Digital Tape Compromise Seen as a Sign of Changing Audio Times

In 20 years, there will be no threat of digital audio tape (DAT) moving in on the compact-disc business because there will be no digital audio tape and there will be no compact discs.

That is the assessment of music retailers, audio engineers and others involved in the recording industry upon hearing this week about a truce between record companies and Japanese audio equipment manufacturers in the two-year-old war over the future of DAT.

“The no-moving-part product will be the next major breakthrough,” predicted Bob Barrett, owner of the Compact Disc Center in Los Alamitos. “You’ll just go out and buy a chip, snap it in place and all the information will be downloaded into your stereo system--which will essentially be a computer system.”

In the short run, however, Barrett sees no threat to his business. Compact discs will be preferred over DAT or anything else, at least through the mid-1990s, he believes.

Word leaked out earlier this week from Athens, Greece, that threatened to rein in the burgeoning compact-disc business in the United States. At a summit between U.S. record companies and Japanese audio-equipment manufacturers, negotiators reportedly reached a compromise agreement over introduction of DAT technology into the United States.

Officially, the announcement has been embargoed until today, but sources have already revealed that the compromise calls for inclusion of a special audio chip in all DAT machines imported from Japan. The audio chip would permit compact disc owners to record their discs on the high-quality, state-of-the-art digital audio tape, but would prevent DAT-to-DAT dubbing--a possibility that has driven fear into the hearts of major record-company executives who believe that the fine reproduction quality of DAT could lead to widespread pirating and erosion of record sales.

“But they have to know that it’s the nature of technology to strive to improve fidelity,” said Don Palmquist, president of La Mirada-based Yamaha Electronics. “It won’t end with DAT.

“The next generation we’ll probably see by the mid-1990s will be a recordable compact disc,” he continued. “The technology is still in its infancy in the lab now, but by then we will see a disc you can erase and record again and it’ll be for both audio and video.”

Since Japanese stereo manufacturers such as Casio, Marantz and Pioneer first attempted to import DAT players in 1987, the Recording Industry Assn. of America has attempted to block DAT marketing. The RIAA, which acts as the federal lobbying arm of the six major U.S. record labels (Warners, Capitol, MCA, RCA, CBS and Polygram), argued on Capitol Hill for a device that would prevent DAT recorders from dubbing one cassette to another.

RIAA representatives claimed then, and now, that the sound-reproduction quality with digital tape is so good that consumers who bought DAT recorders could illegally reproduce recorded music, thereby cutting into the profits of artists, distributors and manufacturers in the $5-billion-a-year recording industry.

But the audio-equipment manufacturers’ lobbying arm, the Electronic Industry Assn., countered by forming the Home Recording Rights Coalition. The ad hoc organization clashed with the RIAA before several congressional committees, arguing that any device that prevented dubbing would infringe on consumers’ rights.

The resulting battle split the recording industry, with artists ranging from Roberta Flack to Don Henley siding with the RIAA and the major labels it represents, and Stevie Wonder and several of the smaller independent labels siding with the EIA.

“What happened was this idea that Mr. and Mrs. America would say, ‘Holy smoke! I could do digital recording at home! I’m a recording engineer!,’ ” said Barrett.

“That scared the music industry into pushing legislation. But what that produced was that people got overexposed to DAT without having it readily available to them and they got bored with the whole thing.”

Consumers who grumble about the latest upgrade in audio software each time they visit their local Wherehouse or Tower Records store will be grumbling into the 21st Century, according to Palmquist, Barrett and others. Five years ago, prerecorded tape cassettes replaced the old vinyl LP albums as the top-selling item in record stores. Today, many stores have stopped stocking LPs altogether with the advent of compact discs, which are fast overtaking cassettes as the top-seller in record retail chains.

“Four or five years from now, DAT players may replace cassette players the way that compact discs are now replacing LPs, but the recording industry will have to build up a library of pre-recorded tapes first,” said Palmquist. “There’s also the question of pricing. DAT machines now cost $2,500 to $10,000. If (Japanese manufacturers) go into quantity production, they could drop to the $1,000-$1,500 price range in a year or two.”

Still, it will be several years before DAT catches on to the same degree as compact discs.

“Over the very long term, DAT will replace analog (conventional tape) cassettes,” said Barrett. “But it won’t happen any time soon.

“The thing that we hear all the time is people saying they’re not going to buy a compact disc because DAT is coming out next year and the CD is a transitional product. Well, what isn’t a transitional product? There’s always going to be something in the works that will replace what you got. I mean, look at the eight-track tape. It was here and gone in ten years. I’d guess the CD will last another 20 years.”

And after that?

“You’ll be able to buy an album over the phone,” said Barrett confidently. “You’ll use your (computer) modem to call Warner Bros. records and punch in your credit-card code. They’ll download the new Don Henley album into your computer and either bill you on your phone bill or over the computer on a monthly or quarterly basis.”