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.