RIAA Realizes... There is a Better Way

From the Chi Trib today. Apparently, the new boom in SACD / DVD-Audio formats (Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road has been re-released as a hybrid disc, by the way) is a way to discourage piracy by presenting better audio quality and more features in a physical format.

Brilliant.

This is good news all around. Hybrid discs are still rippable to the mp3 format, still unlimitedly burnable to new CDs, but the original discs have quality that is uncapturable. Sharers rejoice because they can have the freedom to share, to test drive music and to become more informed on what's out there without having their minds flogged by radio. Record companies hold onto sales even if people have downloaded an album. Audiophiles and music lovers reap the benefits of having a high quality audio format being pushed in the mainstream (and will have to replace their old Elton John CD's).

And if you're Sony right now... Keep crying about album sales and let no one realize the kind of money you've been minting with the sales of mp3-playing devices and now SACD-compatible players. You are so money and you know it.