RealNetworks will acquire Xing in exchange for common stock in RealNetworks with a maximum value of $75 million. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 1999, with RealNetworks…
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Last week, RealNetworks announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Xing Technology, a developer and provider of MP3 software. Xing has been developing standards-based digital audio and video encoding and decoding technology since 1990, but eventually ran into trouble competing with other Internet-audio startups such as RealNetworks and Liquid Audio.
Chad Kassem is a true audio renaissance man. For years he has headed Acoustic Sounds, supplier of select recorded musical treasures from a variety of audiophile and specialty labels. Kassem also has his own label, Analogue Productions, which produces reissues, revivals, and a series of original recordings under the label APO Records.
It is his love of traditional blues that drives APO's roster. It also inspired Kassem to purchase an old church in Salina, Kansas and get into the recording studio business, back in 1996. Six years and nearly $1 million of renovations and equipment…
The music goes round and round: An investment group led by former Universal Music chief Edgar Bronfman, Jr. is in the lead to acquire Warner Music Group (WMG) and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing from corporate parent Time Warner, according to reports issued the third week of November. Bronfman's group—a consortium of banks and venture capital firms—has offered $2.8 billion for Time Warner's musical properties, possibly forcing prior suitor EMI Group PLC to drop out of the bidding. On Thursday, November 20, EMI chairman Eric Nicoll told reporters that Time Warner had informed his company of "…
In the age before recordings, music was a service business. Composers wrote for their patrons, and musicians performed for money. In the days since Edison's inventions, music has become a commodity business in which record companies stockpile large inventories and attempt to move them into the market of music lovers through a dense network of distributors and retailers. For established artists, the service aspect of music---playing for pay---now exists primarily to support the commodity business. For developing artists, public performance is a form of self-promotion to aid the search for…
Two elements that keep the audio business interesting are the new companies and technologies arriving almost every week (see also BW's story). Some stick around for years, while others fade away between hi-fi shows. But amid the incessant change are a handful of characters who stay with it, continually evolving with the industry and reinventing themselves with each twist and turn.
Mark Schifter has been here since his early days in retail, through the rise and fall of Audio Alchemy, and then on to Genesis Technologies. Recently, rumors have circulated about a new venture he was about to…
The DVD-Audio format's been around for a couple of years, but simultaneous DVD-A and CD releases of new music have been few and far between. Warner Brothers is hoping to improve on that record with the upcoming album from Fleetwood Mac, Say You Will.
A few years ago, when DVD-Video was just getting started, Warner Home Video's Warren Lieberfarb stressed the importance of "Day and Date" release schedules. Lieberfarb's idea was that if the home video industry was serious about the then new DVD-V format, it shouldn't make consumers wait for the DVD-V release after the video tape version of a…
As expected, the Recording Industry Association of America held a press conference last week to announce the formation of the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), with which they hope to develop Internet downloading technologies for music. The move comes after a rough year for the music business, which has seen thousands of unauthorized websites offer copyrighted material for free using the MP3 audio format.
Joining technology firms including AOL, Sony, and Microsoft are several major labels, including BMG Entertainment, EMI Recorded Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music…
Loudspeaker manufacturer B&W has been extremely aggressive in the past two years in reining in abuses of its dealer agreements. Last year, the company cut off many dealers and stocking distributors in an attempt to tighten control over its distribution. Now, as a result of a program announced November 22 by KnowledgeLINK, many B&W dealers will be able to take sales online in complete compliance with their dealer agreements. Rotel dealers are also participating.
Denver-based Listen Up is one of the first to sign on with the "affiliate" program with GetPlugged.com, an electronics…
Retailing can be a rough ride even in the best of times. In the current climate, it’s especially hard for those trying to make a go of it with recorded music.
In early January, SoundScan reported an 8.7% drop in CD sales for 2002, compared with the previous year. (Other sources estimated the slide at as much as 11%.) The sales tracking organization stated that the decline was the sharpest, year-to-year, since the introduction of its index 11 years ago. The decline was especially painful for music labels and retailers, given that sales dropped by a similar amount in 2001 compared to 2000…
Digital jitter was a lively topic in the mid-'90s, and the Genesis Technologies Digital Lens was created to tame it. Robert Harley reviews the product and explains why the Lens became an essential part of his system at the time. JA adds comments.
From February 1999, John Atkinson examines the pluses and minuses of the groundbreaking Musical Fidelity X-24K D/A processor. The X-24K was one of the first outboard converters to offer 96kHz at 24 bits and JA hooks it up to a DVD transport and pricks up his ears.
From the April 2003 issue, Michael Fremer compares speaker cables and…