The Perishable DVD

[Sara Noel]

The Perishable DVD as Musical Taste Test
By DAVID J. WALLACE

MAJOR record label will give music fans a chance this month to judge whether music DVD's might become the medium of choice over CD's. But listeners will need to make up their minds in a hurry: like the taped orders in "Mission: Impossible," the DVD's will self-destruct - or be rendered useless, anyway - soon after they are played.

In the promotion by Atlantic Records, retailers in the southern United States will offer a free sample DVD to buyers of a CD by Nappy Roots, a hip-hop group. Once the packaging is opened, the disc will work for only eight hours before being made unreadable by a dye sandwiched between the DVD's layers that interacts with air, leaving it opaque.

The limited-use technology was developed by a New York company, Flexplay. With a maximum life span of 60 hours, such optical media has been a solution in search of a problem. Originally envisioned as a way to protect software, the technology was then offered to movie studios and other users concerned about piracy. This year, such discs were given to the press at the MTV Video Music Awards Latin America in Miami and to promote the James Bond movie "Die Another Day."

As a promotional device, said Alan Blaustein, Flexplay's chief executive, the self-destructing discs may have found their niche - while more generally establishing the potential of DVD's. "By getting the consumer away from thinking of music as a three-minute single but thinking of it as a whole package that includes audio and video, they get the customer to purchase the DVD-oriented format," he said.

The 10-minute disc is intended to pique the listener's interest in a 47-minute DVD, "The World According to Nappy," which includes performance video, interviews, links, selections from the group's CD "Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz" and two additional tracks. The DVD has a list price of $14.98 but is available on the Web for $9.99.

Sales of music DVD's are far below those of music CD's - and, like the Nappy Roots effort, they are largely intended as a complement to a CD release rather than as an alternative format. But as record companies try to find ways to revive lagging album sales, consumers can expect to see DVD's become more prominent, said James Lopez, vice president for urban marketing at Atlantic Records.

"There's a long way to go to close that gap, but slowly and surely the industry will," he said.

But the promotional disc's limited life span may upset consumers who have definite ideas of ownership and unlimited use once they buy CD's, DVD's and other software, said P. J. McNealy, research director of the consulting firm Gartner G2. Consumers also are adept at distinguishing top-quality content from material not good enough for the finished product. "Unless there's stunningly tremendous additional content," Mr. McNealy said, "consumers may not warm to it."

Another issue that may inhibit producers from taking advantage of the limited-use discs is the absence of digital protection. For the disc's life span, its contents can still be copied and reproduced.

Flexplay's main competitor, Spectradisc of Providence, R.I., is focused on the movie business. Nabil Lawandy, its founder and chief executive, said the limited-use discs might serve as an alternative format for movie viewing in hotels or airports by travelers who don't want to deal with returning rentals. Consumers might also welcome a tiered approach to rentals, with cheaper, single-viewing sessions, he said.
http://nytimes.com/2002/11/14/techno...ts/14disc.html

More throw away stuff. I hope they are recyclable.
No more movie rental late fees? hmmm

Sara

[~Sherry~]

Better get out the DVD Recycle crafts directions...

[lucy979]

That is so silly to me! Why would you want a DVD of videos when you can just watch MTV? Silly!