iTunes music on DVDs?

Warner Music is reportedly close to a deal with Apple [subscription required] that would make digital tracks--essentially identical to those the computer company sells through its iTunes Music Store service--on DVD albums, a new format the company hopes will replace the popular CD and spur more retail music sales. The Wall Street Journal reports that Warner 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: the DVD would include a music album that plays in both stereo and surround-sound on a standard DVD player as well as include video footage that plays on a DVD player or a computer. The report says that the DVD album will include song remixes, ring tones, photos and other digital extras that can be accessed on a computer, although it is unclear whether the non-music content will support Macs. The music, however, will likely be provided by Apple, as Apple has been reluctant to license its FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) technology, which helps copy-protect songs sold through iTunes. T

The report says that due to Apple's reluctance, the company will likely create the digital tracks and provide them to Warner so it can add them to its DVDs.

According to the report, the DVD album is "the latest in a parade of would-be successors to the CD, including the surround-sound products Super-Audio CD and DVD-Audio, and most recently DualDisc, which plays like a CD on one side and like a DVD on the other."

Warner, the fourth largest music ompany, was one of two companies, along with Sony BMG, to embrace DualDisc last year; however, the capacity of both the CD and DVD sides of DualDiscs is limited compared to normal CDs and DVDs. The storage capacity of the planned Warner DVDs is up to four times what can be held on the DVD side of a DualDisc. Both Warner and Sony BMG have sharply scaled back their DualDisc output, according to the WSJ.

by MacNN Staff