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Platinum Entertainment Gives It Away Online

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…

TMA US Distribution Set

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…

Audio Sales Roller Coaster For 2001?

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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Added to the Archives This Week

Back in 1985, J. Gordon Holt wrote: "It seems, these days, that many of us audiophiles have become so preoccupied with the minutiae of sound reproduction that we haven't even noticed that it doesn't sound like music any more." He was talking about the obsession with soundstaging and detail at the expense of musical accuracy. In "Getting the Notes Right (Midrange Madness)," he renders his lesson in classic JGH style, observing that "I have played on this old saw in these pages for so many years that it has turned into a dead sawhorse, but somehow the message never seems to get through.…

Added to the Archives This Week

As Paul Messenger states in his 2000 review of the Linn Arkiv B phono cartridge, "This Stereophile review is long overdue. Furthermore, this review addresses a complaint often directed against reviews and reviewers: that we rarely spend enough time with a component to gain a properly balanced, long-term perspective."

Next we have David Lander's interview from the December 2003 issue, Dan D'Agostino of Krell: Power Is As Power Does. Lander probes D'Agostino on how he went from tinkering with 78rpm disc cutters to state-of-the-art audiophile products.

"Bass management? We don't need no…

The Music Industry's Explosive Decompression

This time last year the music industry was ready to celebrate. Compact disc sales were up for the first time in years, peer-to-peer file-sharing networks were reeling from lawsuits, ringtone sales were proving unexpectedly profitable, and legitimate (paid-for, that is) downloads were rising. But this year, Jim Urie, president of Universal Music Group, told The Wall Street Journal that Christmas 2005 was "a bleak holiday season at the end of a bleak year."

Why? Because CD sales for 2005 were down nearly 8% compared with 2004. For some outlets, the numbers were even worse—Virgin Megastores…

Polk Announces Disposition of Eosone and Genesis Interests

Back in January of this year, we reported that loudspeaker manufacturer Polk Audio had purchased an interest in Genesis Technologies, a loudspeaker and digital electronics manufacturer, with an option to buy the company in three years. Last week, however, Polk announced that it has decided to pass the company on to new investors.

Polk stated that they have "reached an agreement in principle with The Providers, Inc. (TPI) of Vail, Colorado and certain of its affiliates to dispose of Polk's registered trademark 'Eosone' along with certain inventories, as well as Polk's entire holdings of…

HD-Audio Heats Up

What initially took form in college dorm rooms and computer geeks' homes only a few short years back looks ready to break into the mainstream audio market this year. Hard-disk–based audio systems are becoming more common as both consumer electronics and computer manufacturers rush to bring products to market.

The latest manufacturer to join the growing HD-audio ranks is Marantz, which, last week, announced its intention to expand into the audio server market with an agreement to produce a hard-disk–based music server in partnership with Imerge. Imerge has been marketing its own HD-audio…

DVD-Audio Forum Addresses Questions about New Format

On November 16, Technics and Panasonic presented their DVD-Audio Q&A Forum to answer questions online about the new high-end audio format, players, and software. After introductions and an opening orientation about DVD-Audio, the first "questions" appeared, canned, as the panelists read "answers" from their notes. Still, some interesting information came to light.

Within minutes of beginning the Forum, Alberto Reggiani of Technics broached the subject of when the first players will appear, although his predictions were frustratingly vague: "We are now in the beginning of what we call…

Added to the Archives This Week

Chip Stern notes that, "as often as not, it ain't the heat—it's the stupidity. When confronted by the smattering of self-referential dilettantes, acrimonious Internut wannabes, and obsessive-compulsive types who suck the air out of our aural fun-house, I find myself overcome with the desire to program my phaser for Clip." And fire away he does in "Snobs, Slobs, & Marley's Ghost," added to the Archives this week.

In "Fine Tunes" #25, Jonathan Scull gets caught up with notes from several readers about cost-effective outlets, preventing a shocking experience, and record shelves.

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