For Indie CD's, time may be running out

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 25 Mar 2000 9:27 am

For those of us who make our own home-based studio recordings of ourselves (for better or for worse) and produce CDs for sale by burning them on CD recorders, time may be running out. In order to save money, indies like us will buy data CD blanks instead of audio CD blanks because they're a lot cheaper. Audio CD blanks have a special digital signature on them so newer disc players (such as DVD units) will only play them and not data CDs. But audio CD blanks also have a large surcharge attached to their purchase price by the music industry based on the assumption that copyrighted commercial music will get copied to them and distributed, and the surcharge is intended to recoup those presumed losses. Older CD players don't look for the audio CD signature, so they'll play the data CDs. But as those old units wear out and are replaced by smarter players, data CDs will be out. Indies artists will be forced to buy music CD blanks at a much higher price, paying the industry surcharge for their own music which has nothing to do with commercial music copying. And all those home-burned indie CDs which are already out there will go dead on their owners, basically. Yuk.

The only solution would be to pony up the audio CD blank surcharge or have one's CDs manufactured by a CD duplication house. For indies who only sell their product by the dozens or maybe a hundred or so, it's a bum deal.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 25 Mar 2000 6:41 pm

I think that if you write real Redbook format to the data CDs, a DVD drive will play them. Remember that most older CDs do not have the copy protection scheme, and all new players have to be compatible with them.

BUT ... inexpensive CD-burning software like Adaptec CD Creator doesn't burn true Redbook format. You might have to upgrade to Steinberg WaveLab or Sound Forge CD Architect to make CDs that are compatible with the newer players.

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 25 Mar 2000 7:32 pm

It is already a factor here at our indie productions. It's called the price of doing business. In some ways, it's also protection for what we are doing. You may not sell those hundred copies if someone else can dup them with cheapo cds, whatever the reasons. The same problems that have hit the music industry in general, the loss of control of making copies without compensation, is just as real for those of us at the bottom of the pile.

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 26 Mar 2000 5:59 pm

Bob, you have interesting points. I was unaware of the lack of copy protection in older CDs, so indie released on data CDs may be ok after all if the CD players need to remain backward-compatible.

Ken, you too have an interesting point. I frankly would also like an audio-only lock on my product, too. Though if anybody'd actually want to take my indie work and make unauthorized copies, well, I'd be a monkey's uncle.[This message was edited by Bill Llewellyn on 26 March 2000 at 06:33 PM.]