"...Blaming the familiar compact disc format for many of the music industry's piracy headaches, a partnership has formed to replace the ubiquitous CD with recorded media the size of a U.S. 25-cent piece. A new format "is the only way to conclusively halt music piracy, while giving consumers the rich experience they want," said Talal Shamoon, senior vice president of InterTrust. The Santa Clara, California-based digital rights management (DRM) software firm will use a new format from start-up DataPlay to secure both prerecorded and blank music audio discs, according to statements released late Monday.

While the move makes business sense for InterTrust and DataPlay, any notion that the CD "will soon be replaced is unlikely," Scheier told NewsFactor. He said it would take another 20 years to replace CDs. Lee Black, an analyst for music research firm WebNoize, told NewsFactor that he believes any push to replace CDs "faces an uphill climb."

The new media can hold up to 11 hours worth of MP3s or nearly a dozen prerecorded albums with a 500 MB capacity for each disc, according to reports. Consumers will need to buy new devices, projected to cost between US$199 and $299, to play the audio discs, say sources. The new discs -- both blank and prerecorded -- are expected to be released this fall, say DataPlay officials. Blank discs should cost between $5 and $10, with prerecorded prices on a par with CDs. Samsung, Toshiba and SONICblue, which makes the Diamond Rio MP3 player, are developing devices using DataPlay's discs..." NULL