The Enhanced CD - the interactive album - after years of waiting, it's finally happened. But is it the ultimate pop-culture novelty, or is it just the record industry's wanabee? George Cole is yur juke box jury as he assesses this new medium and judges some of the Enhanced CDs soon to be on offer.
There is more to some music CDs than meets the ear. Coming soon
to a record store near you is a new generation of Enhanced CDs
-- compact discs designed to play on both audio CD decks and CD-ROM
drives. Put an Enhanced CD into an ordinary CD player and you
hear music, pop the same disc into a CD-ROM drive and you'll see
pictures, video, text, lyrics and other information related to
the artist.
Many in the music industry are keen to reach the growing number
of consumers with home PCs, and some see the Enhanced CD as a
good way of doing it. Some music companies already have Web sites
where fans can get the latest news and gossip on their favourite
artist - not to mention merchandising information. Now, record
companies are planning to put Web browsers on to Enhanced CDs,
giving users access their Internet sites.
For some, the Enhanced CD is the most exciting development since
the launch of the CD, but for others, it's a technical dead-end
like CD Video and the three-inch CD single. The jury's still out,
so we looked at the latest releases to see just what's what.
Sarah McLachlan
The Freedom Sessions
A Track One title from Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan, The Freedom
Sessions includes eight new versions of music tracks with a running
time of around 30 minutes.
The Cranberries
Doors and Windows
This is one versatile disc. You can use it on an ordinary CD deck,
Mac or PC CD-ROM drive or a CD-i player. If your CD-i deck has
a MPEG digital video cartridge, you'll get full-screen video on
some material.
EBN
Telecommunication Breakdown
EBN call themselves a multi-media group and have a reputation
for making off-the-wall, audio-video presentations (they made
the puppet-like George Bush singing We Will Rock You on U2's Zoo-TV
Various
Don't Play Track One
No prizes for guessing what type of Enhanced CD this disc is.
Don't Play Track One features music from ten new artists, which
ranges from ambient to classical to reggae.
The Durutti Column
Sex and Death
A confusing title this one. The Mac version is a track one disc,
but the Windows version uses the CD Plus format. This is because
Apple's CD Plus authoring software wasn't ready in time, so rather
than hold back, Factory too decided to push ahead.
Mike Oldfield
The Songs Of Distant Earth
Best known for his mega-selling Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield's
The Songs of Distant Earth is inspired by the Arthur C. Clarke
book of the same name.
Nyack
11 Track Player
This disc has the distinction of being the first CD Plus title
to be launched in the UK. Indeed, it was on sale only days after
the official release of the Blue Book standard!
Editor's Choice
Will the Enhanced CD take off?
In many ways, it's success in
the hands of the record companies.
Technology box out
The technology
Enhanced CD is a generic term for a CD designed for both audio
CD players and CD-ROM drives.