As John Atkinson points out in his "As We See It" from last month, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/355/">Trumpets to the Back of Me?</A>, there appears to be a long, hard road ahead for audiophiles as record labels struggle to make something out of the multi-channel future. As JA puts it, "The last thing I want is to have trumpets and drums attacking me from behind, yet almost without exception, that is what record producers seem to feel is an essential part of the DVD-Audio and SACD experiences."

In <I>1984</I>, George Orwell's chilling tale of life in a totalitarian society, good citizens are expected to master the art of "doublethink," the ability to embrace two contradictory ideas at the same time. As evidenced by legal actions undertaken by their organization in late May, executives of the <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com">Recording Industry Association of America</A> would make excellent role models in an Orwellian state.

According to a new comparison of online music business models and companies prepared by <A HREF="http://www.redherring.com/research">Red Herring Research</A>, Napster simply cannot exist without the complete consent of the recording industry, and the company's recent attempts to appease the copyright infringement concerns of the industry have so far failed. The study also finds it highly unlikely that the company's peer-to-peer model will find success, given the history of its relationship with the recording industry, its declining membership, and impending competition from services like MusicNet and Duet.

One of the more interesting displays at Home Entertainment 2001 was a small booth belonging to West Hollywood, CA&ndash;based <A HREF="http://www.aix.com/new">AIX Media Group</A>, which was manned by company president Mark Waldrep. At the show, Waldrep <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11035/">discussed his work</A> in creating DVD-Audio recordings with multiple perspectives, selectable by the listener via remote control.

Could the average computer hard drive soon be able to store the equivalent of over 80 DVD-Audio discs or 600 CDs? Last week, <A HREF="http://www.research.ibm.com">IBM</A&gt; announced that it is using just a few atoms of what it has termed "pixie dust" to push back the data storage industry's most formidable barrier, and will effectively quadruple disk drive densities in the next two years.

Two scuttled mergers in the past year haven't damaged the profit picture for <A HREF="http://www.emigroup.com">EMI Group PLC</A>. Neither has a global slowdown in music sales. EMI announced May 22 that it expects to see a 5.7% increase in pretax profits for its fiscal year ended March 31: &#163;259.5 million (US $374 million), up from &#163;245.4 million (US $353 million) a year earlier. EMI's sales for the year rose 12% to &#163;2.67 billion (US $3.84 billion).

A quickly established favorite among music fans, the <A HREF="http://www.cddb.com">CDDB</A&gt; website provides comprehensive information for tracking who and what appears on just about any CD in existence (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10438/">previous</A&gt;). But as users of the service are discovering, the company that now maintains the database, <A HREF="http://www.gracenote.com">Gracenote</A&gt;, is starting to change the rules of access.

It was 15 years ago this week that an enthusiastic John Atkinson was lured <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/352/">From London to Santa Fe</A> to take the helm of <I>Stereophile</I>. As JA recounted back in 1986, "From London, England, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a pretty big jump, both geographically and culturally. From <I>Hi-Fi News & Record Review</I> to <I>Stereophile</I>, however, is a mere hop; the similarities overwhelm the differences."

It's sometimes amazing how courtroom adversaries can become bosom buddies. This week's example: on May 21, <A HREF="http://www.vivendiuniversal.com">Vivendi Universal SA</A> agreed to acquire Internet music portal <A HREF="http://www.mp3.com">MP3.com Inc</A>. for $372 million (423 million euros) in cash and stock&mdash;or $5.00/share for MP3.com stockholders. The announcement followed Vivendi's April 5 <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11015/">acquisition</A&gt; of Emusic.com for $24 million. The targeted companies' boards of directors unanimously approved both deals. MP3.com will continue to offer music from non-Universal labels, according to a company press release.