BMG to Test Protected CDs on Insiders

Reuters via NYTimes.com ^ | 4/8/02

[GeneD]

Filed at 3:20 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new batch of compact discs designed to defeat Napster-style piracy is coming soon to record-industry insiders.

BMG, one of the world's five major labels, said on Monday it would start issuing promotional CDs -- the free discs distributed to critics, retailers and other insiders weeks before the official release -- with technological countermeasures to prevent copying.

The major labels, which include Vivendi Universal, Sony Music, EMI Group, AOL Time Warner's Warner Music and Bertelsmann AG's BMG, hope that copy protection measures will prevent users from ''ripping,'' or copying the music into the easily traded MP3 format.

``The first benefit of doing promos and advances is to get feedback on the technology,'' said Kevin Clement, BMG's senior director of new media. ``And we would hope this technology will stop the records from leaking early to the public.''

Popular records like Outkast's ``Stankonia'' and D'Angelo's ''Voodoo'' were freely available to the public weeks before their release dates via Napster, the currently shuttered music-trading service that spawned a online music swapping revolution and is now partially owned by Bertelsmann.

The label said most of its protected discs would contain two versions of the album, one for use in consumer CD players and another encoded in Microsoft Corp.'s encrypted WMA format, for playback on PCs and compatible portable music players.

None of the major labels have committed to a full-scale roll-out of protected CDs, in part because of backlash in Europe after altered discs did not play on some CD players.

BMG's release of Natalie Imbruglia's ``White Lilies'' in the United Kingdom last year, for example, prompted numerous returns of the disc to retailers. And Sony's Celene Dion CD released in Europe last month, ``A New Day Has Come,'' reportedly caused some computers to crash.

BMG said in a statement it eventually hopes ``to arrive at a copy management solution that offers consumers the experience the artists create and deserve reward for.''

The company declined to say which companies it was working with to provide the promotional CDs' technological countermeasures, but Clement said the label hoped the promotional discs would work with virtually all compact disc players when they launch later this month.

``One hundred percent, that's our goal and that's what we've charged the technology companies to hit,'' he said.

Asked if that goal was reachable, given the current state of the technology, he said, ``We'll soon find out.''

[struwwelpeter]

What's this? You mean CDs sometimes come with the music already on them? What a cool idea.

For how much? Forget it, I'm sticking with mp3s, thank you.

[Dimensio]

The major labels, which include Vivendi Universal, Sony Music, EMI Group, AOL Time Warner's Warner Music and Bertelsmann AG's BMG, hope that copy protection measures will prevent users from ''ripping,'' or copying the music into the easily traded MP3 format.

...so that the only people creating MP3s from copyrighted songs are technically-savvy pirates who know how to easily defeat existing copy protection methods, insuring that rather than purchase CDs for creating custom mixes for their own personal playback devices, consumers will be forced to search for and download songs illegally over the Internet and insuring that digital music piracy will flourish.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

All this is going to do is encourage pirates to find ways to defeat it, and they will. If anything, it's going to increase mp3 trading since that's the way most of us like to listen to music these days.

[doomtrooper99]

You can convert copy protected CD to MP3 by doing analog capture. All you need is the simple cable to connect your sound card's line-in port with your CD player line-out port and a copy of MusicMatch. The copy is analog, but the sound quality is very good.

[Revolting cat!]

Eureka! Lat's just have two kinds of pop music: corporate pop for the industry insiders on copy protected CD's and independent unpopular music on MP3's and non-copy protected CD's manufactured by small independent labels and artists themselves. Ebryboddy heppy, problem solved!

[monday]

As long as I can still make custom CDs for the car I don't care. If I can't they will be returned, and they can kiss my a$$.

I wonder what they will do for all the people who have switched to MP3? I think CD sales are going to suffer some more. It seems the recording industry is the only industry in the world that thinks it can make money by pi$$ing off their customers.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

That's a good idea, but for some reason when I do that, it only records in the right channel. I think it might be my soundblaster card is junk. If anyone has any possible explanation for that I wish they'd let me know. The best mp3 sound I've heard yet is from Nero5's ripping software. It actually sounds better than the cd to me anyway.

