Next up is Larry Greenhill's review, from September 1999, of the…
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Want to start an audio newsgroup fire-fight? Just put the three letters "ABX" in the subject line of your post, sit back, and watch the pros take over. Read where it all started 15 years ago in "The Highs & Lows of Double-Blind Testing," which John Atkinson has compiled from the years 1985 and 1986, when an argumentative thread ran through Stereophile's pages discussing the benefits (or lack of) of double-blind testing methods in audio component reviewing—all triggered by J. Gordon Holt's review of the ABX Comparator.
Although some record labels have scaled back plans to add restricted-use technology to all CD releases, efforts continue to find the protection formula that consumers, and in particular record labels, will accept.
Latest to announce a new alliance in an effort to promote its copy-control system is SunnComm, which has formed a strategic partnership with DCA, a manufacturer of optical disc signal-processing technologies used by CD pressing plants. SunnComm says that the new partnership will enable an "expeditious worldwide rollout" of SunnComm's latest restricted-use CD system, known as…
In a decision delivered in late December, China's top court has elevated intellectual property theft from misdemeanor status to felony. The move may be a sea change for the giant Asian nation, where piracy has long been a way of life.
The 17-part ruling by the Supreme People's Court in Beijing lowers the monetary threshold for piracy convictions, increases fines and potential jail terms, and makes willful profiteering from piracy a major offense. The move came in response to pressure from trading partners, following China's acceptance into the World Trade Organization three years ago.…
Napster may rise from the dead and live again, this time as a commercial venture.
That's the intention behind the $40 million acquisition of subscription online music service pressplay by Santa Clara, CA–based Roxio, Inc., announced Monday, May 19. Spurred by the initial success of Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, Roxio acquired pressplay from backers Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group (UMG) for approximately $12.5 million in cash and 3.9 million shares of Roxio stock. Best known for its "Easy CD Creator" CD-burning software, Roxio has an installed base of about 100…
Teresa Sterne, a pioneer in the production of classical music recordings and a visionary marketer of classical and ethnomusicological recordings, died December 10, 2000 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gerhrig's disease). She was 73.
Ms. Sterne was best known for directing Nonesuch Records from 1965 through 1979. During her tenure there, she took a tiny budget label and grew it into one of the most diverse and exciting companies in the record business.
Ms. Sterne championed musical genres neglected by the major American labels. Under her direction, Nonesuch released many…
The music industry may be going the way of the dinosaur, but if so, it's going to go down with its army of lawyers fighting all the way to the bitter end.
On Wednesday, August 25, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) launched 744 new lawsuits against alleged but unidentified copyright violators in nine states, people that the industry believes used file-sharing services to supply or acquire music files, an average of 800 songs each. It was the largest number of lawsuits the trade group has filed in a single day, and brings the total number of lawsuits filed to 4680 since the…
According to a recent report released by the International Recording Media Association (IRMA), with the gradual introduction of players for the developing DVD-Audio format finally taking place, the software replication industry can expect an "accelerated growth rate" for DVD-A titles around the world in the next two years.
The year 2000 has seen a rather soft launch for the new DVD-A format, and with this in mind, IRMA's Charles Van Horn adds that "the year 2001 will be the most likely introduction year, as replicators plan to have available some 40 million units for the new DVD-A players…
Circuit City turnaround: After a long slump, the Richmond, VA–based retail chain is finally on an upswing. The company reported a 7% increase in sales for the first fiscal quarter, ended May 31—a total of $2.1 billion. Same-store sales rose 6.4%. The total included $21.5 million in revenue from InterTan, a group of Canadian stores acquired by Circuit City on May 12. Circuit City's strongest product categories were flat-panel TVs, digital cameras, computer gear, and portable audio players.
Ultimate still down: The Denver-based upscale retailer is still in the doldrums, reporting a net loss…
Convinced that your favorite music would have sounded even better if you'd been the mixing engineer? UmixIt Technologies is going to let you put your money where your mouth is.
How does that work? UmixIt CDs (or DVDs) contain a recording's original audio tracks, an 8-track version of the material, a 16-track version, and a selection of royalty-free loops formatted for ACID. The discs also contain the Cakewalk Media Mixer application. Slip the disc into your computer's disc drive and it will prompt you to install the song(s) and the application. The 8-track version of the recorded material…
Stereophile writers and editors were saddened to learn of the June 27 death of colleague Timothy White, editor-in-chief of Billboard magazine. White collapsed of an apparent heart attack in an elevator at Billboard's New York offices and died shortly thereafter at St. Vincent's Hospital. He was 50.
White had edited the venerable music industry publication for the past 11 years, having been hired by publisher Howard Lander "to better serve the music industry as it began a journey through a decade of enormous change." A 1972 graduate of Fordham University, White honed his journalistic…