The Wall Street Journal reported today that Warner Music Group will start selling albums on DVD in hopes to breath some life into albums on physical formats. The company, wrote Ethan Smith, "is in the final stages of securing technical licenses that will enable it to sell a bundle of music and extra features on a single DVD."

Each DVD will contain the album in both stereo and surround sound, plus extras such as video footage, remixes, ring tones and photos.

WMG has already experimented with the DVD album. Last year it released Blame It On The Youth by The Sun, which failed to connect with retailers or consumers. Scans to date are a meager 2,700 since its September, 2005 release.

This situation will be different. WMG will have the backing of retailers, and because WMG will throw its weight behind the effort, consumers will not suffer from the confusion they did with The Sun. Smith reports that WGM will encourage retailers to stock its DVD albums along with normal CDs, which will be key in getting consumers used to the idea of buying albums in this new format.

The DVD album's success also depends on their suggested retail price. Coolfer thinks that WMG may use this high-end format as an excuse to prop up list prices above what the market will bear for the CD format. If the same album is also released on CD, this could be a good way of segmenting the market and capitalizing on fans' different levels of commitment...again, if retailers go along and are willing to stock two configurations of the same album.