DualDisc: Trick or
Treat?
 After being test-marketed in
Boston and Seattle earlier this year, this month DualDisc begins its official launch as a
format. According to an insert enclosed with each DualDisc, "One side is a standard
CD. The other side offers DVD content. This may include enhanced album audio, 5.1 surround
sound, music videos, artist interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, documentary films,
photo galleries, lyrics, computer-ready digital song files, and Web links. It all depends
on the artist." (This description comes from an article at www.highfidelityreview.com.
In what I take as a bad sign, the official DualDisc website, www.dualdisc.com, still says only,
"Coming soon.")
The DualDisc format is supported by Sony, Universal, BMG,
EMI, and Warner Music, and while each manufacturer is keeping their launch titles under
wraps, the test marketing included discs from AC/DC, David Bowie, and R.E.M. But is the
arrival of the DualDisc a trick to get consumers to buy albums they may already own in yet
another format, or is it a treat designed to give consumers more content for their
hard-earned dollars?
The record companies can’t be faulted for trying to
give consumers more for their money, but I wonder if the extra content will be
appreciated. I have a number of CDs that came with DVDs -- Yo-Yo Ma’s Obrigado
Brazil: Live, Bob Dylan’s Live 1975, and Paul Weller’s Illuminations
-- and a great number of Enhanced CDs that have QuickTime videos and/or Web links. I
haven’t watched most of the DVDs, and I don’t think I’ve watched any of the
Enhanced CD features. So, adding video content may be nice, but I’m not sure
it’s all that much of a bonus. I would much rather have CD prices a few dollars
lower, than a slight increase in price for superfluous content. Further, you don’t
really need to embed Web links on a disc, even if you want to keep Web content available
only to those who bought the disc. There are ways to do this that don’t require that
the links be placed on the disc, as can be seen in the case of Wilco -- the band made an
online EP available to those who bought Yankee Hotel Foxtrot [Nonesuch 79669] that
didn’t require that the disc itself be placed in a computer.
A DualDisc’s DVD side may also contain high-resolution
and/or surround versions of the album using either DVD-Video (e.g., Dolby Digital) or
DVD-Audio specifications; SACD is not an option. The problem I have with this is that if I
have a system that can already play DVD-A, isn’t the CD side superfluous --
especially when you consider that DualDiscs will possibly be too thick to play in
slot-loading CD players in cars? If my system is CD-based, then I’ll need only the
CD. If my system is based on a DVD or universal player, then I’ll need only the
hi-rez program. Again, it’s nice to have the extra material, but it seems that the
standard CD and DVD discs we already have could have done the job without the introduction
of DualDisc.
It has also been suggested that the DualDisc format will
limit CD playing times to around 60 minutes (standard CDs can be up to 80 minutes long),
and the DVD side to a single layer (most movies require two). Thus, we get a little bit of
each format instead of being able to decide which we’d like to support.
The real problem with DualDisc is that it suggests that
record companies are not thinking far enough ahead -- or, if they are, they’re trying
to milk the consumer for every last cent. What will likely happen in the next five to ten
years is that the general consumer market will abandon the 5" disc altogether (though
audiophiles and collectors will probably never leave them behind). The iPod, likely the
most successful music product to be released in recent years, does not rely on discs of
any kind to store music. And one of the hottest trends in homes right now is home
automation, including audio-visual systems. Considering these last two facts leads one to
the conclusion that what would really pay off is for record companies to figure out how to
market entire libraries of music (such as one can have on an iPod) that can be integrated
with home automation systems. Who wants to be bothered with flipping DualDiscs, or even
putting CDs in a player, when you can simply pick up your LCD remote or walk over to your
in-wall control pad, hit a few buttons, and hear any album you’d like?
A 40-gigabyte iPod can hold more than 500 albums. Why not
figure out a way to bundle a whole classical, rock, or jazz library on a hard drive, or
some sort of cartridge as in old videogame systems, that could be inserted in a home
system? That would be much more convenient than buying records, CDs, SACDs, DVD-As, and,
now DualDiscs. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to purchase the entire Blue Note
Records library at once? Perhaps the hard drive or cartridge could be bundled with a nice
hardcover book with all of the album covers reproduced at their original size. Think about
how such a system could change your listening habits and relationship with the music you
enjoy.
Something very much like this is being done with movies by
Kaleidescape, Inc. The Kaleidescape system relies on a central server that can hold
hundreds of DVD-quality movies for distribution throughout a home. Consumers can choose to
have the server come with various movie libraries (Academy Award winners, the Criterion
Collection, etc.), or new movies can be added by the consumer. At the moment, Kaleidescape
is too expensive for most people, but I’m sure an audio version would be cheaper --
and, as we all know, technology gets cheaper over time.
If record companies are not considering such products, then
they remain stuck in the old paradigm of a material culture, and have missed the fact that
we’re well on our way to an information culture. If record companies are considering
products like the Kaleidescape, then DualDisc seems designed simply to take more money
from consumers who are already turning away from hard goods. This can be seen with the
great number of people who illegally download music -- they want the music; they
don’t care about the material object (such as a CD).
It’s unlikely that my idea will be seen on store
shelves anytime soon, so this month we’ll help you start your own jazz library. On
October 15, the first of a series of articles on recorded jazz will begin with a look at
the seminal album Kind of Blue and the career of its creator, Miles Davis. And
whatever your preference in music or format, you’ll still need amplification -- this
month, we review the Opera Audio Consonance C100 integrated amplifier.
…Eric D. Hetherington
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