In a move that is likely to push record labels into the uncharted territory of direct sales, <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com">BMG</A> has announced its intention to add in-house sales to its network of music sites. "BMG will be moving in the fall to its own fulfillment capability because of the demands of consumers," said senior vice president Scott Dinsdale at the Business Online 98 conference in San Francisco last week.
Last week, <A HREF="http://www.xingtech.com">Xing Technology Corporation</A> announced its sponsorship of the <A HREF="http://www.mp3.com/conference/">First Annual MP3 Summit</A>. In a statement, the company urged music-industry executives to discuss copyright issues, technical standards, and music distribution, and to participate in developing the future of MP3.
<B>EDWARD ELGAR: <I>Enigma Variations</I>, <I>In the South</I>, <I>Coronation March</I></B><BR> George Hurst, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra<BR> Naxos 8.553564 (CD). 1997. Paul Myers, prod.; Dave Harries, eng. DDD. TT: 58:47<BR> Performance <B>****</B><BR> Sonics ****</B>
Many audiophiles spend thousands on state-of-the-art audio equipment, but does it really put you in the room with the performers?
Fiscal year 1998 will be one of diminished expectations for <A HREF="http://www.harman.com">Harman International Industries</A>, Chairman Dr. Sidney Harman announced last week to assembled analysts and fund managers at a meeting in New York. He laid much of the blame on the continuing economic slump in Asia.
Digital radio company <A HREF="http://www.worldspace.com/">American Mobile Radio Corporation</A> announced last Wednesday that it has exercised a $52.9 million option to upgrade its satellites. The move will potentially double the channel capacity of AMRC's nationwide satellite-direct audio radio service (SDARS), scheduled for the year 2000.
On June 17, <A HREF="http://www.carltonplc.co.uk/">Carlton Communications</A>, owner of Technicolor, announced that it has entered into a merger agreement to acquire <A HREF="http://www.nimbuscd.com/">Nimbus CD International</A>, one of the world's largest independent manufacturers of optical discs, including CD-Audio, DVD, DVD-ROM, and CD-ROM.
The "world's largest bookstore" may be on its way to becoming one of the biggest music stores, too. Two weeks ago, <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com">Amazon.com</A> began a big push into CD retailing, more than doubling the number of its musical offerings to over 100,000 titles. (Competitor <A HREF="http://www.cdnow.com">CDnow</A> 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.
With the plethora of CD and DVD formats out there, it can be confusing figuring out what will work with what. Standards can help define specifications for a particular format, but often do little to guarantee compatibility between them.
<B>The Sessions: Wes Phillips</B>