it gets some traction, though I'm not confident that it will.

 

[bigfatpaulie]

Agreed. On both accounts.

 

[Copperears]

Yeah sorry for the noise on the thread, above; I was getting kind of wound up about this last night.

Just SO much corruption out there these days, in every way; I've never seen it this bad my whole, long life, and it's pretty disgusting to me at this point.

 

[xnor]

No, it's not a compression issue. We settled that one or two pages back.

 

[Copperears]

I'm certain at this point that it is not a compression issue. Plus, you can hear it without my having to post a sample here by simply going to any of the mentioned music on iTunes and clicking on Preview for the song.

Specifically, listen to the first note of the first movement of Chopin's Ballade no. 1 on Krystian Zimerman's recording of same, on the iTunes Store. You'll hear the problem immediately, if you've ever heard a real piano note.