This is not the first time a defendant in a file-sharing lawsuit has taken that tack—it was a central argument in the…
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Jammie Thomas Appeal: Just weeks after having been found liable for $220,000 in damages for allegedly offering 24 music tracks on her KaZaa account, Jammie Thomas has filed a notice of remittitur with the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, asking the judge to slash the jury's damage award, contending that she should receive a retrial that assesses the damages based on the actual damages suffered by the labels resulting from her making the files available.
Jazz fans rejoice! Not only is Music Matters releasing new 45rpm double LP reissues of classic Blue Note titles, but so is Analogue Productions.
Following the model of Analogue Productions' superb Fantasy 45 reissues, the new Blue Notes will be remastered from the original master tapes by Kevin Grey and Steve Hoffman and cut at 45rpm on two 180gm virgin vinyl discs. "Why mess with success?" asked Chad Kassem.
Some enthusiasts will be surprised by AP's decision to master the stereo version of the Blue Note sessions. Kassem was animated on this subject: "The truth is, every Rudy Van…
When Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Goldman Sachs decided to call off their projected $8 billion takeover of Harman International Industries, Inc., industry experts predicted the audio company would take the two financial firms to court, if not to gain the $225 million termination fee, to force them to abide by their material adverse effect statement and complete the transaction.
However, other analysts predicted that the era of bloated leveraged buyouts might be over, citing the pullout of J. C. Flowers, J.P. Morgan, and Bank of America from their proposed $25 billion takeover of…
A consortium of media and Internet companies announced a set of guidelines to protect copyrights online on October 19. Among the group, which has been negotiating for nine months, were Walt Disney Co.; Microsoft; NBC Universal; Viacom, Inc.; CBS Corp.; News Corp.'s MySpace and Fox constituents; Veoh Networks, Inc.; and Dailymotion S.A. Noticeable for its absence was Google, including YouTube, which has recently been sued for $1 billion for infringement by Viacom.
The group pledged not to pursue Internet companies that posted material if they adhered to a set of rules, which include…
The invitation looked intriguing: "We are happy to welcome you to The Netherlands in September for the offical introduction of the Siltech Pantheon Loudspeaker." Siltech introducing a loudspeaker? I was well familiar with the Dutch company, celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, as a cable manufacturer. Indeed, some of the first high-end cables I had found to sound better than what I had been used to were Siltechs, back in the mid-1980s. Paul Bolin had been impressed by his auditioning of more recent G5 models in 2004. And Siltech's founder, Edwin van der Kley, is married to the…
This last week has generated more mainstream coverage of the vinyl world than we've seen in, say, the last 20 years.
What caught people's attention was an essay by Wired's Elliot Van Buskirk, "Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD's Coffin", which stated that pressing plants, distributors, and marketing mavens are all touting booming business in LPs—RTI's Don MacInnes said RTI's business was up 25% over 2006.
Van Buskirk cited a trend among consumers to use MP3s for portability and LPs for sound. He also pointed out that, although CD theoretically has wider dynamic range (he said it, I…
When we last heard from NBC Universal's CEO Jeff Zucker, he'd refused to renew the network's yearly contract with Apple's iTunes Store, leading Apple to immediately pull NBC shows from the store rather than have them yanked midseason. In addition, Apple managed to control the story so that NBC came off looking clueless and greedy. You'd think Zucker would have learned to keep his mouth shut from that media drubbing.
You'd be wrong.
On October 29, Variety quoted from a Zucker/Ken Auletta interview at a Syracuse University benefit. Zucker claimed NBC U wanted to "explore" a new…
Olive Media Products, manufacturers of audiophile-quality Olive music servers, has partnered with MusicGiants, the leading site for CD-quality music downloads. Olive's well-received Opus line of digital players now allows users to download, store, manage, and play large collections of CD-quality music directly from MusicGiants without needing to buy or rip CDs, select track by track, or use a computer. (You can find John Atkinson's positive review of the Olive Symphony here.)
MusicGiants' pre-selected, "ready to enjoy" music libraries, accessible at www.olive.us/p_bin/?cid=…
John Atkinson and I recently spent a few hours talking to cable manufacturer Tributaries' president and founder, Joe Perfito. Perfito had come to NYC to meet the press and introduce his company's newest cable families, the high-end Series 7 and the higher-end Series 9. "The Series 9 cables are the best cables we know how to make," Perfito told us. "The interconnects are hand-made of 20AWF solid OFHC signal conductor and a 1.25% silver-plated 46-strand 20AWG OFHC return conductor. We use an LDPE dielectric and an OFHC copper-braided shield and a double-sided copper foil secondary shield for…
Mark Waldrep, the man behind the "only all-HD digital label," Aix Records, has now established an all-HD download site, www.itrax.com. While Music Giants and Linn offer HD downloads, iTrax calls itself "the only website to offer real HD in multiple mixing perspectives," since it offers consumers two-channel stereo, 5.1-channel "audience," and 5.1-channel "stage" perspectives in MP3, Dolby Digital, DTS, WMA pro, WMA Lossless, and PCM 96kHz/24-bit resolutions.
MusicGiants also offers "high-rez" downloads, meaning DRM-free WMA Lossless files, which is certainly high-rez compared to any lossy…