Koch goes on the record with CDs

Multimedia hardware and software distributor Koch Media will begin pressing its own blank recordable CDs in January and expects to sell them through retail.

"We expect blank CDs to become a very popular consumer product," said Ian Browning, digital disk manager for Koch. "Soon you will see blank CDs regarded like blank audio cassettes. You will be able to pop into HMV and buy a box. The price of recorders is coming down and soon blank CDs will be used in the home the same way floppy disks are now."

TDK and Yamaha are considered market leaders in branded blank recordable CDs; both have a reputation for quality which Koch intends to emulate. "The people using blank media currently are professionals who expect media to perform perfectly on any CD drive," said Browning. "We intend to equate the Koch-branded blank CDs with the same high quality reputation."

Currently, dealers buy branded blank CDs for u4-u5, but that is expected to halve in the next six months. "We will make sure we will be price-competitive," said Browning.

Koch can press about 1.6 million blank CDs in the first year, said Browning, which will increase as demand grows.

Yamaha launched a CD-ROM drive with quad recordable speed and six-times play-back speed at Comdex. Erasable CD technology was also shown.