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This spring, downloadable digital music from EMIhttp://www.emigroup.com/">EMI; may begin popping up everywhere, if a new arrangement with Supertrackshttp://www.supertracks.com/">Supertracks; goes as planned. The two companies have created what they believe is a secure system for downloading music to computers, portable players, and to CD burners at kiosks in shopping malls. The news follows by only a couple of weeks an announcement that Warner">http://www.warnermusic.com/">Warner Music and EMI will merge their operations under the larger umbrella of AOL Time Warner.

DVD-Audio has kept a low profile since its misfired "launch" late last year (see previous">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10620/">previous story), but has popped up again at this week's Audio Engineering Society Convention (AEShttp://www.aes.org">AES;) in Paris. Pioneerhttp://www.pioneerelectronics.com/">Pioneer; is demonstrating its latest generation of universal DVD players, recently">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10633/">recently released in Japan, using a new DVD-Audio disc, some of the contents of which were encoded using Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) technology to enable high-resolution surround sound.

The best defense is sometimes a good offense. MP3.comhttp://www.mp3.com/">MP3.com; has taken that old advice to heart by counter-suing the Recording">http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industries Association of America for what it calls "unfair business practices." On Monday, February 7, MP3.com filed a complaint against the music-industry organization in San Diego Superior Court, alleging that the RIAA and its president, Hilary Rosen, have conspired to undermine the Internet music company's stock price by promulgating information to stock analysts just prior to suing for copyright infringement.

It's been a rough season for some in the e-commerce crowd, as several consumer-electronics Internet startups find themselves amid changes. Last week, CyberShop.comhttp://www.CyberShop.com">CyberShop.com; announced that it will close the e-tailing sites CyberShop.com and electronics.net (created as a joint venture with Tops Appliance City, which is now under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection) and sell these operations' remaining retail assets. At the same time, the company says it will launch an "Internet incubator" through the establishment of Grove">http://www.grovestreetventures.com">Grove Street Ventures to attract and develop startup Internet companies.

Kal Rubinson gets right to the point: "I am biased: On very little evidence, I remain convinced that, in the near future, high-quality music reproduction will be multichannel." The Meridian">http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/201/">Meridian Digital Theatre surround-sound music system is therefore a product that puts Kal's vision to the test. Kal details the system, which consists of two DSP6000 front L/R speakers, one DSP6000C center-channel speaker, two DSP5000 speakers used for surround, the Reference 800 DVD/CD player, and the Reference 861 System Controller. But does the Meridian system live up to his expectations regarding the potential of surround-sound for music?

The inclusion of "hyperlinks" in music CDs that direct music lovers to Sony-affiliated online sales sites has angered the National">http://www.narm.com/">National Association of Recording Merchandisers, a trade organization representing more than 1000 music retailers. NARM has filed suit against Sony">http://www.sonymusic.com/">Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Coporation of America, seeking an injunction against the use of hyperlinks and charging that the practice of including the links in CDs is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Asking retailers to sell discs with such embedded links is the "equivalent of asking Tower Records to put posters for rival Musicland in their stores," said NARM president Pamela Horovitz.

Blaming a falloff in CD sales on the popularity of CD burners, BMG">http://www.bmg.de/">BMG Germany recently issued approximately 100,000 copy-protected discs in an attempt to thwart the problem—and had to take a substantial portion of them back because consumers said the discs wouldn't perform in car players and in some home audio systems.