When the DualDisc was rolled out, major labels had high hopes for the audio-video format. Take the standard audio CD and add value by throwing in video content on the other side. It works on paper, but it's not working in practice. Video Business News has an article on the current state of the DualDisc and asks what went wrong.

"Puncturing industry hopes it would save physical music sales, CD/DVD hybrid product DualDisc is quickly disappearing.

Retailers blame high pricing and consumer confusion for contributing to the downfall of the format, which features a CD on one side of a single disc and a DVD on the other. At its May-June 2005 peak, DualDiscs represented 2.1% of all music items sold, the vast majority of which were CDs and two-disc combo CD/DVD albums, according to NPD research. During that same period in 2006, DualDisc’s music share was 0.8%.

MVD Distribution’s wholesale business, which services most record label DVD product, reports that new DualDisc releases slimmed this year by about 80% from 2005. Fifty-seven DualDiscs have streeted since January, versus 274 during the same frame in 2005. Hybrid discs can be priced as much as $4 over the artist’s regular CD, but many said the video content featured on the DualDisc was rarely worth that price difference."

The article goes on mention that Warner Music Group has "plans to introduce a DVD album, according to retail sources who have seen prototypes of the concept." WMG experimented with the DVD album idea with The Sun's Blame It On The Youth. The experiment failed. Miserably. That's not to say it can't work, though. It was ahead of its time. If WMG commits to a full roll-out of the new format and a healthy release schedule of DVD albums, The Sun's failure will have been a valuable learning experience.

Posted by Glenn at 11:23 AM | Link
|DualDisc||Warner Music Group|