No Agreement On DVD-Audio PackagingBy Terence P. Keegan

The DVD-Audio format will get a soft launch this holiday season, and nothing speaks to that more than the major labels' failure to agree on a new size for the format's package. At the DVD99 conference earlier this month, both Lou Vaccarelli, BMG Entertainment's Vice President of Production and Chief Procurement Officer, and Craig Braun, Corporate Creative Director for Warner Media Services' Ivy Hill, both attested that consensus on a new 6-inch tall jewel box for DVD-Audio was all but reached. However, in an RIAA-chaired International Steering Committee (ISC) conference call the following week, the debate reopened over whether to initially use the existing CD-sized jewel box out of economic and turnaround concerns. Now, the ""Big 5"" are split between a standard jewel box (with graphical distinctions from CD packaging) and a new jewel-box style package that maintains the same width and depth of the old jewel box but rises 1 inch higher than the standard CD size. While Warner Music Group and Sony Music plan to go with the CD-sized jewel box, BMG, Universal Music Group, and EMI Music Distribution will all employ the new 6-inch high jewel box from the start. ""The thinking is that there won't be that much product out in the fall and even into January,"" stated BMG's Vaccarelli, who added that the ISC hopes to take the debate once again to the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) at its fall conference next month. Vaccarelli also pointed out that DVD-Video packaging was mired in similar debates and retail solutions when it first launched. Indeed, even after the Video Software Dealers Association agreed on a standard size recommendation (that is now followed by all the major studios) for the format, Universal still packaged their initial DVD-Video titles in jewel boxes for a short time. NARM president Pam Horovitz noted that while her association has been providing the ISC with retailer feedback along the way, the labels' indecision carries over into NARM's membership as well. ""Retailers are not unanimous on packaging size for DVD-Audio either, so it's not surprising it's been tough to get to a final decision,"" she said.