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Doing the Format Shuffle

Depending on who you talk to, so far in the US, DualDisc has either been a success (according to the record labels) or a stumble (according to the press and manufacturers). Now Europe gets a chance to see what the fuss is all about.

During a press event at Dolby's London offices last week, 5.1 Entertainment Group's John Trickett announced the European launch of the CD/DVD hybrid, DualDisc. According to 5.1, that this announcement marks the first ever release of DualDisc outside of the United States.

The DualDisc was first tested in several US markets in February of 2004 and then…

Added to the Archives This Week

It helps to know the technical basics when building the ultimate audio system. J. Gordon Holt, pointing out that "knowledge is power," would like to see thousands of knowledgeable audiophiles girdling the planet, and so has created an excellent primer on audio basics called A is for Ampere.

Also this week, we've added a piece detailing the struggle to get the test bench to replicate real-world experience: John Atkinson's explorations of the ins and outs of Real-Life Measurements, including the circuit diagram of the dummy loudspeaker featured in Stereophile amplifier reviews. Next, JA…

Music Promotes Brain Growth

Want your kids to grow up smarter? Have them study music. Want to hold off the mental ravages of old age? Listen to music. Want to get high (legally), feel ecstatic, make your pain disappear? Music is the cure for what ails you.

These are some of the conclusions recently reached by researchers at Dartmouth College and at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Dartmouth music psychologist Petr Janata led a team of scientists who studied the neural activity of people listening to music and determined that music prompts greater interconnectivity between the brain's two hemispheres and between…

Music Notes

Bronfmans bid Vivendi adieu: On Wednesday, December 3, Edgar M. Bronfman and his son Edgar Bronfman, Jr. officially resigned from Vivendi Universal's board of directors. The move followed an announcement by Time Warner that it would accept a $2.6 billion offer for its Warner Music Group (WMG) from an investment group led by the younger Bronfman.

Vivendi is still the corporate parent of Universal Music Group (UMG). Edgar Bronfman, Jr.'s continued position there would have been perceived as a conflict of interest in pursuing his new interest in Warner Music. Both UMG and WMG are among the…

Orrin Hatch <I>vs</I> Big Radio

Only a month after being scrutinized by the Senate Commerce Committee, Clear Channel Communications may have to explain itself to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On Friday, February 21, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee told members of the recording industry that he plans to launch an investigation into alleged "payola-like practices" by big radio groups that also own concert venues. Clear Channel, the nation's number one radio broadcaster with over 1200 stations, also owns Clear Channel Entertainment, the number one concert promoter. Some recording artists have said that the…

Picture Improves for MP3.com with Pending Licensing Agreement

Widely assumed to be at death's door, streaming-audio site MP3.com may be on the rebound after reaching a preliminary agreement October 19 to license more than one million songs from the National Music Publishers' Association, Inc. (NMPA) and the organization's primary subsidiary, the Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA). Individual music publishers represented by the Fox Agency must approve the agreement before it can take effect.

San Diego–based MP3.com built a massive network of subscribers through a simple service that allowed them to upload tracks from favorite CDs onto central server…

More High End Audio From CES

Several rooms at the Alexis Park featured SACD front ends, but as we moved around the floor of the main LV Convention Center, we heard and saw a lot more about DVD-Audio than SACD. Denon showed their DVD-3300 DVD-A/V player, which began shipping a few months back for $1199. No new models were on the floor, but the Denon rep suggested that something new will be appearing later this year. Pioneer was promising a universal DVD-A/V/SACD/CD machine in the future, and Yamaha was also showing a new DVD-Audio machine, the DVDS1200, in their booth.

Panasonic had the most aggressive DVD-Audio…

Music Publishers Sue Bertelsmann

In October 2000, during Napster's prolonged courtroom agony, Bertelsmann AG alienated fellow music industry plaintiffs by investing $50 million in a strategic partnership with the file-sharing upstart. At the time, Bertelsmann hoped to leverage Napster's technical expertise and fame to give Bertelsmann Music Group the inside track with Internet music distribution.

That strategy may now be backfiring in Bertelsmann's face. Napster is gone and forgotten, and the German media conglomerate is defending itself in a $17 billion copyright infringement suit brought by a group of songwriters and…

CDKnet Inks Deal with Atlantic Records

Last Friday, October 23, Garden City, NY---based CDKnet announced that Atlantic Recording Corporation had signed a licensing agreement to use the company’s CDT technology for enhancing the content of its music CDs. CDKnet’s audio and video streaming technology embeds links on music CDs to sites on the World Wide Web, such as Atlantic’s own Metrotainment site. The first musical release under this agreement will be "A Random Act of Senseless Kindness," a single by South SixtyFive, a new group on the Atlantic label.

Eventually, millions of customers will be accommodated by CDKnet’s high-…

www.youbelongtousforlife.com

Imagine yourself a recording artist just signed to a contract with one of Sony Music's record labels. You put out a couple of albums and start a website using your own name (say, for example, www.bobdylan.com). But the music wind starts blowing in a different direction, your contract comes up for renewal, and, either through your manager's insistence or that of one of Sony's big cheeses, you decide to leave the label and sign with someone else.

There's just one problem: Your contract says you can't take your website with you. Sony owns it for the rest of your life (and, probably, beyond…