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Bruuuuuuuuce!!

It is a superb CD!! I can’t wait to buy it!!

New Springsteen album to test market for CD/DVD hybrid
NEW YORK (AFP) – Fan fever over the release of a new Bruce Springsteen album next week is matched by recording industry interest in how sales may be affected by its US launch in the new DualDisc format.
“Devils and Dust,” the Boss’s 19th album, will only be available in the United States in the fledgling CD/DVD hybrid, which represents the first major change in retail music packaging since the compact disc was introduced more than two decades ago.
The format pairs a standard CD on one side with a DVD on the flip side, which offers video and a surround-sound mix of the album for home theaters.
The video on “Devils and Dust” shows Springsteen performing his new songs and discussing the making of the album.
The release date is April 26, with Springsteen kicking off a US and 10-country European tour the night before with a concert in Detroit. The singer will tour as a solo acoustic act, without the backing of his E-Street Band.
The album is a pared-down collection of country- and folk-influenced rock songs, which Springsteen told Rolling Stone magazine was in some ways a sequel to 1995’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” which inspired his first solo tour.
“I wrote a lot of this music after those shows, when I’d go back to my hotel room,” he told the music magazine. “I still had my voice, because I hadn’t sung over a rock band all night. I’d go home and make up my stories.”
The album’s title track was written at the start of the Iraq War and gives a soldier’s point of view on the conflict.
Springsteen was on the road last year as part of the Vote for Change Tour, which urged voters not to re-elect President George W. Bush.
Although the effort failed, Springsteen said he had no regrets about his first public foray into the world of partisan politics.
“It was an experience that I’m glad I put myself into,” he told Rolling Stone. “There was a lot of idealism out there — I took a lot of that with me.”
“Devils and Dust” is not the first DualDisc to hit the market, but Springsteen’s stature means its performance will be watched closely to see if the new technology has a viable future.
The four major record labels, EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner, announced in August last year the formation of a consortium to launch the new audio-video hybrid in the US market.
The first album to debut on DualDisc, “Still Not Getting Any” from the pop-punk band Simple Plan, has already gone platinum.
And since the beginning of this year, two major albums — “O” from Omarion and “Rebirth” from Jennifer Lopez — have been released in both CD and DualDisc formats.
Sony BMG, which produced both albums, said DualDisc purchases accounted for around 30 percent of total sales for both.
The Springsteen album, another Sony BMG offering, is different in being available exclusively in the new format, with no traditional CD pressings.
The DualDisc generally retails at one dollar more than a CD, and the music industry is hoping it will help recoup the slice of the retail market lost to piracy and illegal file-sharing.
“It’s harder to file-share DVD content and it’s virtually impossible for anyone to burn a DualDisc at home,” said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business for Sony BMG.
“We think all this will lure people back to the stores, because it’s a product you can’t really get in pirated fashion,” Hesse said.
Critics, such as the California-based Independent Musicians Against Forced Music Industry Change, complain that the DualDisc is just another industry attempt to push consumers into repurchasing the albums they already have on CD.
“It is all about money,” the non-profit group said in a statement.
Hesse, however, pointed out that unlike the introduction of the CD, which required consumers to replace their music hardware, the DualDisc could be played on existing CD and DVD players.
“It’s really a new product, rather than a new format,” Hesse said, adding that plans were afoot to roll out the DualDisc in European markets.