The new format, called DualDisc, plays in most CD and DVD players and retails for $1 to $3 more than a regular CD. The hybrid discs feature a standard recording on Side A, and content such as music videos, concert footage, interviews, and photo galleries on the flip side. Most of the DualDiscs also feature a 5.1 surround-sound mix of the album for the growing number of consumers who have high-end speaker systems hooked up to their DVD players.
That’s not to suggest that the discs are narrowly aimed at the audiophile crowd. Record labels are hoping that a high-profile release such as Bruce Springsteen’s “Devils & Dust,” which will be available only on DualDisc upon its release at the end of the month, will make ordinary CD buyers aware of the product’s potential.
“The industry is very much trying to add value to the CD,” says Brian Garrity, a business writer at Billboard magazine. “We’re basically operating in a time where physical-product music has been substantially devalued.”
Mashing a DVD onto a CD may be good news for retailers, since more customers are buying visual content. “The largest percentage of our volume still comes from music, but obviously DVD is still a large part of it, whether it’s music or theatrical,” says Jerry Suarez, senior music product manager for Virgin Entertainment Group. “It’s a growing segment of the business.”
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