HQ 084955: Personal computer music system

Native CBP ruling rendition. Applicability is fact-specific; modification/revocation relationships and original publisher date are retained. Publisher sentinel year0001 means unknown date, not a historical legal adoption.

                              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
                              Commercial Rulings Division