Barry Willis

On Tuesday, May 5, beleaguered Carver announced that it had received a financial transfusion of almost $400,000 and that it would make a move into direct marketing in an attempt to bolster flagging sales. The Woodinville, Washingon-based company announced in a press release that it "had closed a sale of 3,000,000 shares of restricted Common Stock of the Company to one of its preferred shareholders, Renwick Special Situations Fund, L.P., for $375,000, or $0.125 per share."

Alan Lomax, the folklorist and musicologist whose work spurred the folk music revival of the 1950s and '60s, died on Friday, July 19 at a nursing home in Safety Harbor, FL. He was 87.

Engineering facilities and a finished-goods warehouse at Altec Lansing Technologies' Milford, Pennsylvania, headquarters were damaged by fire late Sunday, May 31. The blaze was said to have been exacerbated by severe weather. No injuries were reported.

The "world's largest bookstore" may be on its way to becoming one of the biggest music stores, too. Two weeks ago, Amazon.com began a big push into CD retailing, more than doubling the number of its musical offerings to over 100,000 titles. (Competitor CDnow offers over 500,000 titles.) Visitors to the Amazon website can now click on a tab that will take them to a new music site, where they can listen to audio previews and read reviews, reprints of articles on bands and musicians, and music-industry news.