How HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Discs Are Made

Imation has an interesting video about how HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs are manufactured.

EMI Music Launches DRM-free Downloads

Earlier this week EMI Music announced they would make DRM-free downloads available through Apple’s iTunes music store. I never thought I would live to see the day when a major music label would give up the fight for digital rights management.

Anyone who has even a passing interest in digital content knows there has been a long running battle between artists and distributors who want to protect their content from piracy and consumers who want to repurpose content or use it on multiple devices.

The industry argues that DRM is a necessary evil to prevent piracy and illegal downloading. In their view, the fact that it prevents using the purchased content on multiple devices is just an unfortunate side effect. Consumers argue that they paid for the content and they should be able to do whatever they want with it and make backups.

The industry counters that if they provide DRM-free content, there is nothing except the honor system to stop people from distributing the content to others, and consumers have shown in the past to be less than honorable. Consumers say if they were offered DRM-free content they wouldn’t need to turn to pirated material to do what they want with the content and they would pay for content they previously obtained illegally.

I can certainly see how the industry is going to be very skeptical of a public who has flagrantly pirated content for years, claiming that they are suddenly ready to gladly pay for content simply because it is DRM-free. This will be a very interesting test for both sides.

If people do not purchase the DRM-free songs or they quickly appear on file sharing networks every other label and distributor will say, “See, the public was lying. They just wanted us to make it easier for them to continue to steal our content.”

Personally, I would strongly encourage those of you who support the idea of DRM-free content to go and buy some EMI content from the iTunes store and not to post it on any file sharing service. There is no better way to prove to the industry that you are serious about wanting DRM-free content and are willing to pay for it if they will provide it. It doesn’t really matter if there are any songs you like or not. If you are serious, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is.

Action Duplication Announces $40 Million Vinyl Pressing Plant

Today Action Duplication announced the purchase of $40 million of vinyl record pressing equipment. Company president Joel Levitt said, “We think vinyl is the wave of the future. Some people like live music, but we’ve heard from many of our customers that they prefer vinyl and we want them to know that we are here to meet their needs.”

The introduction of vinyl pressing equipment expands Action Duplication’s offerings from sheet music and piano rolls to current state-of-the art technology.

“We will be the only facility in the Mid-Atlantic region that can do everything from a few sheet music copies to hundreds of ’stacks of wax’”, Levitt said.

Plant manager Steve Seyler said the new equipment is capable of producing one record every “6 minutes or so”. Working an 8 hour day, and allowing for breaks, Action Duplication can produce more than 55 records per day.

Industry studies have shown that people enjoy listening to records. 78% of adults aged 23-34 surveyed said they would rather listen to a record at home than go to a live performance.

“Those kinds of numbers don’t lie”, said Levitt, “people love records and we are here to give the public what it wants.”

Action Duplication currently produces sheet music and piano rolls for many top-name area performers. They expect to have the vinyl plant operational by the end of this year.