On August 1, the US District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania ruled against the broadcasters' challenge to a US Copyright Office requirement, enacted late last year, that they pay the same fees to record labels as other webcasters do. The NAB, whose members include radio and television stations, had argued that the Copyright Office acted outside its jurisdiction in making the ruling. Most radio stations now offer Internet feeds of their programming; many…
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The National Association of Broadcasters has lost a round in its fight to avoid paying royalties for music streamed over the Internet.
J. Gordon Holt founded Stereophile in the fall of 1962 in order to promote the idea that the optimal way to judge audio components was to do what end users did: listen to them. Since then, Gordon has had an unbroken relationship with Stereophile, through its sale to Larry Archibald in 1982, my coming on board as editor in 1986, the sale of the magazine to Petersen Publishing in 1998, and the subsequent sale of Petersen to Emap in 1999. Through all this time he has been listed on the magazine's masthead as "Founder & Chief Tester." (A fascinating interview with Gordon, conducted by his…
What happens to your old audio components? We're asking Stereophile readers that very question this week, but the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has already studied the habits of general consumers and found that most unwanted consumer electronics go to secondary users, not into America's waste stream.
The CEA reports that the biggest beneficiaries of hand-me-down products that were not trashed were charities (34%), friends (28%), and family members (26%). According to the trade organization, the research also shows that, while most consumers find alternatives to trashing electronics…
Last week we posted reviews of the Linn Sondek CD12 CD player and the Linn AV 51 system. This week we add a review of the Linn Linto phono preamplifier, as well as John Atkinson's report on the Revel Ultima Gem loudspeaker & Ultima Sub-15 subwoofer, and Tom Norton's review of the complete Revel Home Theater speaker system.
Stereophile has just released its first jazz CD, Rendezvous, recorded at Chad Kassem's Blue Heaven Studios. In Two Days in August: Stereophile's First Jazz Recording, John Atkinson, Wes Phillips, and featured musician/composer Jerome Harris reveal what took place…
Paul Bolin says that the Balanced Audio Technology VK-51SE line preamplifier "made a profound impression on me at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show." Once in his very own listening lair, did the BAT continue to impress? PB tells all.
Next, Lonnie Brownell reviews the Arcam FMJ A22 integrated amplifier to determine if metal faceplates do, in fact, make a difference. LB asks, "For $400 more than what you'd pay for an Alpha 10, you get a new faceplate?" "Actually," he adds, "there's a bit more to it."
More than just a pretty face? Chip Stern fires up the Manley Labs Stingray integrated…
During the past year, hardly a day has gone by without headlines announcing the latest twist in the fate of embattled free music service Napster.com. Lost in the hysteria was Napster's tiny rival Emusic.com, a three-year-old online music venture that always charged its subscribers for downloading tunes, and always paid the copyright holders. For news appeal, Emusic's paltry 10,000 subscribers and languishing stock price didn't compare to Napster's reported 75 million users and major league court battles.
As is too rarely the case, honesty proved to be the best policy. On April 5, French…
Russia has a new organization that will promote a legitimate music industry and fight industrial piracy, according to mid-May reports from the International Federation of Phonographic Industries.
Representing approximately 70% of the Russian music industry, the National Federation of Phonogram Producers(NFPP) has officially joined the IFPI, comprising 1500 member record companies from more than 70 countries. The two organizations held their first joint meetings in Moscow on May 14, in which they vowed to fight against piracy on many fronts, including campaigning for copyright enforcement…
In the perfect digital future, audiophiles would be able to drink from the purest of high-resolution audio datastreams with no worry that someone upstream had polluted the current. But in the real world, content providers and hardware manufacturers increasingly conspire to dirty the flow a little and limit unauthorized consumption by controlling the technology needed to filter out their toxic additives.
One of the more controversial additives, "watermarking," is a process whereby data that defines permissions for a digital music track is mixed in with the music. Digital audio playback…
Several news sources reported Saturday, January 22, that Time Warner is close to completing a merger with EMI Recorded Music. The combined company will be worth an estimated $20 billion, making it the world's second-largest music conglomerate, exceeded in size and scope only by Seagram Ltd.'s Universal Music. News of the deal came less than a week after the announcement of an impending merger between America Online, the world’s largest Internet service provider, with Time Warner, one of the world's largest media conglomerates.
The deal has been in negotiation for a long time, preceding…
If you own a Sonic Frontiers product, rest assured that parts and service will be available for it well into the foreseeable future. Sonic Frontiers International---the front company created by Paradigm after it acquired the apparently struggling maker of high-end amplifiers, CD players, disc transports, and DACs at the end of August---will honor all valid SF warranties, and will support the existing network of dealers and distributors, according to an announcement made two months ago.
If you are owed money by Sonic Frontiers, get in line. You may have to wait a very long time for payment…