BMG to Test Protected CD's on Industry Insiders

start issuing promotional CDs -- the free discs distributed to critics, retailers and other insiders weeks before the official release -- with technological countermeasures to prevent copying

The first benefit of doing promos and advances is to get feedback on the technology," said Kevin Clement, BMG's senior director of new media. "And we would hope this technology will stop the records from leaking early to the public

most of its protected discs would contain two versions of the album, one for use in consumer CD players and another encoded in Microsoft Corp's encrypted WMA format, for playback on PCs and compatible portable music players