“The music industry has for years struggled to develop a new physical format that could spark increased sales by replacing the CD. Now Warner Music Group Corp. is planning an aggressive attempt to address the issue by pushing consumers to buy their music on specially outfitted DVDs,” Ethan Smith reports for The Wall Street Journal.
Smith reports, “Warner, the world’s fourth-largest music company, is in the final stages of securing technical licenses that will enable it to sell a bundle of music and extra features on a single DVD, according to people familiar with the matter. The DVD would include a music album that plays in both stereo and surround-sound on a standard DVD player — plus video footage that plays on a DVD player or a computer. There will also be song remixes, ring tones, photos and other digital extras that can be accessed on a computer.”
“The company plans to make the new format available to its subsidiary record labels for product-planning purposes as early as next week and to introduce the discs to consumers with a handful of titles in October. A full-blown launch is planned for early next year. The hope is to fuel increased sales of both new product and catalog titles, in the process lifting the industry just as the 1982 introduction of the CD boosted sales as consumers replaced cassettes and vinyl albums,” Smith reports.
“But there are some stumbling blocks that may discourage consumers from embracing DVD albums. The new discs would not play on normal CD players, meaning consumers could not simply pop their new discs into their car stereos or other players. And users would not be able to copy the main audio mix onto their computers. On the proposed DVD album, the main audio mix is to be protected by the same software that already protects the content on normal DVDs.
“The DVD album would include ‘preripped’ digital tracks of the entire album, ready to be copied onto a user’s computer — a totally separate set of data from the higher-quality, DVD-audio sound that users hear when they slip the DVD in a player. The lower-quality, ‘preripped’ tracks could be copied to a CD,” Smith reports. “People familiar with the situation say Warner is close to a deal with Apple Computer Inc. that would make the digital tracks essentially identical to those the computer company sells through its iTunes Music Store service — something that has proved elusive for others in the music industry, since Apple has been unwilling to license its proprietary copy-protection software to outsiders. People briefed on the talks said a likely solution would involve Apple creating the digital tracks and Warner putting them on DVDs.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: First off, supposedly “unwilling” Apple has long-ago licensed its FairPlay DRM to “outsider” Motorola. Now, one big question not answered in the WSJ article: Will these DVDs work on Mac OS X or would Mac users be consigned to the lower-quality”preripped” tracks or stuck with having to run Windows on their Macs to access the main audio mix?
Related articles:
RUMOR: Apple asks studios to include iPod video content on Blu-ray discs – April 25, 2006
Apple is willing to license FairPlay… they just aren’t willing to take it in the ass in such a deal. Seems reasonable to me.
Sounds like a perfect fit.
I am not interested in their so-called higher quality music. The music I get off iTunes and play on my iPod via my my iPodHiFi are just fine with me.
Now enter the audiophiles with super human hearing that will say I am a fool…
If it’s a standard DVD, the Apple DVD player application should have no problem with it.
the physical format ship has sailed and is taking on water fast, this is just bigger cds,nothing new.
magic word “problems” as in The music industry has bigger problems than packaging.
me, you are a fool
From the music labels perspective they think that the product they are selling is CDs. From a consumers perspective they think the product they are buying is music. Seems the buyers and sellers have to get on the same page. In many cases I bought CDs to replace my vinyl records because the audio quality was vastly superior. But going from CD to DVD doesn’t give me anything of value in addition to what I already have. So what’s the point?
I don’t get the whole concept. It’s a CD that you can’t play in a CD player. You have to rip tracks back to the computer (for mp3 player use) or onto another disc. Why would I want the hassle?
THis may appeal to 16 year olds who would get into the visual content and ringtones, etc, but for anyone with a job and a life, I think they just want to get their music onto their iPod, if they have one, as easily as possible. If they don’t have an iPod, they probably are not tech geeks anyway and will not have a DVD audio player, and will also not bother ripping tracks from one disc to another (if they even know how).
Someone at Warner music’s marketing department seems to be grasping at straws in order to keep their job.
All I can say is, the day CD’s disappear is the day I stop buying music.
The is probably the first announcement from the record industry in years that actually seems like a good idea. Not perfect, but a good idea. I’m not sure if that says as much about the idea as the sheer stupidity of their other ideas. I do not like the preripped stuff, because I would like at least wav/aiff tracks to rip at any bit rate I please.
Me: you do not have to be an audiophile to hear the limitations on compressed tracks played on high end systems. I am not an audiophile by any stretch of the imagination and AAC tracks at 128 kbps are obvioulsy inferior to CD quality tracks. While you may not have a system that exposes those flaws, many people do and it would be much better if everyone got some choice.
To: hmmm
Most people do NOT have equipment that exposes these flaws. Most people have generic CD players, in their home and car, and iPods. An AAC track encoded at 128 is perfect. Meaning, perfect for about 99% of Americans for regular listening.
I do agree that the 1% that can afford the equipment that exposes these flaws deserve a choice. Hopefully, Apple will sell Apple Lossless (SP?) tracks on iTunes soon so that your, understandable, complaint can be addressed.
You want to spark sales of CD’s then lower the Fucking price.
Yeah they should lower the price because the quality of the music has!
critic: You don’t have to rip the audio tracks back to the computer. You just have to copy them – they are already in the Fairplay-protected AAC format.
That said, isn’t the DVD format protection already broken? Wouldn’t Handbrake, MacRipper, etc., be able to get the higher-quality DVD-audio sound onto the computer?
So now we will have to pay $$$$$$ for a new car system? Music that you can’t rip to a computer? Forget it. Not interested. Good luck with that. Thanks for stopping by.
