Is your CD listening to you?

January 31, 2003 8:21 AM

Bandlink CD Intelligence provides instant access to... tour dates, latest photos, news, video and chat community whenever you play a specially encoded CD in an internet-connected CD drive. But is that really all? "Go online any time and check to see how many people are listening to your CD, what songs they are listening to, and how long they are listening." As a marketing professional, I can see the value of it to business. But from the consumer perspective, the possible abuses are scary.
posted by GhostintheMachine (4 comments total)

Oh such a bad idea. I hated HyperCD where you had to have a webpage to play the hidden track, and once the page was offline, there was no way to play that hidden track. I don't like eCDs that launch an application upon insertion, and I don't like CDs that won't play in Winamp. I'd rather have CDs that have a url printed on the booklet with a CD specific code that I can use to log in. If most bands would just visit their forums and chat rooms of their official sites, they'd know what their fans want. There's no need for them to go through Bandlink to find that out.
posted by riffola at 8:32 AM on January 31, 2003

Maaan! Can't anybody just let music happen organically anymore?!?! Everyone involved in the music business is so obsessed with covering their collective arses and determining measurable ROI and creating "synergy" and cross-marketing blahblahblah in this (to them at least) crap-ass consumer economy that it all feels as sterile as Shania Twain's Super Bowl performance.
And riffola, I totally agree on the eCD auto-launch tip: I've had my machine freeze up too many times cuz of some band's vanity...
(Wow, didn't know I had that much piss 'n' vinegar in me today.)
posted by chandy72 at 8:42 AM on January 31, 2003

As a marketing professional, I can see the value of it to business.

I can't. You don't know what people are listening to in their cars, on their stereos, on their portable CD players, offline, after they have ripped the CD to MP3 for convenience, etc.

Marketing does not result in good music... of course, good music isn't the goal, sales are the goal :P
posted by Foosnark at 8:47 AM on January 31, 2003

As a marketing professional, I can see the value of it to business.

I can't.

Let me clarify that. Marketers always want to know as much as they can about who is using their product and how. There was a whole ad campaign a while back based on all the crazy uses people have for WD40, and let's not forget duct tape. And many products are tweaked or developed based upon this new insight. So sometimes that information is valuable. I'm not making a value judgement here, just a statement of fact. Business like this information, sofrom their perspective it's worthwhile.

But your mentioning of MP3s brings up one point: with this technology, the record companies can code CDs and track ripped songs so they can track them back to their source. That ripped MP3 you shared over the internet could be traced back to your computer, allowing them to go after you for pirating.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 10:44 AM on January 31, 2003