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.
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