Jueves 6 de Noviembre de 2003, Ip nº 63 CD Experiment Shows Early Promise Por Frank Ahrens Early sales of a BMG Entertainment music CD that allows buyers a limited number of copies and downloads have been promising enough that the company plans to continue the experiment with bigger musical stars in the coming months. Anthony Hamilton, an R&B singer on BMG's Arista label, released "Comin' From Where I'm From" in late September. The CD marked one of the music industry's first attempts at what it calls copy management -- using special software to permit buyers certain rights to make copies and distribute online. The music industry monitors week-to-week sales of new releases as one way of guessing how many of its new CDs are being copied onto blank discs; the Hamilton CD allows buyers to make three copies. So far, the CD has experienced a slower-than-average sales drop-off, Arista said. The Hamilton CD debuted at No. 7 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, shipping 79,000 CDs and selling 33,496 of them in the first week -- a modest number compared with the debut of "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken, whose CD topped the chart at its release, with 612,859 copies sold. After the first week, sales of the Hamilton CD dropped 23 percent, to 25,598 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks music sales. The typical first-week drop-off is 40 to 60 percent, said Jordan Katz, senior vice president of sales at Arista. After the second week, Hamilton's sales dropped to 22,800 copies before ticking up to 23,300 the following week. Total shipments stand at 250,000. Arista attributed the modest sales drop-off to strong promotion efforts, a suggested price of $13.98 and word-of-mouth buzz -- but also to the copy-management software. "I know my science well enough to know that correlation does not mean causation," Katz said. "I would not go out on a limb and say this was the only reason [sales] were down only 23 percent. However, I would say it was a contributing factor." The copy-management software on the Hamilton CD was developed by SunnComm Technologies Inc., a small Arizona technology company. Though buyers of the Hamilton CD are allowed to make three copies, nothing prevents them from copying the copied CDs, which further muddies the analysis. The next generation of SunnComm's CD technology will prevent the copied CDs from being copied. It is scheduled to roll out in December, said SunnComm chief executive Peter H. Jacobs. Jacobs acknowledges that no software is hacker-proof. Songs from Hamilton's CD appeared on unauthorized song-sharing Internet services, such as Kazaa, before the release date, Arista said. The label has conducted informal research on the CD, asking retailers and fans, through Hamilton's Web site, what they think of it. What was most notable about the research, Katz said, was what it did not show: There has been almost no blowback from retailers or fans about the copy-management software. Many did not even notice it. That was enough to persuade Katz to decide this week to put the SunnComm technology on at least two upcoming releases. Katz said Arista is negotiating with its big-name acts, though he declined to name them, to release similar copy-managed CDs in the first quarter of 2004. A scan of consumer reviews on Amazon.com found general satisfaction with the Hamilton CD. "I give this CD four stars only because of the copyright protection," wrote one reviewer. "This CD didn't play too well on my computer until I downloaded some kind of license agreement, and was connected to the Internet. Otherwise, it's very good." The CD also allows users to e-mail the songs to others, who can download and play them on their computer, where they live for 10 days before expiring. A Princeton University graduate student distributed a paper on the Internet shortly after the CD's release demonstrating, he argued, how the copy-protection could be broken. But Jacobs, who initially threatened to sue the student before backing off, said his technology is meant to thwart casual copying, not determined hackers.   30/10/2003. The Washington Post.