Warner DVD Music Albums

CD sales are tumbling rapidly. Whether the cause is a shift to online music sales, file sharing, or the quality of the music published, the major labels are increasingly aware that CDs alone aren't nearly as attractive as they once were. One solution has been to offer CD/DVD hybrids, where music and video coexist on opposite sides of a single disc. Warner Music wants to take things one step further, reports the Wall Street Journal. The label wants to make the DVDs albums in themselves: users could listen to music in a regular DVD player (including surround sound), watch concert footage or music videos on TV, or access ringtones and other special features from a computer. Retailers are excited by the format, though this is partly out of desperation as they seek anything which will get buyers to return to physical formats. Sources for the article even suggest that Apple is in talks to use a variant of the AAC format used in the iTunes Music Store as the model for the audio portion of these DVDs. This would be at odds with the iTunes store, however, as Apple already offers music videos and other extras with the purchase of some albums.

By Electronista Staff