Will the official online music gates finally stream open and flood us with non-pirated tunes? Perhaps. One important step in the process has finally been taken. The <A HREF="http://www.nmpa.org">National Music Publishers' Association</A> (NMPA), the Harry Fox Agency (HFA), and the <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com">Recording Industry Association of America</A> (RIAA) announced last week that they have come to a "breakthrough" agreement on the licensing of musical works for new subscription services on the Internet.

Napster may be down for the count, but its millions of former members are happily swapping audio files elsewhere, according to an October 10 report from technology research firm <A HREF="http://www.jmm.com">Jupiter Media Metrix Inc</A>.

The need to cut costs may push the music industry to experiment with collaborative manufacturing and distribution, according to reports that emerged the first week of October.

As the results from last week's Vote prove, having the right tool for the audiophile job makes all of the difference. And a lot of you selected the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//features/424/"><I>Stereophile</I&gt; Test CD 3</A> as your weapon of choice for uncovering the good, the bad, and the ugly of a component under consideration. Here's the complete story on the most recent test disc from <I>Stereophile</I> and company.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.cirrus.com">Cirrus Logic</A> unveiled what it is calling the world's highest-performance six- and eight-channel D/A converters, which the company says will give consumers the ability to decode high-resolution multichannel surround content at home or in the car. The converters are the latest addition to Cirrus Logic's Total-E platform group of products.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.napster.com/">Napster</A&gt; announced that it had reached a preliminary agreement with US songwriters and music publishers to settle a class action lawsuit currently pending in federal court in California. The beleaguered company says the agreement includes terms under which the songwriters and music publishers will license their music to Napster's new membership-based service.

The final numbers aren't in yet, but all indications point to an astounding show of support from the audiophile community for the <A HREF="http://www.audiogon.com/charity.html">Audio Charity Auction</A> conducted by <A HREF="http://www.audioasylum.com">Audio Asylum</A>'s Rod Morris and <A HREF="http://www.audiogon.com">Audiogon</A>'s Arnie Chinta. The numbers are still stacking up, but as of Sunday, October 7, the benefit had raised $173,738 from over <A HREF="http://gonmain.iserver.net/cgi-bin/auc_ch.pl?charity&1&c">400 closed auctions</A>.

It is with great sadness that I report that Howard Mandel, the main man of manufacturer Altis Audio, passed away on September 27 after a long battle with, I believe, leukemia. No age was given in his obituary in the <I>Danbury News Times</I> (CT), but I believe Howard was in his early 50s.