News

A new year-long download promotion may spell the death knell for digital rights management (DRM). The Pepsi promotion, which will be formally announced during the Super Bowl on February 3, will advertise a possible one billion downloadable MP3 files, which will be available through Amazon.com's download service, which does not feature DRM. We have not been able to obtain a list of participating labels to date, but since EMI, UMG, and Hollywood Records already participate at Amazon's MP3 store, they're probably involved. Less certain are Sony BMG and Warner Music Group (WMG), who seem to be sticking as much at the 40¢ per song (compared to 65–70¢ from Amazon or 70¢ from iTunes) offered by Pepsi as at the lack of DRM—although neither label has yet offered unprotected digital files.

Last week, we passed along some observations from Benchmark Media Systems' John Siau about iTunes forcing an unnecessary sample-rate">http://stereophile.com/news/120307samplerateconversion/">sample-rate conversion in its 7.5 incarnation. We received a lot of mail on the subject during the week, including some helpful suggestions from Wavelength Audio's Gordon">http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/196rankin">Gordon Rankin, who has much experience designing USB">http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/905listen">USB audio devices.

The Stockhausen">http://www.stockhausen.org/">Stockhausen Foundation announced December 7 that Karlheinz Stockhausen died on December 5. No cause of death was given.

When John Atkinson reviewed the Benchmark DAC1 USB digital/analog processor (watch for it in the January 2008 Stereophile), his test results raised some eyebrows at Benchmark. You'll have to read the review to discover what, but suffice it to say that Benchmark did some testing of their own and wrote us an interesting alert.

The recording label Deutsche Grammophon, founded in 1898, boldly ventured into the 21^st century on November 28 with a new http://www2.ham.deutschegrammophon.com/home
">online store that eschews digital rights management (DRM) and offers MP3 downloads at 320kbps.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEAhttp://www.ce.org">CEA;) has taken major steps to ensure that the 2008 edition of its International Consumer Electronics Show, to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 7–10, will provide a model for sustainable and energy-efficient practices. According to CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro, the world's largest international trade show for consumer technologies is "the first tradeshow of our size to reduce our carbon footprint. We will do so by reducing energy consumption, increasing our recycling efforts, improving efficiency where possible, and making strides toward offsetting our unavoidable emissions. . . . [We intend to give] this industry an opportunity to be a positive force for change and integral to environmental solutions that will ensure future generations inherit a healthy planet."

Hitting newsstands this past weekend, the 2008 Stereophile Buyer's Guide is bursting with technical specifications for more than 5000 audio components. Loudspeakers, amplifiers, CD players, turntables—every component category is listed in full, and we worked extra hard this past summer to make sure that the products of every manufacturer were included in its 228 pages.