Reporting that mid-year global music sales figures were down by 5% in the first half of the year 2001, the International Association for the Phonographic Industry's Jay Berman said, "Mass-scale CD copying and piracy had a particularly sharp impact on music…
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Whenever we run a poll asking readers what record companies can do to reduce piracy, one of the most common gripes is that CD prices are too high. Apparently the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) and major music retailers across the country agree. They also are looking for better-sounding formats to goose sales.
Jonathan Scull takes a gander at the dCS Purcell D/D converter, and tries to make sonic sense out of the merits of upsampling. Scull writes, "So while the true differences between upsampling and oversampling remain murky, my pleasant mission is to report on the sound of the Purcell and compare it to the latest version of the pro-audio version, the 972."
More digital debriefing when Robert Deutsch uncovers details of the Perpetual Technologies P-1A D/D & P-3A D/A processors. As Deutsch tells the tale, "Finally, more than 18 months after the initial product announcement, the P-1A and P-…
Fiscal year 1998 will be one of diminished expectations for Harman International Industries, Chairman Dr. Sidney Harman announced last week to assembled analysts and fund managers at a meeting in New York. He laid much of the blame on the continuing economic slump in Asia.
"Consumer and Professional Division sales in China will be 80% of plan in fiscal '98. Sales to Japan will be only 60% of plan and sales to the rest of Asia will be less than 40% of plan," Dr. Harman stated. "For the full year we will have lost $90 million in sales in Asia plus $60 million in sales in Europe and North…
The entertainment industry is pondering its next move in the wake of a legal setback delivered Thursday, August 19. On that day, a Federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld a ruling by a lower court in Los Angeles that file-sharing software made by Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks, Inc. does not violate US copyright law. The three-judge panel voted unanimously in favor of the defendants.
Unlike Napster, which used central servers to link large databases of music files, Grokster and StreamCast (maker of Morpheus) simply make their software available for any application their users…
Editor's Note: This item is an excerpt from an e-mail received from Russia late last week. It's noteworthy that the US Congress has spent hundreds of days and more than $50 million investigating the President's adolescent shenanigans, while elsewhere in the world serious trouble is afoot. Leonid Korostyshevski is a computer consultant and audiophile in the university town of Saratov, on the Volga river 600 miles east of Moscow. His previous dispatch appeared here in March.----BW
20 degrees Fahrenheit here. I'm looking out the window. There, a mad dance of snow, a strong wind, not yet…
How likely would you be to buy a computer, TV, or DVD player knowing that it could monitor your activities and automatically report possible copyright violations to the federal government? That's one of the nightmare scenarios that could evolve from the proposed Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA), drafted by Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings and strongly backed by Walt Disney Company and other members of the Motion Picture Association of America.
Scheduled to be introduced for consideration in late October, the bill stipulates that "an interactive computer service shall…
Skyrocketing ticket prices kept summer concertgoers away in droves, according to reports in the entertainment industry and financial press in mid-October. The summer 2004 concert season was one of the slowest ever, with some superstars canceling shows and others moving planned arena or amphitheater events into smaller venues. Previously one of the summer's most popular events, the Lollapalooza tour was cancelled due to slow ticket sales.
This past spring saw ticket prices for big acts go off the charts, from $70–80 for terrible seats to the low hundreds for merely good seats, to the high…
From the current issue, Wes Phillips and John Atkinson tell the story of Against the Dying of the Light: the Second Cantus CD. Phillips sets out to find the true genesis of this astonishing new recording from the Minnesota-based male-voice choir, while JA fills in the technical details.
"How much fun can you have with an audio component?" asks Michael Fremer as he kicks off his review of the Musical Fidelity CD-Pre24 CD player-preamplifier. Fremer gleefully exclains, "Think of the CD-Pre24 as a CD player with a bonus analog preamplifier, bonus digital switching facility, and analog and…
The numbers are up for Sirius Satellite Radio. On June 23, the New York–based digital broadcaster announced that it had exceeded 100,000 subscribers for its 100-channel music/news/entertainment service. Sirius offers 60 channels of commercial-free music and 40 channels of news, sports, talk shows, comedy, and other programming.
The 100k milestone is an encouraging development for the company, which expects to see further growth in sign-ups following the introduction of new "Plug and Play" digital satellite receivers this month and next. Kenwood's "Here2Anywhere" gear arrived at consumer…
In an aggressive move into the used audio equipment market, New York retailer Harvey Electronics announced last week that the company will begin to sell used audio products and special purchases of new merchandise on eBay, an online auction site, beginning June 1, 1999. The company also recently announced that it will sell merchandise through other website partnerships.
Franklin Karp, president of Harvey, stated that "our efforts on eBay are part of our evolving strategy to increase sales from Internet commerce. Selling quality used audio products and special manufacturers' promotions on…