No DVD-Audio Titles Till 1Q 2000

By Stewart Wolpin, www.E-Town.comDVD-Audio players are coming any day now. And DVD-Audio titles are supposed to arrive at the same time. Don't hold your breath for the software, though. IRMA Executive VP Charles Van Horn said at a press conference held by the International Recording Media Association (IRMA) at BMG Entertainment's headquarters in Times Square that three of the five major record labels (BMG Entertainment, EMI, Sony, Universal, Warner) have announced that they have not received DVD-Audio authoring tools. This means there will be no DVD-Audio discs from many of the record giants until early next year. What's the holdup? The main culprit is that old digital bugaboo ñ copy protection, specifically SDMI-compliant watermarking. Apparently, the digital watermarking technology chosen for DVD-Audio is occasionally audible. ""We want to put out product with maximum quality,"" said Lou Vaccarelli, BMG's Vice President of Production and Manufacturing. ""We're not going to accept a compelling or noticeable difference in sound quality. It bothers me that [the watermarking] is audible and that that will affect the quality of the disc. We gotta get that fixed."" And DVD-Audio discs were supposed to sound better than CDs. Ultimately, the decision to release a DVD-Audio title with potentially audible watermarking would be left to each individual recording artist, Vaccarelli said. This little caveat is more significant than you would think, considering how fastidious most artists are about the sound of their recordings. Remix, Reprice, RepackageThe second problem is remixing older ""catalog"" material into 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound, the basis of the DVD-Audio format. This could be a time-consuming and aesthetically challenging process. Again, persnickety artists who ""heard"" their music in stereo may be unwilling to chop up their two-channel legacy into 5.1 channels. One example of how good/bad the remastering process can be is the recent release of the 5.1-channel remixed ""songtrack"" of The Beatles' ""Yellow Submarine."" I found it quite disconcerting to hear the Fab Four in multichannel rather than stereo sound, but this might be a result of years of aural conditioning. How much will DVD-Audio discs cost when they do get here? Vaccarelli feigned ignorance, but I'd expect them to be in the SACD and DVD-Video pricing neighborhood (around $25). Whether anyone really wants to hear a multichannel version of ""Physical Graffiti"" is anyone's guess. Vaccarelli had no hard research, merely anecdotal evidence and instinct, to back up his prediction of the format's acceptability, much less its success. In an attempt to eliminate confusion between DVD-Audio and DVD-Video discs in stores, the former's packaging is one inch taller. [I'm really glad they're thinking of the retail store rather than those of us who will have to shelve these taller boxes at home. - Editor] Flash Memory FlashThe blank media and recording industries acknowledge that downloadable digital music will have an effect on how we all buy (or get) music. The record labels see Internet-based digital audio as an alternative distribution channel - as long as they can control it and make some money from it. The suppliers of these blank media, on the other hand, are unsure about how downloadable digital audio affects them. There are no plans to create prerecorded music on any of the major Flash media formats (CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Multimedia Cards and Memory Stick). What's more, it doesn't seem as if the mainstream blank-media suppliers, such as Maxell and TDK, have any plans to produce Flash Media. From the record industry's point of view, the challenge of packaging tiny prerecorded smart media is one hurdle, but price is the major problem. According to Peter Brinkman, Director of Marketing for the Consumer Products division of Maxell, a worldwide shortage of blank Flash media will keep their prices much higher than blank tapes or CD/CD-R blanks. BMG's Vaccarelli noted that rather than be proactive where prerecorded and blank flash media are concerned, the record companies and blank media makers would first gauge market demand. This same wait-and-see attitude also rules out the immediate possibility of digital audio download kiosks at your local Tower Records. The Cassette CaseWhile the various industries explore new media exploitation, what's happening with the suddenly dÈclassÈ audiocassette? IRMA says there is still a market for prerecorded tapes, albeit one that is declining by about 15 percent a year. Vaccarelli, who's also the co-chair of IRMA's audiocassette coalition, notes that without any help from interested parties, prerecorded audiocassettes could disappear in the next five years, victims of increasing retail space being allocated to DVD-Video and DVD-Audio (whenever the latter arrives). As a result, IRMA and the coalition is spearheading a drive to keep prerecorded audiocassettes (music, not the still-popular spoken word) vital, at least as a niche product. To make it easier for you to find a store that carries cassettes, IRMA has been supplying cassette retailers with bright yellow ""We've Got Cassettes"" signs and displays. Vaccarelli also noted that IRMA would attempt to convince non-traditional retailers, such as boating and sporting goods stores, truck stops, to carry music cassettes. Whether IRMA, formerly the International Tape Association, is merely delaying the inevitable remains to be seen.Source: www.E-Town.com