T-Bone Burnett is working to put a system of standards in place so that the CD the consumer buys is of the quality that the record’s producer had intended. His system, titled CODE, is the product of several years of research with a team of engineers. Burnett has applied for several patents in conjunction with this system.

Burnett was spurred to put his system in action when the first pressing of the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss CD, Raising Sand, did not sound as he intended. Since then he has approached labels, pressing plants and engineers in an effort to set quality standards for audio recordings.

The first CODE release was “Life, Love, Death and Freedom” from John Mellencamp. Elvis Costello’s 2009 release will be the next.

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