• PC World
• » Components

DataPlay announced Monday that it has signed a deal with music company BMG Entertainment in which BMG will release its albums on DataPlay's high-capacity discs. BMG is the third of the five major labels to sign such a deal, following the leads of Universal Music Group and EMI Group.

DataPlay's discs, which are smaller than CDs, can hold up to 500MB of data. However, thanks to a special encoding technique developed by the company, the discs can also hold more music than a CD. DataPlay discs can contain up to 5 hours of CD-quality music, says Steve Volk, chairman and chief executive officer of DataPlay. A CD can hold roughly 80 minutes of music.

The discs offer consumers the ability to purchase one disc with multiple albums by the same artist on them, according to Volk. One album would be available for listening, with users able to sample and then purchase the others, over the Internet, if they choose.

Products from the deals with the labels will be available in stores in time for Christmas, probably in October or November, Volk says. The initial launch will include top Billboard hits and some back-catalog material and may be tied to a major release, he says. The discs will likely cost a dollar or two more than traditional CDs.

DataPlay has received "tremendous support from labels," Volk says. He also brushes aside concerns that the multiple-album format might confuse consumers, saying that "consumers were ecstatic" about it in focus groups.

The three labels who have signed deals did so because "it is a natural [move for them]. They need a new format; they need to enhance consumer experience," he says.

Companies will be able to do just that, Volk says, citing the possibilities of using the disc's high capacity to include both video clips and software on discs.

"We believe strongly, as do the labels, in putting secondary content" on discs, he says.

Labels will also get a higher level of copyright control than with CDs, as they will be able to include DRM (Digital Rights Management) technologies if they want. Some proposals being discussed include limiting the number of copies that could be made of a song, but this will "depend on what sort of DRM is used," Volk says, adding that, no matter what is used, "it must be transparent to the user."

The inspiration behind DataPlay was "to put music in places you can't get it today," such as personal digital assistants, Volk says.

There seems to be a number of interested parties in doing just that. Volk cites a concept car displayed at DataPlay's booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in January that featured the company's technology.

"The automotive industry has just been dying for a format like this," he says, adding that the discs will likely replace CD jukeboxes in cars, as well as offer in-car music and data, such as maps. The company will also make its discs and the drives to write data to the discs available in consumer electronics, such as digital cameras, PDAs, and portable music players. The drive needed to write to the discs will cost companies less than the 64MB of flash memory in OEM quantities does now, Volk says.

DataPlay was founded in 1998 with Universal Music, Toshiba, Samsung Electronics, S3, and Imation as investors.

For additional coverage of high-capacity storage media, see Honey, I Shrunk the Bits! Removable Storage Gets (Really) Small.

• See more like this:
• DataPlay,
• high-capacity discs,
• CD,
• BMG,
• EMI,
• Universal,
• digital rights management,
• DRM