A Mickey Mouse Attempt to Resurrect the CD

File this one under "too little, too late", if you ask me.  Disney is introducing a new CD format called CDVU+ which will include not just your typical music tracks but also access to a digital magazine and all sorts of other "exclusive content."

Warning sign #1: It's never a good idea to use a name that nobody knows how to pronounce.  Disney tells us that CDVU+ is pronounced as "CD view plus".  This tells me Disney's engineering staff won the naming war on this one.  The marketing staff is probably cringing every time they see the new name!

Perhaps this would have been a cool idea back in, say, 1995.  Maybe it would have helped extend the lifetime of the CD platform.  Instead, the world has moved on and I can't see CDVU+ forcing the music genie back into the bottle.

It's too bad the music industry didn't try to improve their products back in the 1990's with ideas like this.  It wouldn't have prevented the Napster effect, of course, but maybe the R&D effort would have led the industry to a better position than the one they're in now.  Speaking of which, why does Disney feel compelled to force this idea into the physical CD world?  Why not offer these via downloads from their own site?  They'd cut out the cost of goods, could offer a lower price, establish a direct relationship with their customers and with broadband virtually everywhere downloads wouldn't take too long.  I find it interesting that they come up with a somewhat novel idea but try to force it on the marketplace using outdated technology.

Comments

[jason evans]

New technologies are like Darwinism sped up a couple hundred thousand years. One rises to the top only when the others go extinct.

I'm afraid you're right about this one. Kind of like a penguin born to climb trees. It feels like a snapped branch on the family tree.

[Susan Helene Gottfried]

Isn't that how Disney always does things? By forcing them on the public?

[Michael Miller]

The music industry doesn't get it. Sales are down not (exclusively) because of digital copying. It's because the music isn't good enough and it's too expensive. The market is too fragmented; how many new artists do you know and care about, compared to how many that are out there? (Observe the crowd reaction at Live Earth; every artist complained that too few people in the crowd knew their songs. That's because there's no such thing as a "universal" top 40 market anymore.)

And the price thing is also a big deal. I can buy a movie from Amazon as cheap as I can buy a CD, and that's not right. That's why iTunes is so popular; it brings back the 99-cent single, which had all but disappeared. Listeners don't want more useless crap on their CDs, to justify a higher price. They just want affordable music. CDs need to be no higher than $9.99, period. Forget the bells and whistles, just give us better music at prices we can afford.

[Stephanie]

Found you from Pub Rants.

[Kendall]

It's not a new concept and CNN should know better; they forgot to point out it's like CD+ and other enhanced CDs that've been around for decades (like my copy of Dulcinea from 1995). CD+ also included a data track with extra content, requiring a computer; content frequently included videos, lyrics, and web links (ugh); sometimes they included interviews, bonus audio content, and even games. Disney isn't innovating, IMHO; it sounds like they're repackaging a 10+-year-old concept, even using a similar name (CD+ versus CDVU+). IMHO, DualDisc (which works in computers and in DVD players) is better....

[Morgan Ramsay]

The music industry doesn't get it. Sales are down not (exclusively) because of digital copying. It's because the music isn't good enough and it's too expensive.

That's why I don't pay any attention to "popular" music. I create (and occasionally perform) original Scottish Gaelic music in traditional style for guitar. I primarily listen to Celtic music, too. Celtic music has a timeless quality, a lasting value that defies logic. But then, I don't think there are any millionaire Celtic guitarists. This genre is too "underground" to be picked up by the mainstream. I like it that way.