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Wednesday, September 1, 1993
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Easier access to CDs
New technology places favorite musical works at customers' fingertips
By Brian James Kansan staff writer
Richard Wright loves his collection of more than 20,000 jazz albums.
But Wright, associate professor of music history, said he wanted to expand his collection of jazz compact discs. But finding many of the rare jazz discs he wants is a problem.
The Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. and the IBM Corp. think they have the answer for Wright and other music collectors.
The two businesses announced plans late this summer to market technology that would produce compact discs for customers inside a music store.
Blockbuster representative Wally Knief said the new technology would allow customers to purchase any one of the 80,000 different compact discs titles available in a record store.
A customer would select the compact disc they want on a touch-sensitive monitor. A computer linked to the monitor would tap into a massive central database of digital information, download the disc information via satellite or fiber-optic network and produce a fresh compact disc — complete with artwork and written material — on the spot. The entire process would take about 10 minutes.
"It's also going to assist music collectors who are searching for compact discs that record companies stopped making or stores stopped ordering," Knief said.
Wright, who has hosted a Saturday morning jazz show on KANU for 33 years, said he thought this new system would be wonderful.
"I'm interested in picking up quite rare things, stuff from Miles Davis, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, to name a few," he said. "If they had access to these recordings on compact disc, it would be the greatest thing."
Knief said Blockbuster expected to have the compact disc units in its stores nationwide by next year. Eventually the system could be licensed to competitors.
David Leibowitz, executive vice president of the Recording Association of America, said the new system would allow record companies to keep a smaller inventory of compact discs.
However, the new marketing strategy, when first announced, was met with hostility from record companies, Leibowitz said. Blockbuster and IBM have not come to financial terms yet with the record labels that hold the copyrights to the recorded music needed for the database.
Lawrence music retailers said they were not concerned about the new marketing innovation.
"I expect the labels will demand a lucrative royalty for their product to be marketed like this," he said.
Steve Wilson, manager of Kief's Discount Records & Stero Supply, 2429 Iowa St., said the new system would not be visually appealing to customers.
Lori Stites, Mound City junior, looks at CDs at Hasting's Books, Music & Video. A new technology, may make it possible to produce the CDs inside the store.
Valerie Bontrager / KANSAN
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