Record industry fights piracy with Dual Disc

Record industry fights piracy with Dual Disc
Finally. Back in the 90's I wrote a university seminar paper about the future of the music industry. Those were the times when MP3 really started to blossom. Napster made it main stream. First legal MP3 selling e-tailer were already there, while nobody had ever heard of iTunes.

It was so evident years ago that the main product of the music industry, the Compact Disc, is out of date. The supply chain is prehistoric, as audio content could be delivered via Internet. The prices are inflated, as you get whole lot more moneys worth when buying DVD movies.



People still enjoy music, and it constantly has a high demand. But with inflated prices the basic economic laws of supply and demand weren't allowed function freely. Internet gave the alternative distribution method. A black market was born. Piracy flourished. This is a very typical behavior pattern in an economic environment.

Now it seems that music industry is trying to get the grip again. Earlier, Apple (and many others) already filled the void of music e-tailing, even though the prices still very high. Dual Disc allows the industry to deliver richer content with high playback compatibility in CD and DVD players. But as bandwidth gets cheaper, and broad bands faster this ain't the ultimate cure for piracy. Movie industry is suffering from illegal file sharing as well.

Personally I am still waiting for the total reform of the music business - it's distribution channels, and pricing. I would expect that in time we will get very cheap music delivered via Internet. So cheap that the temptation to illegally copy it reduces significantly. When? I really don't know - it should have been here years ago.
A new solo album by Bruce Springsteen that arrives in stores Tuesday will be riding the latest technological wave to hit the record industry: Dual Disc.

With an audio CD on one side and a DVD full of bonuses on the other, Dual Disc is the latest bid by record labels to hold on to consumers who increasingly are getting their music from other sources, such as the Internet.
...
"It's a new tool for labels and artists to bring consumers back into the habit of buying music by providing them with a product that has more value," says Paul Bishow of Universal Music Group's eLabs, which handles new formats.
Source: Azcentral.com

Written by: Lasse Penttinen @ 25 Apr 2005 10:58
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  • 26 comments
  • spooky2k

    hahah, i lvoe the way they say they''re fighting back. what''s actually happening here, is that they''re taking a step towards what the customers want, and giving them more value for their money.
    It''s something they should have done long ago. But it won''t tide downloading, all it will do is give ppl who download, an excuse to go out and get the album with the bonuses.
    Dan x

    25.4.2005 11:31 #1

  • squizzle

    I agree that it''s giving customers more bang for their buck, but what''s stopping pirates from pirating the bonus data on the other side of the disc?

    25.4.2005 14:05 #2

  • McBrat

    "giving them more value for their money"..."giving customers more bang for their buck"...I didn''t see how much this new dual disc will cost...I bet somwhere between $25 and $30 at least...hardly a value. But I may be wrong...please correct me if you know the price.

    25.4.2005 14:28 #3

  • GrayArea

    The price is $13.49 on amazon.com. Not sure how this will "fight piracy" though...

    25.4.2005 14:53 #4

  • McBrat

    I stand corrected...

    25.4.2005 17:04 #5

  • nonoitall

    Until they start charging what the disc is actually worth (around $0.20 for materials and around $2.00 for royalties, tops) I don''t think this is going to solve anything for them. They''re just giving pirates something better to pirate.

    25.4.2005 19:16 #6

  • nonoitall

    Has anyone noticed that all the apostrophes are getting converted to quotation marks when we post? Or is my page encoding wrong or something?

    25.4.2005 19:18 #7

  • squizzle

    I''ve noticed it too. At first I thought spooky''s keyboard came without an apostrophe, but I was wrong I guess.

    25.4.2005 19:30 #8

  • dlc2000

    i dont think this is going to do anything to fight piracy . now there will just be more content to download . if anything piracy may increase as people upload all this new content that wasnt available before .

    25.4.2005 20:41 #9

  • Letukka

    Well, this is a step towards better. Give more content for cheaper prices. Small step ofcourse, but a step anyway =)

    25.4.2005 23:04 #10

  • zoolu

    I think it''s a nice product anyway. The cool thing is that Bruce Springsteen was, as much as I know, the first to come out with a Compact Disc, and now he is the first to come with the Dual Disc.

    26.4.2005 00:05 #11

  • dbminter

    Plus, think about exactly what they''re giving. :) A flipper disc is far more vulnerable to scratches on one side. So, you may someday find by simple playing by the DVD side may be unreadable at some point in the future. It is a sad fact that most people who buy DVD''s that are flippers immediately copy them because of the inherently damageable media it''s on to begin with. IMO, ironically, a dual sided CD may just increase "copying," which is what they really want to stop, and not piracy.

    26.4.2005 01:30 #12

  • spooky2k

    welkl, i thin the main thign they''re tryin gto accomplish with this is to make would-be/noob ppl to the copying world think they''rve gotten better, and therefore noto copy things. I agree that ppl will just copy the other side of the disk too.
    After thinking this over for , oh, say, 10 seconds, i dont see why this is different from albums that have 2 SEPERATE disks...except that obviously it costs like, $00.10 less.
    Teh scratching thing is somethign i didnt think about, and is a very good point. Are they making these optional???or is ONLY a dualdisk being released?
    Dan x

    26.4.2005 04:06 #13

  • Ketola

    The apostrophe bug should now be fixed. Or fix''d. I should hope. Let''s see. =)

    26.4.2005 04:36 #14

  • Ketola

    Oops. Quess it wasn't. =)

    26.4.2005 04:39 #15

  • squizzle

    Thanks Ketola. Yeah, I never thought about the higher vulnerability to damage due to it being a flipper, in which case yes, that many more people will copy it. And that's something I didn't know, that Springsteen was the first to come out on CD. And whenever I buy a CD I copy it so I have a copy in my car and not the original. Plus I rip it onto the computer, so I guess for every CD I buy I have 3 copies.

