Sony said Wednesday it has begun sales in Japan of CD singles that require users to pay a small fee over the Internet each time they make copies.
Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. said the new CDs are designed to prevent piracy of music over the Internet, making anyone other than the buyer who wants to listen to music from the CDs pay a small fee on the company’s website.
The CDs can be copied onto the buyer’s computer once, but after that any additional people wanting to hear copies of the music will have to pay the 200 yen ($1,69r) charge for each song.
Singles by seven Japanese pop artists including Crystal Kay went on sale at stores nationwide on Wednesday in the new format. ”We believe that compensation should go to those who own the rights to a work and want to correct a system where this has not been happening,” said Sony Music representative Kimiko Ohashi.
The company said the format, called ‘LabelGate CD’, was the first in the world to use an online permission system. It does not prevent users from listening to the music on regular CD players and making copies onto cassette tapes or minidiscs, the company said.
Every single produced by the Japanese subsidiary of the music label starting from Wednesday will be sold using the format, with albums to adopt the format in April.
The company it presently has no plans to use the technology outside of Japan. – Sapa-AFP