LATEST ADDITIONS

<A HREF="http://www.arkivmusic.com">ArkivMusic</A&gt;, one of the Web's leading sources for classical music recordings, has struck a deal that enables them to release on their own reissue label, ArkivCD, out-of-print titles from the extensive catalogues of EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, and Angel Records. The reissues are available "on demand," copied from actual out-of-print CD releases (not master tapes) without compression or enhancement, and are often accompanied by copies of the original liner notes.

On May 30, Apple officially launched iTunes Plus, billed as "DRM-free music tracks featuring high-quality 256kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings." The initial material available from the iTunes Plus section of the iTunes Media Store is, for the moment, limited to EMI artists, although other labels have announced pending deals with Apple. The "improved" songs sell for $1.29 rather than the standard 99&#162;.

McIntosh Laboratory announced its $6000 MS750 music server on May 30. The second music server in McIntosh's line, the MS750 incorporates a 750GB hard drive and integrated Web interface capabilities. McIntosh estimates that the MS750 is capable of storing 2700 CDs at full resolution, or about 12,000 songs.

I suppose, if he wanted to, Ariel could stop for a bit and take a look into last year, to read of how Kristina Roman saw things &#151; <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/062206krlucky/">from her lucky charms perspective</a>. It wouldn't be absolutely necessary, but it might prove interesting. I, as you know, enjoy the casual look back.

Forty years ago today, June 1, 1967, The Beatles taught the world what innovation really sounded like.

Huckleberry wants to become spokescat for a high-end car manufacturer. Here he's posing for the hood medallion.

Bagheera knows what the exercycle is really for.