Tweeter chairman George Schultze, who is also principal of Schultze Asset Management, told TWICE that the layoffs were "absolutely necessary" to keep corporate overhead from "strangling the stores." Schultze also said that all departments were…
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It has been a fraught week for Tweeter Newco LLC, the A/V specialty chain acquired by Shultze Asset Management in July. On August 17, the company trimmed its corporate staff by "half," approximately 80 staffers at the home office in Canton, MA. It was the second corporate re-structuring since January, when 20% of the corporate staff was laid off.
Digital Music Association (DiMA) and Sound Exchange (SX) announced on August 23 that they had reached an agreement to "cap the Internet radio '$500 per channel minimum royalty' at $50,000 per service, signaling the start of productive negotiations and bringing resolutions to three important music industry issues," according to DiMA's press release.
Within the next six months, webcasters will be required to provide "full census reporting" (all songs played on all channels, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year), which, SX claims, is essential for fair compensation for artists and labels.…
On August 31, Apple announced that the iTunes store would stop selling NBC television episodes for the upcoming season. The press release stated: "The move follows NBC's decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. ABC, CBS, Fox and The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode."
It went on, "…
The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) Expo 2007 officially opens its exhibition halls Thursday September 6, and Stereophile's Kal Rubinson and Wes Phillips will be there to report the highs, the lows, the in-betweens—everything, in fact, except the bunions.
Check in daily for their reports. There's bound to be some two-channel news there somewhere. (Actually, their in-boxes have been stuffed with embargoed press releases for weeks, so they know where to find the good stuff.)
If at all possible, Wes and Kal will try to photograph industry luminaries…
On August 28, Jon Iverson forwarded an AP article about Christian Reiter, who claims to have diagnosed Beethoven's lengthy decline and eventual death as lead poisoning caused by a salve laced with lead administered by the composer's doctor.
"Worth a news story?" JI asked. I wasn't convinced—after all, I'd read Beethoven's 1827 autopsy report by Dr. Johann Wagner and knew he'd died from massive organ failure caused by . . . . Well, I couldn't remember. So, I pulled out The Beethoven Companion by Thomas K. Scherman and Louis Biancolli and looked up Dr. Wagner's autopsy report.
In…
Luciano Pavarotti interrupted the extended farewell tour he'd begun in 2004 to undergo cancer surgery last July in a New York City hospital. Though he often proclaimed intentions to resume touring, he was forced to curtail further public appearances. After a recent hospitalization for a high fever, he was released on August 25 to spend his remaining days at home. His second wife, sister, four daughters, nephews, and close relatives and friends were all at his side in Modena September 6 as he died.
Pavarotti was born in Modena on October 12, 1935. While his mother labored in a cigar…
Naxos is making money from classical music. In the record industry, which seems to daily lament declining sales, piracy, and the demise of bricks-and-mortar retailers, that's news in itself. But when the world's largest independent classical-music company is able to turn a tidy profit while catering to the needs of audiophiles, that's cause for rejoicing.
The good news—no, the great news—is that Naxos's 20th anniversary brings the availability of some Naxos titles on MusicGiants.com in WMA lossless format. As part of its collection of Super HD 5.1-channel surround-sound downloads, the…
Thomas P. Colangelo, designer of some of the best regarded solid-state components of the last three decades, died in a single-car collision on September 5.
Colangelo started his career in audio designing circuitry for Rudy Bozak. He joined Mark Levinson Audio Systems in 1976, becoming MLAS's chief design engineer and designing many components that are credited as significant in re-establishing American hi-fi's world stature. Among them were the pivotal Levinson models ML-1 through ML-12—many of them co-designed with Paul Jayson.
When Mark Levinson left MLAS and founded Cello,…
When I saw Linn's Klimax DS at CEDIA, I was impressed by the company's claim that it sounded "better than a CD12," the marque's (now discontinued) flagship CD player for many years. Quite a claim, I thought, but I wasn't able to make it to a nearby hotel and actually hear the DS in action.
So I did the next best thing and called Linn's founder and once-again managing director Ivor Tiefenbrun to fill in the missing details. It turned out there were many, starting with my complete misunderstanding of what a "digital player" was. My first question: "What disc formats does it play?"
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The Goldman Sachs Capital Partners/Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. $8 billion buyout of Harman International Industries, Inc. announced last April may not go through, according to "two people familiar with the matter," Bloomberg.com reported September 21.
Harman agreed to be acquired for $120 per share last April, a price Bloomberg.com estimated as a 17% increase over its traded value at the time. Since then, the market has soured on high-yield debt and there have been predictions of a flat—not to say slowing—US market. To make matters worse, Harman posted a June quarter operating…