News
Warner readying DVD music albums with iTunes tracks
Warner Music Group is planning to release music albums on DVD discs that will include extras such as videos, ring tones, photos and pre-ripped digital music files. The Wall Street Journal reports [paid sub. req.]: “People familiar with the situation say Warner is close to a deal with Apple that would make the digital tracks essentially identical to those the computer company sells through its iTunes Music Store—something that has proved elusive for others in the music industry, since Apple has been unwilling to license its proprietary copy-protection software to outsiders. People briefed on the talks said a likely solution would involve Apple creating the digital tracks and Warner putting them on DVDs.” Warner plans to introduce the discs with “a handful of titles” in October, with a “full-blown launch” planned for early next year.
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1
Paying full price for lossy, over-compressed, DRMed audio? No thanks.
Posted by Josh Powell in VA on August 4, 2006 at 9:45 AM (PDT)
2
Gotta love it. This new set-up is only just being made public and already its being dumped on. I give Warner some credit for moving in this direction. Its about time!
Posted by rockbox on August 4, 2006 at 2:34 PM (PDT)
3
Bad idea. If I’m gonna buy the disc, I don’t want Apple to have anything to do with it. They can keep as much control as they want over iTunes (The French may disagree with me), but I would prefer that they have no control of anything else.
Posted by Talking Madness in Los Angeles on August 4, 2006 at 3:35 PM (PDT)
4
I would think that this deal means there would be pre-ripped .m4a/.m4p music files in addition and parallel to uncompressed music on the DVD’s. The Monster Cable group has already done something sinilar, offering some of their music CDs and DVDs, with unprotected AAC and Windows Media files included alongside the original source material.
Posted by ehren on August 4, 2006 at 4:31 PM (PDT)
5
Yeah how about some reading comprehension?
Some people are in such a hurry to bash Apple they don’t even get the premise right.
Posted by wco81 in West Coast on August 4, 2006 at 5:15 PM (PDT)
6
wco81: If the tracks are ‘essentially identical’ to the tracks from iTMS.. they’re going to be lossily compressed and DRM protected. That’s what the whole Warner getting Apple to license it out is about anyway. If they wanted to pre-rip AAC files they wouldn’t need apples permission to do it. (Only if they want their copyright protection.)
Josh
Posted by Josh Powell in VA on August 4, 2006 at 6:28 PM (PDT)
7
I agree with Josh. To me, it seems like they’re trying to lock up the uncompressed audio, making the consumer unable to rip the disc, and forcing us to use DRM files (which, knowing the companies, will probably be lossy as well).
This plan sounds like no good, even though people will undoubtedly find ways around it. Good thing Warner doesn’t release much quality music anyways—we won’t be missing much.
Posted by Anders on August 4, 2006 at 7:48 PM (PDT)
8
Hm, it’s better than not being able to export the tracks from a music DVD at all.
NEVERTHELESS this just means that they will likely do this to what they call “CDs” these days too, rendering otherwise unrippable. No thank you, I’m not paying for compressed, DRMd music. I like to rip my music to lossless all by myself.
Isn’t terrible that whatever the MI comes up with these days automatically gains the aura of something heinous? That simply no thinking consumer expects the MI to be interested in anything else other than ripping him off and cutting his rights down to the point where he’s supposed to hand them money no matter whether he consumes their product or not? Interesting, eh? Let’s call it total PR meltdown.
Posted by Bad Beaver on August 5, 2006 at 3:26 AM (PDT)
9
I notice several words have been omitted from my previous post in order to exemplify the evil of lossy compression.
Posted by Bad Beaver on August 5, 2006 at 3:30 AM (PDT)
10
at the end of the day, I’d rather have a redbook compatible CD which, in a few minutes, I can rip to my Mac in any format/bitrate I like, and which I can also play on any CD player of my choosing, not just a DVD player. This seems like a way of attempting to market these DVDs as a ‘premium’ product whilst still essentially making it harder for people to use their music as they like it, not easier.
Posted by Lawrence Mikkelsen in New Zealand on August 5, 2006 at 1:51 PM (PDT)
11
What a better way to raise prices for crappy music
Posted by nojok3 on August 5, 2006 at 4:57 PM (PDT)