Is there a time of day or night when you prefer to listen? Why?
Have you ever noticed a time of day when your musical enjoyment seems to be consistently at its peak?
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First DVD-Audio Disc from Reprise Records Slated for December 5th
When CDs were becoming popular, Neil Young made no secret of his disdain for the sound of digital. Interviews from the period quoted him as saying that the sound "left him cold," and he would rather listen to an LP, thank you very much. To this day, his new CD releases also appear on vinyl, but with the advent of DVD-Audio, sampling and quantization rates have improved—enough, apparently for Mr. Young's approval.
Execs Will Depart BMG In Wake of Napster Settlement; Rumor of EMI Deal
Two top executives at <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com/">Bertelsmann Music Group</A> will depart in the wake of the company's recent <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10885/">settlement</A> of its lawsuit against Napster. Citing irreconcilable differences with parent company Bertelsmann AG over company strategy, BMG chief executive Strauss Zelnick and chairman Michael Dornemann announced their resignations Sunday November 5.
Music Industry Litigators Busy In Early November
For the music industry, copyright and royalty litigation is like an endless war fought on many fronts. During early November, as four of the industry's "Big Five" continued their pursuit of the file-sharing service Napster, a parallel trial in US Federal Court in New York against music archiving-and-accessing site <A HREF="http://www.mp3.com/">MP3.com</A> by <A HREF="http://www.umusic.com/">Universal Music Group</A> entered its penalty phase, that segment of the proceeding in which aggrieved plaintiffs seek to extract money from guilty defendants. Other plaintiffs in the trial—Sony Music Entertainment, BMG, Warner Music, and EMI—have all settled with the San Diego-based Internet service for an average of $20 million each.
New Device Said To Enable True End-To-End Digital Products
The Comdex trade show, taking place this week in Las Vegas, is flushing out scores of convergence consumer electronics products, in addition to the more traditional computer fare. <A HREF="http://www.apogeeddx.com">Apogee Technology</A>, formerly Apogee Acoustics, a name familiar to many <I>Stereophile</I> readers, is among the dozens of companies announcing technology for the modern consumer electronics marketplace.
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Larry Greenhill writes: "I can't resist reading about a company's flagship loudspeaker—the price-no-object product that embodies the most advanced ideas from a company's research and design department . . . The cost? Don't ask." Six years in development, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//features/286/">Dynaudio Evidence loudspeaker</A> is just such a cutting-edge product. So, Greenhill explains, "when the opportunity arose to review the Evidence, the flagship speaker from Danish company Dynaudio, I eagerly agreed." His verdict awaits.
Do you equate price with quality in audio equipment?
Audio equipment prices range from dirt cheap to off-the-chart. How does price affect your perception of products?
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Chip Stern writes, "There is something enduring and reassuring in the classic audio verities." The <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/284/">Vandersteen 2Ce Signature loudspeaker</A> is certainly considered one of those timeless classics. But how does a speaker released in its first incarnation more than 20 years ago hold up by today's standards? Stern lends his modern ear to the task and includes notes from Richard Vandersteen himself.
Bertelsmann Breaks Ranks, Climbs in Bed with Napster
At least one media conglomerate has seen the light. In a surprise move, German giant <A HREF="http://www.bertelsmann.de">Bertelsmann AG</A> broke ranks with the music industry and settled its copyright-infringement lawsuit with embattled <A HREF="http://www.napster.com/">Napster</A>, in effect becoming the startup's tentative partner. The deal, reached on October 31, could mark the real beginning of the music industry's move into the Internet age. Bertelsmann is the parent organization of <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com/">Bertelsmann Music Group</A> (BMG), one of the world's major music labels, as well as online music retailer <A HREF="http://www.cdnow.com/">CDnow</A>.
A Savior For the Music Business and an Orwellian Nightmare For Pirates?
Could this be a record executive's dream come true and the end of the need for watermarking as we know it? <A HREF="http://www.CantaMetrix.com/">CantaMetrix</A> has announced the further development of a new technology, MusicDNA, that the company claims is capable of identifying and tracking the billions of existing as well as new MP3 files on the Internet and providing an exact accounting for the copyright, "thus enabling legal file sharing and linking value-added data to songs."