[justanotherfreeper]

Which is exactly what I have to do to get my old vinyl records to CD, it's easy. (gack -- I'm really old!) Why don't these idiots allow us to download songs for a buck or so? That's about what I paid for singles back in the 70's. I'd be thrilled to use a legitimate service, with consistent quality, quick downloads and tech support, I can't be the only person who would pay for that.

[Dinsdale]

I guess they were tired of releasing a new anti copying technology only to have the tracks on the net in less then a day.

On the bright side they will be able to spend millions and retool their plants before they discover that it does'nt work.

There is strong sentiment on /. to not crack the next antiRIP technology untill the music companies have committed themselves. Of course it will not happen, hacker egos and all they just can't help themselves.

[Rodney King]

Good post! You are right, in many respects they are going to increase the demand for pirated music.

[RobRoy]

Interpret this from the standpoint that the overwhelming majority of record sales is to the young, who are easily hyped to buy highly marketed, as opposed to "good" music:

I was at my daughters high school basketball game a couple of weeks ago and saw something that must strike terror in any record exec. To wit, there were kids all around me with portable cd players and headphones with cd's scattered all around the bleachers. But EVERY SINGLE DISC WAS A HOME BURNED DISC! The implications, on a worldwide level are staggering - and quite frightening if you are a major record label.

And, yes, all you have to do is "real time" copy of cd tracks into wav files and away you go. Burn the wav files directly to cd for cd quality, or convert 'em to MP3 and do as always…

The record industry is in for a shake up that, truth be told, has been going on for a while.

They're desperate.

[general_re]

That's a good idea, but for some reason when I do that, it only records in the right channel.

Errr, apologies for starting with the obvious, but are you sure you have a stereo patch cable, and not a mono cable?

[hoosierham]

I wonder if the world's culture wouldn't be improved by TENS OF THOUSANDS of independent musicians playing for local audiences instead of the concentration of talent? and wealth the 20th century gave us ?

Network TV and radio prefer one national program/performer/movie/tape whereas the original independent stations each had local performers much loved by the local audience.

The trouble with monopolies is that they generally enrich a few at the expense of the many.

[RabidBartender]

On the bright side they will be able to spend millions and retool their plants before they discover that it does'nt work.

And those millions come from where? Increased CD prices. Woot!

I saw Davy Jones (of the Monkees) hawking Time-Life's Songs of the 60's on TV last night. "162 songs on 8 compact discs." My first thought was "I can fit all of that on one disk.

I have a mp3 player in my car, however, 90% of my music I have on LP, 8-track, cassette, or CD already. I don't see BMG music offering me a Hall & Oates "Bigger Than The Both of Us" CD in exchange for my album.

[RobRoy]

Holy cow, you've been listening to me talk to my friends! I absolutely concur with everything you said. Imagine tens or hundreds of thousands of musicians able to quit their day jobs while the mega-buck executives and artists become a distant memory. Music would become music as opposed to a commodity, again!

[jude24]

Even on CD's I purchased (the vast majority), I only use burns. That way, when they get scratched, i just toss them. I can leave them in the car. I spilled coffee on several of them-- if they were originals, I'd be outa luck.

[RobRoy]

Yeah, I have a cheap rio cd/mp3 player at work. I'll slam 10 to 14 albums on an MP3 disc, including most of my favorite genres, I usually get 200 to 220 songs. I'll leave the same disc in the player for a week or two. A good pair of Bose headphones and I'm set for any cubicle world of nearby banal conversations about vacations and root canals.

The key is multiple genres on the same disc. It keeps it from getting monotonous.

[widgysoft]

Funny, they spend millions developing copy protection that can be defeated by a simple cable.

It's not the cd's they need to change, it's the cd players!!!!!
So a Sony cd would only work on Sony products etc..
But of course they can't do this! LOL