Launched with a bang last April, <A HREF="http://apple.com">Apple Computer</A>'s iTunes Music Store has steadily gained popularity with music fans, but it won't reach its projected goal of selling 100 million songs online within its first year.

While Apple's iTunes and RealNetworks Rhapsody are battling it out in the music download ring (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/032204itunes">related story</A>), and Microsoft is rumored to be eyeing a corner, Sony has now decided to join the fray with a new music service announced last week in Europe.

Some months back, a poll at the Naxos of America <A HREF="http://www.naxos.com">website</A&gt; asked visitors about their preferences among high-resolution and multichannel formats. At that time, Naxos had been releasing DVD-As (and DVDs) in the US, but only released SACDs elsewhere.

One of the nicest things about communicating online is the potential for immediacy. One person can offer up a statement, another can respond within seconds, and voilà: instant town hall.

One of the nicest things about communicating online is the potential for immediacy. One person can offer up a statement, another can respond within seconds, and voil&#224;: instant town hall.

Anyone over 40 who's worked in a hi-fi or record store will remember the Pfanstiehl catalog, a pulpy thing that most shopkeepers chained to their counters, like a phone book. Pfanstiehl made replacement styli for virtually every record-playing device of the day, and their catalog contained page after page of tiny line drawings of nothing but phonograph needles, all lovingly rendered in three-quarter view. You couldn't browse it without being brought up short: My God, how many different needles <I>are</I> there? And how is it possible that a single company could tool up for so many products and still make a profit?

Anyone over 40 who's worked in a hi-fi or record store will remember the Pfanstiehl catalog, a pulpy thing that most shopkeepers chained to their counters, like a phone book. Pfanstiehl made replacement styli for virtually every record-playing device of the day, and their catalog contained page after page of tiny line drawings of nothing but phonograph needles, all lovingly rendered in three-quarter view. You couldn't browse it without being brought up short: My God, how many different needles <I>are</I> there? And how is it possible that a single company could tool up for so many products and still make a profit?

Anyone over 40 who's worked in a hi-fi or record store will remember the Pfanstiehl catalog, a pulpy thing that most shopkeepers chained to their counters, like a phone book. Pfanstiehl made replacement styli for virtually every record-playing device of the day, and their catalog contained page after page of tiny line drawings of nothing but phonograph needles, all lovingly rendered in three-quarter view. You couldn't browse it without being brought up short: My God, how many different needles <I>are</I> there? And how is it possible that a single company could tool up for so many products and still make a profit?

Anyone over 40 who's worked in a hi-fi or record store will remember the Pfanstiehl catalog, a pulpy thing that most shopkeepers chained to their counters, like a phone book. Pfanstiehl made replacement styli for virtually every record-playing device of the day, and their catalog contained page after page of tiny line drawings of nothing but phonograph needles, all lovingly rendered in three-quarter view. You couldn't browse it without being brought up short: My God, how many different needles <I>are</I> there? And how is it possible that a single company could tool up for so many products and still make a profit?

Anyone over 40 who's worked in a hi-fi or record store will remember the Pfanstiehl catalog, a pulpy thing that most shopkeepers chained to their counters, like a phone book. Pfanstiehl made replacement styli for virtually every record-playing device of the day, and their catalog contained page after page of tiny line drawings of nothing but phonograph needles, all lovingly rendered in three-quarter view. You couldn't browse it without being brought up short: My God, how many different needles <I>are</I> there? And how is it possible that a single company could tool up for so many products and still make a profit?