News

There appears to be nothing more important to the music business today than controlling the distribution and use of digital content on the web and in the home. Proprietary schemes to prevent or control the use of audio files have become hot commodities and valuable assets for many companies. Liquid Audio recently announced that the US Patent Office has awarded the company a patent (#6,219,634) for its watermark technique used for distributing secure digital music files.

One of the most astute bits of folk wisdom is the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Several months back, Stereophile editor John Atkinson asked David Rich to investigate the technical merits of SACD. With Super Audio CD: The Rich Report, DR discovers that there is both more and less than meets the ear to the new format, including why it is being promoted in the first place.

Last year's media darling may be this year's has-been. Napster, the music file-sharing service that shook the music industry's foundations, remains shut down after US District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled that it cannot resume operations until it can prove that no copyrighted songs can slip through its filter. In a closed session on Wednesday, July 11, Patel ordered Napster to stay offline until she authorizes it to do otherwise.

"Adapt or die" is the first law of economic Darwinism. It's a choice that many music retailers are beginning to face with the rising tide of alternative distribution channels. According to market research organization Jupiter Research, online music services will account for approximately 9% of all CDs sold this year, a 50% increase from 2000. Retailers, once the music industry's only sales interface with the buying public, are looking at what might be an increasingly marginalized future. Those who wish to stay in the game may become "affiliates" rather than independent distributors.

Brian Damkroger finds that, while struggling unsuccessfully to fit the Conrad-Johnson Premier 17LS line-stage preamplifier into his preconceived notions of the company and its products, a paradigm shift in his thinking occurred. Damkroger explains that "it was only during a marathon session of listening and comparing the C-J to a couple of other preamps that the truth dawned on me . . . I went back and forth between the C-J and the other units several times over the course of the next week, and one evening it hit me." The truth awaits.

On Monday, July 2, 2001, Primedia announced that it has agreed to acquire emap usa from Emap plc. This transaction, which will create the second largest magazine company in the United States, is currently under a customary regulatory review. It is expected to close during the third quarter of the calendar year.