search
Artists' audit rights: The California Assembly is scheduled to vote Tuesday, June 15 on a revised bill that would give recording artists the right to audit companies to ensure proper royalty payments. The bill would also give them the right to hire auditors on a contingency fee basis, and to initiate group audits, a provision that could make audits a class action issue. The proposed legislation is the result of talks between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), and several state legislators, in particular State…
During the first week of February, major record labels quietly launched small-scale test marketing of a new hybrid disc that combines a standard CD on one side with a DVD on the other.
The labels are testing consumer acceptance of the format with about a dozen music titles placed in record stores in Seattle and Boston. Priced at $18.99 each—more than most CDs but less than most DVDs—the aptly-named "DualDiscs" feature standard Red Book 44.1kHz/16-bit two-channel audio on the CD side and a variety of DVD content on the other, including "graphics, song lyrics, web links, photos, DVD-video,…
Ibrahim Ferrer, one of the best-known practitioners of the Cuban vocal music known as son, died in Havana on August 6 of multiple organ failure. He had returned, ill, from a European tour several days previously, and then been hospitalized.
Ferrer was born at a dance in a Santiago social club in 1927, when his mother unexpectedly went into early labor. He began singing professionally at 14. In the 1950s, he was a popular singer, fronting several well-known Cuban bands, such as that of Benny More and Orquestra de Chepin. After the Revolution, however, traditional Cuban music was not promoted…
In an effort to make computers more useful as audio systems, MusicMatch and Xing Technology recently announced MusicMatch Jukebox, a digital audio management software program for the consumer market.
According to the companies, MusicMatch Jukebox ($29.99) allows users to build collections of "CD-quality" digital music on their PCs, consisting of music downloaded over the Internet and tracks recorded from music CDs. Customers can use the program to organize the files into a digital audio database on their PC, and use it to create customized play lists. The Jukebox music can be played…
Despite the best efforts of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to extend an unprecedented economic boom, the nation's economy is slowing. The slowdown is causing negative repercussions in many sectors—including the music retailing business and consumer electronics manufacturing.
Almost coincident with inventory and workforce cutbacks initiated by Amazon.com, the Internet's most prominent sales site, music retailer CDnow announced that it will eliminate 55 jobs in its advertising sales force, a 12% reduction. The belt-tightening is part of a general restructuring by the music…
Recorded music was a $14.3 billion business in the United States last year, according to the newly published 2000 Consumer Profile from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Released March 13, the report details who music buyers are, what they are buying, and how much they are spending.
Rock still dominates the market, according to the report, with more than 25% of music buyers identifying themselves as rock fans. The genre has long been the industry's top seller, but the rap/hip hop genre has made big gains recently, overtaking Country music as second in popularity. A…
One argument for the record industry's disappointing sales last year is a combination of high prices for official CD releases coupled with cheap prices for computer-based CD recorders and CD-R blanks. It doesn't look like retail CD prices will be coming down anytime soon, but luckily for the music business, CD-R prices are going up.
Memorex, one of the largest suppliers of CD-R blank media to the retail market, revealed last week a number of reasons that it says are responsible for inevitable CD-R price increases expected later in 2001. Along with the traditional excuses, such as…
Disc piracy is a profitable but increasingly risky business, with bootlegging-related shootings and armed robberies on the rise. Modern pirates have begun to imitate their sea-going ancestors, using force to acquire assets and territory.
On Tuesday, November 20, police in New York City reported the death of Guinean immigrant Ablia Diallo, who was killed in a robbery of a Manhattan office filled with counterfeit CDs and DVDs, including copies of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and 8 Mile, two recently-released commercial films.
The incident hasn't been linked to the July…
We live in a world of strife. Among the many organizations working to change this regrettable fact are the Committee of 100 for Tibet (C100) and the Dalai Lama Foundation (DLF), which together are curating and producing a large-scale art exhibition that will have its official debut at UCLA's Fowler Museum in June 2006. A preview show of The Missing Peace: The Dalai Lama Portrait Project will take place at the Cantor Center for Arts at Stanford University in September 2005, to coincide with a visit to that institution by the Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.
After…
The 2nd Annual Southern California Hi-Fi Swap takes place on Sunday, February 22, 9am-1pm, at the Sequoia Athletic Club and Conference Center, 7530 Orangethorpe Avenue in Buena Park, one block north of Knotts Berry Farm and the 91 freeway on the corner of Beach and Orangethorpe.
Lots of vintage tube gear and tubes, high-end, etc. Free drawing for a pair of $250 item courtesy of Tek Line. Dr. Bruce Edgar will demo his 35Hz subwoofer horn, round horn, and TAD driver, and 75Hz midbass horn, on single-ended tube gear from Electra Print.
There will also be a major record/CD show next…