Seeing is believing for DVDs

Warner Bros. Records is releasing the debut CD from young Ohio band the Sun in September -- except for one thing: Warner Bros. isn’t releasing it on CD.

In what is believed to be a major-label first, the Sun’s album will not be available in the CD format but only as a DVD (with a video for each of the 14 songs).

The music-only version will be available exclusively via such digital download services as Apple’s iTunes and Napster -- though, ironically, there will be a limited-edition vinyl version of the album sold in stores.

“Times are changing,” says Brian Arendt, guitarist and songwriter for the Sun. “CDs aren’t what they used to be. When I go to the store I pass the CD section and go to the DVD section. So we thought, ‘Let’s not even put out a CD.’ We want it to be a statement against CDs in a way.”

It’s not a statement that beleaguered music retailers want to hear.

“In a sense, they are saying this: ‘Why bother?’ People would just take the CD and burn it into their computer and throw it away,” says Jerry Suarez, senior product manager for the Virgin Megastores chain of the Virgin Entertainment Group, North America. “That’s rather disturbing.”

But that was exactly the inspiration for this step.

“I bought my young cousin a Weezer CD and all he did was rip it to his computer and he’ll never look at the CD itself again,” says Sun manager Brian Klein. “Those are the kids we’re looking at, the culture they’re in. Could this be the future? I don’t know. But it’s definitely beginning to be that.”

For Warner Bros., this is to some extent the next step from a move last year when the Secret Machines’ debut album was available only as a digital download for four months before being released as a physical CD.

“It is an extension of what we did with the Secret Machines album to perhaps point to new ways the business may be,” says Perry Watts-Russell, Warner Bros. senior vice president of A&R;, who signed both Secret Machines and the Sun.

The idea to make a DVD for the Sun instead of a CD came after the band last year took a tiny video budget intended for a clip to accompany one song from an introductory EP and instead made three videos -- each of which got some television exposure both in North America and Europe.

As the album was being made, the idea was discussed of extending that notion and, using friends of the band and other young directors, making videos for every song, again on a small total budget of about $50,000, less than would likely be spent on one video for most new major-label bands.

As the videos came in and were deemed to be of strong artistic merit, the label and band teams started thinking that given the proliferation of music downloading (both legal and otherwise), a video package would be more attractive for sales than a music disc. Consideration was given to doing a DualDisc (a two-sided disc with video on one side, audio on the other) or a two-disc package, but manufacturing and other production elements would have cost too much.

The DVD will, though, include music-only WAV files that can be transferred to a computer and even burned onto a CD-R if desired.

It will also be packaged in a CD jewel box rather than in the larger boxes that generally house DVDs, and retailers will be asked to stock it in the music section along with CDs (though Virgin’s Suarez notes that his policy is not to place DVDs in the music bins).

“You don’t want to confuse people,” says the Sun’s Arendt. “Since this is our debut, maybe it’s a risk. But you have to go for it and hope people don’t get confused.”

Red Sox’s Arroyo has a new pitch

Bronson ARROYO has got a pretty good life. He’s a major-league baseball pitcher with a multimillion-dollar contract on the world champion Boston Red Sox. And as a singer and guitarist, he knows he’s lucky in that his sports fame afforded him a chance to make an album: His debut, “Covering the Bases,” will be released Tuesday by the reactivated Asylum Records.

But his musical tastes lean toward the dark side -- the anguish and doubts of such ‘90s grungers as Nirvana and Alice in Chains in particular. So to make music of his own, he had to borrow some darkness.

“Covering the Bases” features Arroyo on some of his favorite songs. But even that wasn’t quite enough to give the tone he was looking for. So he turned to a Red Sox fan noted for his sense of darkness: Stephen King.

King was enlisted to write and perform a spoken-word interlude on Arroyo’s version of the Foo Fighters song “Everlong.”

“He’s already dark, and it’s a pretty dark song,” says Arroyo. “It’s fitting to the song, basically him saying, ‘I lie here in wait, 2,000 miles away from you, see no faces, hear no voices.’”

King tops a cast of guests on the album ranging from Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez to Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein (himself an accomplished guitarist who plays on Arroyo’s version of Toad the Wet Sprocket’s “Something’s Always Wrong”). The album will be launched with a concert Wednesday in Boston.

Arroyo hopes this album will be successful enough to give him a chance to do more music, but he’s uncertain about the prospect of moving into writing songs of his own.

“I’ve tried writing songs, but they never come out the way I want,” he says. “The music I love comes from something depressing. I love Nirvana, but I don’t have things like that in my life.... Never had anything to complain about.”

Small faces

* Items donated by the Beastie Boys, Trent Reznor, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, Kanye West, John Legend, Prince, Metallica and Nelly will be among selections auctioned to benefit agencies aiding victims of the ethnic strife in the Sudan. This is the second such auction organized by Los Angeles music management firm Waxploitation. Bidding starts on Tuesday at www.eBay.com/the_wax_trust....

* Gwen Stefani’s first solo tour starts Oct. 16 in Phoenix, with a Hollywood Bowl show set for Oct. 21. The No Doubt singer is assembling musicians for what promises to be a visual as well as musical spectacle. Ticket sales information is to be announced.