Internet traffic doubles every 100 days, according to some statistics. This growth has been accompanied by an increase in the amount of online shopping---a phenomenon that has had a significant impact on retailers. Independent bookstores, for example, have been squeezed not only by the expansion of large-scale operations like Barnes & Noble, but also by the popularity of Internet discounters like Amazon.com and Borders.com. Online sales of recorded music by both record clubs and start-up resellers have put a dent in the bottom lines of many mass-market music stores---although not a…
A company unknown outside the broadcast industry is poised to become the next big player in radio. Entercom Communications Corp, based in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, has moved to the head of the pack in the race to buy 31 FM and 15 AM stations from Sinclair Broadcasting Corporation. The $824.5 million purchase is being financed in part by a public stock offering that Entercom floated last January.Another stock offering will help seal the deal, giving Entercom a total of 88 stations nationwide and making it the fifth-largest radio broadcaster in the US. Entercom has been aggressively…
The FM radio spectrum could soon get a lot more crowded, thanks to rules recently adopted by the Federal Communications Commission. New stations with broadcasting power of between 1W and 100W will be cropping up soon in communities all over the country, provided they don't interfere with existing stations, and provided they remain strictly noncommercial.The move to empower community radio has been an ongoing controversy at the agency, which for several years has been fighting radio "pirates" in big cities and small towns. The availability of inexpensive audio and broadcasting equipment…
There's no question that restricted-use or copy-protected CDs are finding their way onto retailer shelves and into unsuspecting consumer hands—often with frustrating results. What is in doubt in many consumers' minds is how to recognize a restricted-use disc before purchase.The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) and the Global Entertainment Retail Alliance (GERA) have now announced their support for guidelines for labeling of copy-controlled discs as released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). NARM has been outspoken in the past,…
On April 14, Krell Industries invited the New York–based audio press to its first-ever American demonstration of its Evolution electronics separates, at Sound By Singer. In a surprise move, the company also debuted a complete "re-imagining" of its flagship loudspeaker, the LAT-1: the $55,000/pair LAT-1000. "We set out to improve the LAT-1," Krell CEO Dan D’Agostino said, "and in the end, probably the only parts we retained from the original design were the top and bottom panels. The LAT-1000 is essentially a completely new design—although it does retain the same footprint as the LAT-1, since…
Universal Music Group (UMG) may go on the auction block to help bail out debt-ridden Vivendi Universal. On March 6, Vivendi announced a record loss of $25.4 billion (€23.3 billion) for the 2002 fiscal year. The biggest loss in French corporate history followed a staggering $14.9 billion (€13.6 billion) loss for 2001. The major part—$20.2 billion (€18.4 billion)—of the loss was in write-downs of acquired businesses, including $7.1 billion (€6.5 billion) for Vivendi Universal Entertainment, $5.8 billion (€5.3 billion) for Universal Music Group (UMG), and $5.9 billion (€5.4 billion) for…
The object of the audio game, as Stereophile founder J. Gordon Holt put it, is "to re-create original acoustic events as accurately as possible." That goal has driven engineers to extraordinary lengths, improving every link in the recording and playback chain. Most such improvements are incremental, but their cumulative effect is the sometimes astounding level of sonic realism available today from even moderately priced equipment.But rarely does a truly new concept pop up on audio's radar screen. A new tweeter material or power-supply capacitor isn't earthshaking news, and incremental…
We've reported many times on the mass lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against individuals or institutions that it alleges are illegally participating in peer-to-peer file-sharing activities, so we felt it only fair to report on a lawsuit where the trade group is being sued. Actually, the RIAA's attorneys are being sued by James and Angela Nelson, who were themselves the target of Motown v. Nelson, which alleged that the couple had allowed an employee of Ms. Nelson's home-run daycare center to access P2P websites from their computer.The Nelsons were…
The music industry's anti-piracy war took a new turn August 16, when a coalition of major record labels filed suit against several large Internet service providers in the hope of blocking access to an offshore free music site.The copyright infringement suit filed in Manhattan federal court seeks an injunction that would require defendants AT&T Broadband Corporation, Cable & Wireless USA, Sprint Corporation, Advanced Network Services, and UUNET Technologies to prevent their subscribers from logging onto Listen4ever.com, a site based in mainland China that purportedly runs servers…
Last week, Primedia announced the next in a series of editorial upgrades to its Home Technology & Photography specialty group. The group is redesigning its Stereophile Guide to Home Theater magazine to become Stereophile Ultimate AV (new URL: www.ultimateavmag.com) starting with the June 2004 issue. Hitting newsstands May 11, the redesigned magazine will feature 16 pages of new and expanded editorial content for high-end audio/video enthusiasts, more advertisers, and an enhanced consumer-friendly design.The upgrade to Stereophile Ultimate AV comes on the heels of recent Primedia…