BIG SURPRISE! RECORDABLE CD'S 

They said it would never be allowed. Look at how the music lobby in Hollywood blocked digital audio tapes (DAT) last year, by refusing to release master recording material. Although it may not get to North America this year, the rest of the world will certainly have it. It, in this case, is the home recordable compact disc (CD-R), known by the unusual trade name "That's CD-R". It is fully compatible with existing CD systems.

These units will be available in Britain next (1989) year -- an illustration that the latest technology is no longer coming first to North America. It also shows that when attempts are made to block new technology an even stronger genie will spring out of a magic box somewhere and wreck even more havoc or bring greater joy. In this case both, depending on your point of view.

This time it's a Japanese chemical company Taiyo Yuden that has announced it is ready to manufacture a relatively inexpensive recordable compact disc system! Their disc blank is a polycarbonate, injection molded and spin-coated disc almost identical to present CDs. It has a spiral grove molded on the surface, which guides the recording laser beam. The very low power laser -- just 9 milliwatts -- records music or data on the disc surface. Another 2milliwatt laser is activated for playback. The cost will be reasonable. The units going on sale in Great Britain will cost about 80 to 100 pounds (C$175 to $220) more than today's standard CD player. Blank discs will sell for less than five pounds (C$10). What may be the best feature, in a slightly modified system, is its ability to also record video.

The record companies' trade body, the International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers (IPFI) is shocked. They admit that recordable CDs "are an even greater threat than DAT". Like most monopolies, they thought they had everything was under control after the DAT news upset them last year. Well, even this isn't the end. Tandy is also coming out with a record and erase (CD-R) system called THOR for around $500. Other major electronic companies have developed optical discs that can erase and record several times (CD-E). And we haven't even heard yet from South Korea.

Up to this point record companies believed that CDs would be too expensive to compete with DAT, so if they blocked DAT, the strategy theorized the CD-R threat would never materialize. How wrong they were. Such tactics have worked almost exactly like Canadian quotas against foreign car imports in 1982, which advanced the Japanese auto marketing program by five years. One startling move in this game has been made by Philips in Holland: They have decided not to enter because of the unsettled copyright issue. In the Industrial Age Philips was a brilliant, innovative company. It seems they haven't yet learned that not only have the rules changed but the very game itself is now different. Not knowing that can be fatal.

TAIYO YUDEN say they are offering "That's CD-R" to professionals in the music business and for computer use because of the copyright issue. The discs will be available for CD-ROM and CD-I editing. Software houses can now develop and manufacture CD-ROM and CD-I "in house" by using CD-R. Small-scale electronic publishers of data bases, educational materials, books or games now have the perfect vehicle to hold and carry their product. It's another giant step. Gutenberg made everyone a reader. Xerox made everyone a publisher. Now Taiyo Yuden can make everyone an electronic librarian. More information: Takashi Ishiguro, Central Research Institute, TAIYO YUDEN, 1-2-12, UENO, TAITO-KU, TOKYO 110, JAPAN

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