LATEST ADDITIONS

In an effort to smooth the way for websites that wish to legally reproduce copyrighted music, <A HREF="http://www.bmi.com">BMI</A&gt; announced last week that it has now become the world's largest online digital rights management company with the launch of its Digital Licensing Center (DLC) and "Klick-Thru" online copyright licensing system. The company says that the DLC is intended to help Internet companies digitally obtain a music-performance license through BMI.com, allowing them to publicly "perform" any of BMI's 4.5 million copyrighted works from its 250,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers.

A year after <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10445/">introducing</A&gt; the Super Audio Compact Disc player to upscale audiophiles, <A HREF="http://www.sony.com/sel/">Sony Corporation</A> has decided it is time to make the technology available to a wider audience. On May 17, Sony announced that its third-generation SACD player will be launched in Japan in June at approximately $730 US (&#165;80,000). The company's current SACD players, which debuted last fall, list at $3200 and $5000.

The gold rush is on in the wake of a <A HREF="http://www.ftc.gov/">Federal Trade Commission</A> decision effectively ending the music industry's policy of minimum advertised pricing (MAP) on compact discs. Attorneys in California and New York wasted no time in filing class-action lawsuits against the music industry's major conglomerates, following the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10744/">FTC's announcement</A> May 10 that it had reached a negotiated settlement with them over a longstanding noncompetitive pricing policy.

Last week, the <A HREF="http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A> (CEA) announced that it is working to establish a single standard for high-data-rate home networking using the powerlines already installed in consumers' homes. Stating that it is "recognizing the need for a baseline technology standard," the CEA says it has invited integrated-home-systems industry stakeholders to participate in the creation of a standard for residential powerline networks, to be completed by year's end.

The last Lamm product I had my hands on was a pair of M1.1 monoblocks (see Vol.18 No.4, Vol.22 No.7). I liked those hybrid tube/solid-state amps quite a lot.

Many of us have had our musical attitudes completely recalibrated after witnessing an important musical event. What has done it for you?

Retail prices of compact discs are likely to drop in the coming months, thanks to a <A HREF="http://www.ftc.gov/">Federal Trade Commission</A> action ending an industry-wide price-support policy begun five years ago. On May 10, the FTC announced that it had reached an agreement with the "Big Five" of the music business&mdash;Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music, Seagram Ltd.'s Universal Music, Sony Music Entertainment, BMG Entertainment, and EMI Group PLC&mdash;that will effectively end the practice of "minimum advertised pricing" (MAP) instituted as a response to music-retailing price wars in the mid-1990s. Under MAP, retailers were forbidden to advertise CDs below an established minimum, at the risk of losing millions of promotional dollars from the record labels.