You tell him boy… I stopped buying music when vinyl disappeared and those stupid digital CD things took over. Any day now, the music industry is going to feel my boycott, and vinyl will be back on the shelves…
I haven’t bought any music since those dadburned record companies stopped making my 78 rpm records to play on my Victrola!!!!… Don’t those infernal music companies know that music just don’t sound the same at 33 1/3 rpms!!!
Me, you are an audiophile!
Isn’t Warner Music run by that dork Bronfman, who wanted to raise prices for iTunes tracks???
MW-record, no shit it really is!!! AS in I still have a lot of vinyl records and wish i had the time to “rip” them into iTunes. I just hope thae sound quality won’t be “compromised” by the audio compression. Oh wait, they’re old vinyl and I have old ears, they’ll probably sound fine.
I can’t wait for Apple to raise the quality of the iTMS encoded music. Also, what is it with all these twats claiming 128kbps is perfect? Are you deaf or just O.D.’ed on the koolaid? Yes, there are tracks at iTMS that actually sound good at 128kbps – but there are too many that simply sound crap. And what makes this an “audiophile” issue? Since when did Apple settle on being okay-ish – or good enough?
These are most likley NOT “standard DVD’s” in the say way that the copy protected CD’s are not standard CD’s. Remember the big dust up over… what was it… Celine Dion CD’s a few years ago? Put them into your Mac, and you couldn’t get them out. My guess is something similar with these DVD’s.
Some idots never learn…
BUT… even if this is NOT the case, frankly, I’m tired of “collecting” music in a physical package. Yes, it’s bright and shiny, yes, they do have more facts…. producers… lyrics… studio info… and the list of “Thanks”…. but no reason that couldn’t be included in the download files as well, and of course, Yes, I’m sure CD’s or DVD’s do sound better than downloads in a serious listening environment. But I’m not going to just sit and listen to music.. I’d sit and WATCH music…. concerts… but that’s already available on DVD’s. Even in 5.1 I doubt I’d sit still for 45 mins on an album. And what good is 5.1 going to do in my car? Too much road noise, traffic noise, and conversation with the person in the passenger’s seat. I do need NEW MUSIC… I just don’t want it at the expense of MORE CLUTTER.
If you take a step back and see things globally, music is the first area were we’re headed to an all internet product. Nothing physical has yet to be totally replaced by the internet… there is no road map for the death of the physical matter we all once loved. This is just the beginning…. movies next.. books.. newspapers… shopping malls… the list is long. But trust me, we are headed in that direction.
<MDN seceret word: good. But is it a good thing?>
This is so obviously going to be a success.
Most people really can’t wait to buy this product, just like those two “enhanced audio” CD formats.
They sold like lead balloons.
“If you take a step back and see things globally, music is the first area were we’re headed to an all internet product. Nothing physical has yet to be totally replaced by the internet… there is no road map for the death of the physical matter we all once loved. This is just the beginning…. movies next.. books.. newspapers… shopping malls… the list is long. But trust me, we are headed in that direction.”
Don’t confuse the relative success of some particular technological activity (the convenience of downloading music) with an overall sociological trend.
Movies…not anytime soon. It’s not relatively easy or quick to do. Still severe technological hurdles to overcome. Lack of cheap, really widespread, true broadband. Ignores social element of theater viewing. Lord of the Rings just isn’t the same, even on a 62″ hi-def DLP TV, as it is in a movie theater.
Books…Ebooks have their uses, but I’d say the success of Amazon.com indicates people prefer actual books. There are qualities and a convenience to them that no “ebook” will ever match. Ebooks have limitations that will never be overcome.
Newspapers…I’ll agree, but not for the reasons stated. Newspapers are simply dying. Readership has been declining since well before the advent of the internet.
Shopping malls…Not likely as shopping is still social activity for many, if not most, people and shopping online is not. The online experience is not likely to completely replace the retail experience.
You may remember (unless you’re too young) the predictions of the “paperless office”…made by people and companies actively engaged in endeavors to bring about the “paperless office.”
Their endeavors only increased paper useage.
For a humorous take on the dubious nature of technological predictions:
http://www.viewaskew.com/tv/leno/flyingcar.html
Jeffrey,
You have some good points but you totally miss the mark on some of your observations.
For the most part ebooks suck. You can’t read them outside by the pool, beach etc. The screen goes all white and shiny or dim and dark and they are harder on the eyes than paper and ink. Also ebooks don’t look cool in your book case.
Shopping malls aren’t going anywhere either. Too many people just like to shop. Besides, who wants to order their clothes? Have you ever heard of trying something on first to see if it looks good on you or not? I’ll agree lots of people out there don’t look like they tried their clothes on first; otherwise they wouldn’t be wearing them.
Movies? Sure I’d like to be able to download any movie ever made. I have fast broadband and my local video store has limited selection. So it takes me 20 minutes to download a movie, I can’t get dressed and get to the store and back in 20 minutes. Plus, they may not have what I want in stock. Now if I could only download the damn popcorn and hot tamales too!
And finally newspapers. Yes they should die! I always prefer multiple news sources at my disposal, local, national and global all at my fingertips all updated immediately. Way better than one local, maybe biased, always a day behind source. If a suicide bomber blows up the hotel I’m headed to after today’s print, I’d still like to know before I get there.
Nope. Them little shiny disc things are high quality old tech. It doesn’t matter how much more ephemera & ‘bonus’ tat the labels throw onto them (all heavily DRMed of course) it’s still old tech. People love music cuz it makes ’em FEEL good when they hear it… as long at the ‘message’ is good enough quality (ie iTunes), it does its job loud and clear.