Versatile music distribution

A method of providing a streamable PCM signal allowing conditional access to a lossless presentation of an original PCM signal and to additional information, the streamable PCM signal having the same sample rate and bit-depth as the original PCM signal and providing a controlled audio quality when played on standard players, the method comprising the steps of:

• reversibly degrading a representation of the original PCM signal in dependence on degradation information for degrading the original PCM signal;
• embedding the degradation information and additional information into the representation using a method of lossless watermarking;
• creating a token in dependence on the additional information;
• and,
• inserting the token into the degraded representation to provide the streamable PCM signal.

An electronic device to provide a streamable PCM signal allowing conditional access to a lossless presentation of an original PCM signal, the streamable PCM signal having the same sample rate and bit-depth as the original PCM signal and providing a controlled audio quality when played on standard players, the device comprising:

• a processor;
• and,
• a memory in communication with the processor, the memory storing program instructions, the processor operative with the program instructions to:
• reversibly degrade a representation of the original PCM signal in dependence on degradation information for degrading the original PCM signal;
• embed the degradation information into the representation using a method of lossless watermarking;
• create a token in dependence on additional information;
• and
• insert the token into the degraded representation to provide the streamable PCM signal.

A system comprising two or more electronic devices each configured to provide a streamable PCM signal allowing conditional access to a lossless presentation of an original PCM signal, the streamable PCM signal having the same sample rate and bit-depth as the original PCM signal and providing a controlled audio quality when played on standard players, wherein each device comprises:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory in communication with the processor, the memory storing program instructions, the processor operative with the program instructions to:
• reversibly degrade a representation of the original PCM signal in dependence on degradation information for degrading the original PCM signal;
• embed the degradation information into the representation using a method of lossless watermarking;
• create a token in dependence on additional information;
• and
• insert the token into the degraded representation to provide the streamable PCM signal.