A major record label will give music fans a chance this month to judge whether music DVDs might become the medium of choice over CDs. But listeners will need to make up their minds in a hurry: like the taped orders in Mission: Impossible, the DVDs will self-destruct -- or be rendered useless, anyway -- soon after they are played.
In the promotion by Atlantic Records, retailers in the Southern US 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.
PHOTO: NY TIMES
The limited-use technology was developed by a New York company, Flexplay. With a maximum life span of 60 hours, such optical media have been a solution in search of a problem.
Originally envisioned as a way to protect software, the technology was 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 DVDs.
`Getting the customer away from thinking ... '
"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, Web 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 DVDs are far below those of music CDs -- 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 DVDs 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 CDs, DVDs 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," 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, Rhode Island, 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 available on disposable disks, he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique