November 18, 1996

The so-called enhanced CD, which records digital
music, graphics and video on the same disk,
generated so little spark when it hit the market two
years ago that it did not even deserve to be called a
flash in the pan. But because of the pervasiveness of
computer CD-ROM drives and the creative perversity of
independent artists and entrepreneurs, the idea may yet
ignite.

The enhanced CD concept was originally pushed by Philips
Electronics and the Sony Corp., inventors of the digital
audio compact disk. Each company has since tried to
replicate the compact disk’s huge success with
recombinant forms of the CD. Because audio CDs have
space available after the music is recorded, Sony and
Philips came up with the idea of recording other digital
material — like photographs and lyrics — onto the disk
for viewing on a PC through the CD-ROM drive. For the
privilege of receiving these digital liner notes, the
theory went, record companies could charge a few dollars
extra on each CD.

After a Keystone Cops-style standards-development
process, the Recording Industry Association of America
finally stepped in and trademarked the term “enhanced
CD,” embracing various technical approaches that allow a
disk to operate in both an audio player and a CD-ROM
drive. But manufacturing problems and incompatibilities
continue to crop up.

Given this inauspicious history, it is no surprise that
the reception accorded enhanced CDs has been
underwhelming. Even in the midst of a huge market push
for interactive media, it is estimated that fewer than
200 enhanced CD titles are on the market.

And even though several well-known artists — including
the Rolling Stones, Sarah McLachlan and the Cranberries
— have published enhanced CDs, “the problem is that it
costs money to make them and it doesn’t create revenue,”
said Albhy Galuten, a successful record producer who
helped design one of the first multimedia audio formats
and is now vice president of interactive programming for
MCA’s Music and Entertainment Group. “People won’t spend
an extra $5″ just to gaze at the visages of their
favorite rock stars.

But Galuten and others said they believed that the
enhanced CD might yet find redemption. A new generation
of music lovers and artists, weaned on computer
technology and drawn to music and culture outside the
mainstream, are finding that the 19 million CD-ROM
drives in American homes can be a powerful incentive to
creativity.

One of the best of this generation is a San
Francisco-based independent music label called Om
Records, which began producing enhanced CDs last year.
What sets Om’s disks apart is a design and artistic
vision going far beyond digital liner notes to provide
context for the music. In part, that is because Om’s
disks plug directly into today’s underground music scene
— including what is known as thrash, the music of urban
skateboard culture; ambient, which is a variant of New
Age music, and the largely black, largely underground
culture of hip-hop.

Hip-hop is music from the streets, and its popularity
has spread through dance clubs and raves. Two of Om’s
enhanced CD’s — an early title called “Groove Active”
and its latest release, “Mushroom Jazz” — celebrate
hip-hop’s roots, including a riveting slide show of
street art and graffiti, as well as video interviews
with hip-hop musicians and club disk jockeys.

In addition, Om has decided to abandon single-disk
enhanced CDs to sell two disks for the approximate price
of most audio CDs. Unhappy with the incompatibilities of
the enhanced CD standard, the company decided to turn
problem into opportunity and create a separate CD-ROM of
music and media, shipped alongside the audio-only CD.
The process adds only a dollar to the retail cost of an
Om title, said Eric Kalabacos, vice president of Om
Interactive, the company’s multimedia division. But
“giving consumers two disks is much more for the money,”
he said, “and it gives us more empty space on the CD-ROM
for media.”

Galuten of MCA praised Om’s creative efforts. But he
said he would rather put his money into getting a little
bit of multimedia, even if it is only liner notes, on
every audio CD.

“What we need is ubiquity,” he said. “When people buy a
CD, they should automatically put it in their computer
to see what’s there. That’s how you get the artists’
egos involved, so they’ll put up the money to do
something cool, like they do today with music videos.”

It is the conundrum of the electronic age: everything is
changing at the speed of light, but few companies will
risk the conceptual leaps that create new markets. So
the risk-averse transform liner notes — or magazine
pages or movie trailers — into digital media, while a
new generation of artists must find a way to survive, or
die trying, until some larger part of the world is ready
for them.

Thus a company like Om, whether it sells CD-ROMs or
enhanced CDs, knows it cannot survive as a record label
by producing only the underground artists it loves. In
fact, the company has recently split into two divisions
— the music label and the multimedia division — so it
can sell its creative services outside the company, to
musicians who are ready to move beyond digital liner
notes.

“We need to partner with a major act, but it needs to be
a true partnership,” said Om’s chief executive, Stephen
Prendergast. “Right now, it’s business guys talking to
business guys. We want our creative team talking to the
musicians, artist to artist. Whoever opens that door
first will have a lot of new friends in the recording
industry.”

Denise Caruso

Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company