BMG Reissues HIM's Razorblade Romance
(OSLO) - Following up on recent briefs, BMG Germany has been forced to reissue its hit album Razorblade Romance by Finnish rock act HIM after the use of the new Cactus Data Shield copyright-protection system rendered the CDs unplayable on certain standard players.
Cactus, which prevents copying via CD-Rs and the making of MP3 files, was developed by Israeli company Midbar. Last week, BMG Germany put out new versions of the album without the shield. HIM manager Seppo Vesterinen says the problems are limited to German pressings; the Finnish release did not carry Cactus. "We have received several complaints here directly. For instance, that the discs couldn't be played on car players and that the CD only could be started via track one and not, for example, via track four."
The first title to use Cactus, Razorblade Romance debuted at No. 1 on the German chart earlier this month. Hans-Dieter Queren, a director at BMG manufacturing facility Sonopress, says, "We had delivered 100,000 discs of HIM, and afterward we discovered that there were 11 [types of] players where the disc didn't work." He says they are "very far away" from implementing Cactus as a uniform standard within BMG. "We have to have major discussions between BMG, Midbar, and Sonopress next week."
(Billboard Bulletin)
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