In <I>1984</I>, George Orwell's chilling tale of life in a totalitarian society, good citizens are expected to master the art of "doublethink," the ability to embrace two contradictory ideas at the same time. As evidenced by legal actions undertaken by their organization in late May, executives of the <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com">Recording Industry Association of America</A> would make excellent role models in an Orwellian state.
As John Atkinson points out in his "As We See It" from last month, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/355/">Trumpets to the Back of Me?</A>, there appears to be a long, hard road ahead for audiophiles as record labels struggle to make something out of the multi-channel future. As JA puts it, "The last thing I want is to have trumpets and drums attacking me from behind, yet almost without exception, that is what record producers seem to feel is an essential part of the DVD-Audio and SACD experiences."
Some long-time <I>Stereophile</I> readers were outraged when the magazine put a photo of a computer soundcard on its cover in September of 2000 <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/280/">(click here for the review and controversy)</A>. And then, John Atkinson added insult to injury by doing another <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/299/">soundcard review</A> last November. Some readers may have been scratching their heads about why we did it, but at least one manufacturer is getting the message.
On May 23, the <A HREF="http://www.juilliard.edu">Juilliard School of Music</A> announced the selection of 18 instrumentalists who will form the core of the newly-created Juilliard Jazz Orchestra. As orchestra members, the musicians will benefit from tuition-free study at the school's recently established Juilliard Institute for Jazz. The creation of the institute—a collaboration of the Juilliard School and the "Jazz at Lincoln Center" program—is an indication that the prestigious institution is further acknowledging the importance of jazz, an indigenous American genre that many critics have called "the classical music of the 20th century."
We get e-mails every week asking what is the best way to create a decent system for a reasonable amount of money (say around $1500 complete). What would be your advice?
It's sometimes amazing how courtroom adversaries can become bosom buddies. This week's example: on May 21, <A HREF="http://www.vivendiuniversal.com">Vivendi Universal SA</A> agreed to acquire Internet music portal <A HREF="http://www.mp3.com">MP3.com Inc</A>. for $372 million (423 million euros) in cash and stock—or $5.00/share for MP3.com stockholders. The announcement followed Vivendi's April 5 <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11015/">acquisition</A> of Emusic.com for $24 million. The targeted companies' boards of directors unanimously approved both deals. MP3.com will continue to offer music from non-Universal labels, according to a company press release.
It was 15 years ago this week that an enthusiastic John Atkinson was lured <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/352/">From London to Santa Fe</A> to take the helm of <I>Stereophile</I>. As JA recounted back in 1986, "From London, England, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a pretty big jump, both geographically and culturally. From <I>Hi-Fi News & Record Review</I> to <I>Stereophile</I>, however, is a mere hop; the similarities overwhelm the differences."
A quickly established favorite among music fans, the <A HREF="http://www.cddb.com">CDDB</A> website provides comprehensive information for tracking who and what appears on just about any CD in existence (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10438/">previous</A>). But as users of the service are discovering, the company that now maintains the database, <A HREF="http://www.gracenote.com">Gracenote</A>, is starting to change the rules of access.
Two scuttled mergers in the past year haven't damaged the profit picture for <A HREF="http://www.emigroup.com">EMI Group PLC</A>. Neither has a global slowdown in music sales. EMI announced May 22 that it expects to see a 5.7% increase in pretax profits for its fiscal year ended March 31: £259.5 million (US $374 million), up from £245.4 million (US $353 million) a year earlier. EMI's sales for the year rose 12% to £2.67 billion (US $3.84 billion).
Could the average computer hard drive soon be able to store the equivalent of over 80 DVD-Audio discs or 600 CDs? Last week, <A HREF="http://www.research.ibm.com">IBM</A> announced that it is using just a few atoms of what it has termed "pixie dust" to push back the data storage industry's most formidable barrier, and will effectively quadruple disk drive densities in the next two years.