    26.4.2005 06:41 #16

  • SGSeries2

    I thought I read somewhere that there was a dual-layered disc where one layer was cd, and the other was dvd. Maybe it's just my imagination. I guess that wouldn't be too compatible with drives unless they new about them to begin with.

    When I first saw dual-dvds, I was like, "cool." I haven't bought one yet, but I think it's a good idea, even if both sides are used for data.

    All the same, they could have used a dual-disc case, and given you two discs, one a dvd and one a cd, but I was never a big fan of flipping those things around to get to the other disc. Like videogames that come with multiple discs, I use the one I don't need, and put it in the back, never to touch it again, but it's always there if I ever need it...

    26.4.2005 07:17 #17

  • punx777

    i like the idea. they should do things like that with playstation ( or xb0x) games, one side will be the spiderman 2 dvd, the other side will be the spiderman 2 game.

    but how the hell does this fight piracy? whats going to stop them from copying each side onto a seperate disk?

    obviously, if they do this, dual dvd blanks will be availible soon.

    26.4.2005 09:11 #18

  • wolff000

    this could bring back alot of consumers. hell I would be willing to buy cds again if this really catches on. I agree with everyone else though i'm lost on how this is "fighting piracy". by the way the Billy Joel album 52nd Street was the first cd released back in 1982. the first cd player was released by sony for 1 grand. just a little history for everybody.

    26.4.2005 11:52 #19

  • gibney85

    Finally is right. This is what I've been thinking about for a long time. I've always thought €22 - €25 for an album was way too much(Ye, and you thought it was bad in ths US, Its worse in the EU, Ireland especially). The prices simply put me off(im a student, so therefore dont have money to burn)

    Hence, I download around 60% of my music. I also download quite alot of music videos of my favourite songs. If there was a Dual Disc with a high quality album on the CD side and the Videos off the Album and extras, interviews etc. on the DVD, with a reasonable price, I would definetly buy more of these and reduce downloading. They dont ahve to give them away. Even if they charged €20 - with all the videos and bonus stuff - its pretty good value still.

    27.4.2005 07:45 #20

  • mystic

    the Problem that they are not addressing is that it is way cheaper to backit up then it is to buy a replacement ... If the record copany would replce my scratched cd or dvd or even my game software what ever for free when it quite working or was damaged then I wouldnt have to back it up. and that would cut some of the copying down and if they think they will ever stop bootlegging tell them to recall the Kenndey's during proabition histroy will tech them that they need a better delivey system hell I can burn off the radio if needed so what can they really do to stop it again make it so cheap to buy the cds and dvds that I wont waste my time because its cheaper to buy new then to bootleg...heres a hint "Raise the cost of the media" and be done with it and quit sue everyone.........

    27.4.2005 08:50 #21

  • Ace9953

    Well a consumer of music for about 40+ years, I wonder if the Recording industry can take blame for selling thier music on disposable media (i.e 1-4 Tracks,8 Tracks,Reel to Reel,Vinyl 45's,Vinyl LP's, Quad 8 Tracks & Lp's. To my recollection I've purchased "Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" at least 10 times on different media. I would like a $0.10 a cut price rather than $1.00 per cut. I remember the Recording Industry defending the High price of CD's due to thier converting from vinyl to CD manufacturing facilities,and that the price od CD's would drop when those cost were recouped (What BS I should be able to return Old media recording and get some form of Credit for our old media. What really gets me angry is the constant remastering,rerlease with xtra cuts etc and to make it worse not releasing Titles that will never see the light of Day! It time the Music Industry gets thier act together and open thier complete Vaults for a mimimum price per cut or LP!! Nuff Said!!!! ACE

    27.4.2005 09:08 #22

  • GrayArea

    wolff000-

    "hell I would be willing to buy cds again if this really catches on. I agree with everyone else though i'm lost on how this is "fighting piracy"."

    If a lot of people felt like you do about buying these discs (not a bad thing assuming they catch on) then it would help to fight so called piracy. Guess you answered the question.

    27.4.2005 15:11 #23

  • Buik

    Hmmm. Very interesting. Music is something to be listened to, for us older folk. Something you can do while engaging in other activities. And, if youare engaged in other activities, why watch the TV?

    What the hell good are the extra's while I am driving, using power tools & etc.

    Another gimmick, in my opinion, to get you to buy the same thing again. Repackaging is all it is.

    Are they implying that you would not get the same sound quality from the song on a DVD?

    I hate looking in the back mirror and seeing someone on my bumper who is talking on their Cell Phone. I damn sure do not want somone on my tail who is watching the extra's of their favorite "singing" idol.

    TC

    27.4.2005 18:37 #24

  • Ofnir1

    As far as cheap mp3's go, www.allofmp3.com has the cheapest price I've seen so far. Seriously, they charge you a pennie per megabyte, and that can equal to 10 bucks for 1 gig worth of music.

    27.4.2005 22:02 #25

  • SGSeries2

    The DVD of spiderman 2 on one side and the game on the other? That'd be pretty expensive! I would just be happy with the DVD on one side and the full soundtrack on the other. If they could get DVD Audio off the ground, it'd be an even sweeter deal.

    28.4.2005 08:52 #26

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