According to the statistics, separate home components are up 16% in the year to date, to $727 million, with a 23% increase in June alone. Within this category, home CD equipment (particularly CD-R) has grown to 32%, while receivers (led by Dolby…
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Last week, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) released numbers indicating that factory audio sales (as opposed to sales through to consumers) for the first six months of 2000 have surpassed all previous mid-year dollar sales. The CEA adds that the $3.85 billion in sales to dealers put audio sales 12% ahead of the same time last year.
Recently, Sound Advice, Inc., a specialty retailer of high-end consumer electronics, announced plans to open five to six stores in Florida over the next 18 months. The company expects that two to three of the stores will be in operation by the end of this calendar year, with the balance to be opened in 1999. Sound Advice is also exploring other ideas, such as smaller-format specialty stores in upscale malls and other high-end retail locations that feature high-quality brand names.
The company said that the new store locations were selected following extensive market research to identify…
In a tersely worded press release, Carver Corporation announced that on Wednesday, May 12, 1999 it filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington. The cause of the filing was "an accumulation of unpaid debt and resulting legal actions filed by creditors. These actions created the prospect of an inequitable distribution of payment to creditors and prevented the Company from being able to operate as a functioning business entity. In October of 1998, the Company ran out of working capital and laid off the remainder of its…
We've all heard about "Internet time"---that fraction of the "normal" time interval for a similar activity to occur on the Internet. As if to put an exclamation point on the concept of Internet time, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) plans to make audio history March 10 at the 1999 NARM Convention coming up in Las Vegas.
A demonstration at the seminar "Digital Delivery, Show Us the Money" will feature legendary singer-songwriter Willie Nelson performing a song live, which will then be mixed, encoded, and published for sale on the Internet via a network of retailers…
Sorting through the rooms of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), we'll often discover interesting companies only to find that they are not yet represented in the US. Such has been the case with Cyrus Electronics, which has always intrigued us with its compact products and modern design sensibility in the tradition of a Linn or Meridian.
US consumers will finally get to see Cyrus' products in person as they debut in the US for the first time at The Home Entertainment Show at the Hilton in New York this week. Newly appointed Dallas-based distributor The Sound Organisation will use the show…
When it comes to power, VTL's Luke Manley is definitely in the "more is better" camp. But when Lonnie Brownell sat down to listen to the VTL ST-85 tube power amplifier, he elected to start with a single amp and go for more power later. Lonnie writes: "How's about I go with just one amplifier for a while? After all, that's what most people would buy, at least at first. Then I can drop in another one and see what that does." But in the end, was one enough? Brownell tells all.
Next up, Stereophile's Philosopher-in-Residence, George Reisch, laments the disappearance of turntables in his…
We've heard the sad tales from the record labels and distributors about their ever-weakening music sales, but there are other players in the market who are also feeling the pinch: retailers.
In an effort to understand what is going on and to seek out solutions, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) organized the first-ever Music Retailing Summit in Chicago last month. NARM's Pamela Horovitz explains, "We organized this summit with two goals in mind: First, to give distributors and suppliers a better understanding of the retail point of view on the issues of the day and…
Old joke: "We lose money on every sale, but we make it up in volume." A similar concept seems to be at the heart of the free download phenomenon sweeping through the Internet music industry: give it away as a lo-rez MP3, and customers will come back to buy the CD.
The biggest independent label in the US has decided to do just that. Platinum Entertainment has announced that it will soon make its entire catalog available online for free downloading in MP3, Liquid Audio, and Microsoft formats. The tunes will be available on the company's new website, HeardOn.com.
Platinum's intention…
Embattled audio brand TAG McLaren Audio is showing more signs of life since hitting the ropes earlier this summer. After completing "a full strategic review of its participation in the audio market," the company had announced a re-focused effort to continue.
As part of that new effort, the company announced last week that Ball Marketing Group has now been formed to distribute home entertainment products, including those from the revived TMA. A company announcement states, "In light of the recently announced TMA strategic review, the brand's exclusive US distribution, sales, and marketing…
According to the latest statistics from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), overall consumer electronics sales for 2000 posted gains of 7% over 1999, reaching $8 billion. However, overall audio sales at the end of 2000 dropped as compared with November 1999, declining 5%, with $854 million in revenues for the month. The CEA says that sales to dealers of separate audio components also declined in November dipping around 4% as compared to the same period in 1999, but overall, sales of separate audio components have had a positive year rising 7% to $1.4 billion in revenue thus far.
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