A DOUBLE BLESSING DUALDISC FORMAT CARRIES HOPES OF A MUSIC INDUSTRY - AND GIVES THE BUYER MORE.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

See that silvery two-sided disc in the jewel case of Bruce Springsteen's new set?

That's a DualDisc.

One side CD, the other DVD, this hybrid could be the recording industry's best defense against music pirating and illegal downloading on peer-to-peer networks.

``You can't manufacture a DualDisc at home. It just can't be done because ... there's all this content,'' says Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business for Sony BMG, which owns the Columbia label that released ``Devils & Dust'' exclusively on DualDisc.

The only other high-profile artist to put out a DualDisc-only release was matchbox twenty frontman Rob Thomas, whose solo debut `` ... Something to Be'' on the Melisma/Atlantic label sold more than 250,000 copies, making him the first male member of pop or rock group to top the Billboard albums chart with a solo album.

Like a CD on steroids, ``Devils & Dust'' fuses audio and visual technology in one fell swoop.

``It's like having listened to music in black and white all your life and all of a sudden, you've got color,'' says John Trickett, CEO of 5.1 Entertainment Group - part of a consortium of record companies banking on DualDisc to lure buyers back with surround sound and other extras, including film footage, artist commentaries and interactive features they can't find anywhere else.

Piracy and peer-to-peer networks is driving the continued development of DualDisc.

The industry has watched its sales of CDs drastically drop since 1999. Last year did bring a slight increase, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

While it's too early to say whether this signals a rebound, the increase - however slight - is encouraging.

``Certainly there is more interest than ever in music,'' says Paul Bishow, vice president of marketing and new formats at Universal Music Group. ``It's incumbent on us to provide consumers with any product that they want that allows them to conveniently and legally consume music.''

The two-sided disc made its debut last fall both as new releases and reissues, including the 1959 landmark jazz recording ``Kind of Blue'' by Miles Davis.

The album has been released and re-released a number of times, but ``here they come along with a DualDisc, cost-wise $3 or $4 more, and it's taken previous sales and doubled it,'' says Jerry Kamiler, divisional merchandise manager of music at Trans World Entertainment, which operates retail entertainment stores like Wherehouse Music and F.Y.E. ``They didn't film any DVD content for this so they just put together what they had - and for that, people who already own the music have gone out and re-bought the DualDisc.''

It's generally been the case that for every new format of music, people update their collections. But for newer releases, labels say DualDisc allows the artist more creativity in delivering music to fans.

A growing number of top-selling artists, including Jennifer Lopez and Omarion, have simultaneously come out with CD and DualDisc versions of their new records, with DualDisc accounting for 30 percent of sales in the U.S. (DualDisc is available only in the U.S. and the U.K., although it should go worldwide by summer.)

Next week, Nine Inch Nails drops its new album, ``With Teeth,'' on both CD and DualDisc. The band also will release a DualDisc version of its renowned 1994 set ``Downward Spiral'' that includes never-before-seen videos and more than 90 photographs handpicked by Mr. Nine Inch Nails himself, Trent Reznor.

``The artist always needs to be involved,'' says Bishow, whose Universal Music Group is home to Reznor's label, Nothing/Interscope. ``Certainly it's a shift in the way one looks at how an artist releases the album.''

Bishow likens DualDisc to when DVDs were first introduced.

``The home video companies were lucky to get the movie onto the disc,'' says Bishow, adding, ``DVD has become so extraordinarily successful, planning for the DVD now happens at the same time they're planning to shoot the movie. They shoot extra footage, do interviews with the artists and directors ... and I think that you'll see a similar thing happen as DualDisc develops.''

While the labels continue to herald DualDisc as the new technological wonder in music, critics like Marcos Gaston - of the newly organized Independent Musicians Against Forced Music Industry Change - wax skeptical.

``They're just retreading the same old product and calling it new,'' Gaston, an independent musician based in the San Fernando Valley, says.

And there's truth in what he says. DualDisc evolved from the industry- wide practice of packaging some CDs with DVDs. Now, instead of being separate, they're back-to-back on a single two-sided disc accessible to anyone with a DVD player or CD player.

Gaston's organization argues that the labels are forcing people to buy DualDiscs by drastically undercutting the price as compared to a separate CD/DVD combo.

A DualDisc generally sells for $1 to $5 more than the price of a standard CD. Sometimes they're equivalent to a standard CD, as in the case of Springsteen's latest, discounted to $11.99 at Tower Records.

``Devils & Dust'' also can be downloaded through online music stores, including Apple's iTunes, but without all the bells and whistles of the DualDisc release - the DVD portion, in particular.

That side features footage of Springsteen performing six songs on acoustic guitar, each with its own extensive introduction by the artist.

Kamiler, the merchandise manager, sees the Springsteen release as a chance to educate the masses that may not have otherwise gone out to buy a DualDisc.

``Springsteen could not have come at a better time,'' he says. ``This will take DualDisc to a whole different plateau.''

Sandra Barrera, [phone]

sandra.barrera(at)dailynews.com

Upcoming Duals

Here are some of the DualDisc releases you'll be seeing in coming months:

May

Nine Inch Nails: ``With Teeth'' (Nothing/Interscope)

Dave Matthews Band: ``Stand Up'' (RCA)

Toby Keith: ``Shock'n Y'all'' (DreamWorks)

Lee Ann Womack: ``Greatest Hits'' (MCA Nashville)

Donnie McClurkin: ``Donnie McClurkin ... Again'' (Verity)

Chris Botti: ``When I Fall in Love'' (Columbia)

Oasis: ``Don't Believe the Truth'' (Epic)

June

Bob Marley: ``Best of the Early Years'' (Silverline)

Il Divo: ``Il Divo'' (Columbia)

July

Poet Named Life: ``Soundproof Walls'' (Immergent/Myutopia)

August

Various: ``Epitaph Presents - Matchbook Romance, Motion City Sound Track, First to Last, Scatter the Ashes'' (Immergent/Myutopia)

September

Richard Thompson: ``The Old Kit Bag'' (Silverline)

Echo & the Bunnymen: ``Flowers'' (Silverline)

Various: ``Miami Music Week - Oakenfold, Moby, Van Dyke, etc.'' (Immergent/Myutopia)

October

.38 Special: ``Wildeyed Christmas'' (Silverline)

Violent Femmes: ``Rock'' (Silverline)

November

Cracker (TBA)

Dishwalla: ``Live From the Flow State'' (Immergent/Myutopia)

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) MIRROR IMAGE

Double-sided CD/DVD hybrid discs making their debut

Jon Gerung/Staff Artist

(2) Bruce Springsteen's new album, ``Devils & Dust,'' could introduce the DualDisc - one side music, one side video - to its largest audience yet.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com - photo illustration

Box:

Upcoming Duals (see text)