HQ 0084955 - Personal computer music system - United States International Trade Commision Rulings

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HQ 084955

October 4, 1989

CLA-2 CO:R:C:G 084955 TLS

CATEGORY: CLASSIFICATION

TARIFF NOS.: 8473.30.4000; 8524.90.4080

Mr. Francis L. Casey
A. N. Deringer, Inc.
30 West Service Road
Champlain, New York 12919-9703

RE: Personal computer music system

Dear Mr. Casey:

You request a ruling on the proper classification of the personal computer music system under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Annotated (HTSUSA). Your letter dated June 9, 1989 has been referred to this office for a reply.

FACTS:

The personal computer music system is a combined hardware and software package that includes a synthesizer card, a playback program, a visual composer editing program, and a composition projects guide. The playback program and visual composer editing program come with software discs. The synthesizer card can play 11 different voices or sounds simultaneously and it comes with 145 preset instruments. The system is sold as one item. It has the capacity to allow the user to compose music that can be viewed on a video display terminal and played back through the playback program's audio output jack.

ISSUE:

Under which of the following HTSUSA headings is the personal computer music system properly classifiable:

8471, HTSUSA, covering automatic data processing machines and units thereof; magnetic or optical readers, machines for transcribing data onto data media in coded form and machines for processing such data, not elsewhere specified or included;

8473, HTSUSA, covering parts and accessories (other than covers, carrying cases and the like) suitable for use solely or principally with machines of headings 8469 to 8472; or

8524, HTSUSA, covering records, tapes, and other recorded media for sound or other similarly recorded phenomena, including matrices and masters for the production of records, but excluding products of chapter 37.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

The General Rules of Interpretation (GRI) govern the classification of articles under the HTS. GRI 3 requires that composite goods consisting of different materials or made up of different materials or made up of different components, and goods put up in sets for retail sale, which cannot be classified by reference to 3(a), shall be classified as if they consisted of the material or component which gives them their essential character, insofar as this criterion is applicable. The main function of this system is to allow the user to compose music on a personal computer terminal and then have it played back through the audio output provided with the kit. The music synthesizer and playback program card provide this function.

The system cannot be classified under heading 8471 because it is not a complete automatic data processing machine nor a complete unit thereof. It is also not a machine for processing such data. The system is series of components packaged together to perform several functions as one unit; it cannot be considered a machine as the term applies under 8471. These components are actually parts of such machines as provided for under heading 8473. As noted above, the music synthesizer card gives the system its essential character because it performs the main functions. As a result, the personal computer music system is to be classified according to how the synthesizer is classified. The card itself adapts to the user's personal computer to become a part of that machine. The personal computer is an automatic data processing machine as provided for under heading 8471. Therefore, the synthesizer card is classifiable under heading 8473 as a part of a machine covered under 8471. The system itself is classifiable under 8473 as parts of a machine of 8471.

The software must be classified separately under a different heading, however. Note 6 of chapter 85 requires that goods classifiable under either heading 8523 or 8524 remain classified under those headings whether or not they are entered with the apparatus for which they are intended. Heading 8524 covers, inter alia, recorded media for sound. The software discs come with pre-recorded music programs and capacity to create new programs. This falls directly under the terms of 8524. Therefore, the software discs are properly classifiable under heading 8524.

HOLDING:

The music synthesizer and playback program card, the visual composer editing program, and composition projects guide are classified under subheading 8473.30.4000, HTSUSA, as parts and accessories suitable for use solely with a machine of heading 8471.

The software discs are classified under 8524.90.4080, HTSUSA, as other recorded media for sound.

Sincerely,

John Durant, Director

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