ReDigi Answers the Questions Everyone is Asking: How Does it Work, How is it Legal?

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Last month, ReDigi™, the world’s first online marketplace to legally buy and sell used digital music files, rocked the music industry with the announcement of its groundbreaking technology. This week, ReDigi releases answers to the questions that everyone is asking: How is this legal and how does it work?

“After someone hears about ReDigi, the first thing they say is ‘I love the idea, but how does it work?’”

“After someone hears about ReDigi, the first thing they say is ‘I love the idea, but how does it work?’” explains ReDigi CEO John Ossenmacher. “It’s actually been interesting seeing how people react to the explanation of the technology and process. People are excited at the possibility of recycling their digital music but are scratching their heads trying to understand the legality of a pre-owned digital marketplace. Our company’s patent pending technology conquers the previous barriers that stood in the way of creating the digital equivalent of the used record store that many of us remember.”

The ReDigi system provides several features that help ensure the safe and legal transfer of digital music files. First, music files offered for sale are verified for eligibility to sell. The ReDigi Music Agent uses a sophisticated method of analyzing many aspects of the music file to determine its base eligibility, including identifying the song’s digital thumbprint (a proprietary, patent pending, forensic analysis of key details associated with each specific file) and confirming whether the file has been properly acquired from an eligible commercial site. A music file determined to be “unverifiable” or “ineligible for resale” is not necessarily an illegally obtained file; it only means that the origin can’t be identified or the source does not qualify. The ReDigi Music Agent does not delete or remove unverifiable files on the user’s computer; it simply identifies these files and categorizes them for the sole information of the user.

Once a file has been verified for sale, it goes through a second verification process that includes acoustic parameters (matching an uploaded track’s actual audio to a predefined audio set from a known master of the same song); acceptable files are then added to the ReDigi music marketplace for re-sale and deleted from the original owner’s computer. The files are also removed from any synced devices. ReDigi manages this process for users, so even devices synced over time will be updated with tracks that have posted for sale and sold tracks will be removed. Just like anything else you physically own, once you sell a music file, you no longer have the right to use it. By doing this, ReDigi provides even stronger copyright protection to labels and artists as it proactively removes these files to protect the owner and the appropriate parties.

Lastly, the ReDigi marketplace ensures that there are never two owners of the same instance of a copyrighted work. Just like when a physical object is sold – when selling a music CD, the seller hands over the disk to the buyer and ownership rights transfer with the hand off— the ReDigi Music Agent makes sure the same thing happens with a digital music file. ReDigi’s proprietary technology allows for this transfer with no file copying involved in the transaction.

“The technological development of the ReDigi Music Agent passes copyright and first-sale doctrine tests that have stopped other companies from legally being able to do this previously,” says Larry Rudolph, CTO of ReDigi. “If you have bought it, you are allowed to sell it. Also, you are allowed to buy something that someone else legally can sell. ReDigi is the technology used for this transaction. It verifies the legal origin, a seller's right under the first sale doctrine and allows a user to resell a file that is verifiably his or hers to sell.”

With the average person actively using only 20 percent of the music in his or her digital library, the ReDigi Music Agent not only protects the copyright process by clearing the sold files from the seller’s computer, but it frees up hard drive space and allows users more room to download the songs they really want.

“An estimated 60 billion songs are downloaded illegally each year,” Ossenmacher added. “ReDigi offers a new alternative to those looking for a legal and more affordable music marketplace. We encourage people to go legally purchase and download new tracks. What ReDigi now brings to the table is giving those new tracks and the consumer’s existing music library value in an online marketplace, and that’s never existed before.”

If you are interested in receiving an invite to ReDigi’s exclusive preview group, please visit www.redigi.com.

About ReDigi™

Launching in summer 2011, ReDigi will forever change the way digital music is bought and sold. As the world’s first marketplace for recycled digital media, ReDigi reinvigorates music collections by giving users the ability to legally sell (recycle) the songs they’re no longer listening to and to acquire other users’ recycled songs at dramatically discounted prices, all while supporting the music industry by granting a portion of each sale to artists and record labels each and every time a track resells. For more information, please visit www.redigi.com. Follow us on Twitter @redigimusic and Facebook. Musicians interested in ReDigi should contact media@redigi.com. Press and business inquiries should be made to Jennifer Chidester at jennifer@thelimelightpr.com.