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As we reported almost a year ago, US District Court Judge Michael Davis awarded record labels $220,000 in damages for Jammie Thomas' having posted digital files to the KaZaa peer-to-peer site. To date, that has been the RIAA's sole victory in its prosecution of file sharers and it hinged upon an instruction Judge Davis gave the jury, specifically Jury Instruction 15, which said that Capitol Records did not have to prove anybody downloaded the songs, only that Thomas had posted them. This is known as the "making available" argument and was vigorously opposed by Thomas' lawyer.
Can audiences tell the difference between a computer-generated orchestra and the real thing? Just how far have digital sampling and loudspeaker technologies advanced?
Those questions and more were posed at New York's Bargemusic on November 2, when the Fauxharmonic Orchestra, a digital orchestra of sampled sounds programmed and conducted by Paul Henry Smith, shared the stage with the 21 strings of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Markand Thakar. The experiment was also staged in Baltimore on November 1, and will be repeated at Goucher College on November 5.
First the…
Naxos has taken a major step toward distributing higher-quality downloads of classical-music recordings. ClassicsOnline, the label's impressive download site, now offers the world's largest collection of classical-music recordings free of digital rights management (DRM). All of the site's nearly 22,000 albums, from more than 100 independent labels, are available at 320kbps.
Customers who previously downloaded tracks from the store at lower resolutions can upgrade to 320kbps free of charge. ClassicsOnline membership remains free, and includes three free downloads.
The selection of…
Michael Fremer will participate in a roundtable discussion titled, "Deep Listening: Why Audio Quality Matters," held at the Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of the Imagination (247 East 82nd Street, NY) on Saturday, December 6, at 2:30pm.
Michael will be joined by Steve Berkowitz, Senior Vice President of Sony Music's Legacy Records; Greg Calbi, mastering engineer at Sterling Sound recording studios; Evan Cornog, author; Kevin Killen, Grammy Award-winning recording engineer; and Craig Street, record producer.
Free to the public. Seating is limited. For more…
Meridian Audio Ltd. announced at 4pm December 5 that it had acquired media server manufacturer Sooloos LLC. "Basically, it comes from [Meridian founder] Bob Stuart's appreciation of great industrial design and innovative technologies," said Meridian's Chief Marketing Officer Graeme Taylor. "That combination is what Meridian has always attempted to offer and when Bob saw Sooloos' products, he realized that Peter Wellikoff [COO], Enno Vandermeer [CEO], and Danny Dulai [CTO] shared those values. Over time, it became obvious that, between what we shared and what we each could offer each other,…
Naim Audio's Naim Classics label has begun releasing recordings in Dual Pack format that contains both a Red-Book CD and 24-bit/88.2kHz audio DVD for $24.95. The exclusive US distributor of Naim's high resolution titles will be www.premieremusic.net.
Why both a CD and a DVD? Adding the CD allows consumers to take the music with them to play in a car or rip to a personal digital player; obviously the company is expecting owners of Naim's HDX hard disc players, NaimNet Music Servers, or universal disc players to be attracted to the high-rez disc.
The Naim discs were both recorded…
In the early morning hours of December 11, Joseph Cohen of the Lotus Group, the exclusive distributor of Oyaide products in North America, sent out a "Lotus Group News Flash!" The e-mail, dated December 10, declared:
"It has come to our attention that PartsconneXion.com of Canada has been advertising counterfeit Oyaide plugs as being genuine Oyaide plugs on their website. . . . Further they are advertising these counterfeit items at prices that match the price of genuine Oyaide parts. It has also come to our attention that they have begun shipping these products to unsuspecting customers…
Classical music retailer Arkivmusic.com is making available for download this holiday season four CDs from John Marks Records: the three Rejoice! A String Quartet Christmas CDs and Songs My Mother Taught Me, from violinist Arturo Delmoni and some of his friends.
The albums can be purchased from www.Arkivmusic.com, but to celebrate the holiday season, Stereophile is offering its readers a free download from the second Christmas string quartet CD (JMR 18). This CD features Delmoni and Nina Bodnar performing the gorgeous "Ave Maria," which Charles Gounod composed using on the celebrated…
ASL Group (formerly known as Audiophile Systems Ltd.) announced December 19 that it had acquired Naim North America, the US distributor of Naim Audio and NaimNet, a deal that strengthens both ASL and Naim NA. Naim Audio's CEO Paul Stephenson said, "It's like going home, since we originally were distributed by Audiophile Systems when we first moved into the US."
All key US Naim employees will become ASL employees and Chris Koster and Chris West continue to handle sales and general support issues. Dave Dever and Pat Flanagan will still administer technical support and service and will…
The Deutsche Grammophon webshop and HDtracks have special New Year's gifts for audiophiles: more CD-quality and high-resolution downloads.
DG's breakthrough comes as a special surprise. One of the first classical labels to offer 320kbps, DRM-free downloads, DG has now posted its first 50 CD-quality FLAC albums for downloading here.
First on the list is violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter's new, demonstration-quality CD of concertos by J.S. Bach and Sofia Gubaidulina. While the Bach will not replace other versions in the catalog, Mutter's take on Gubaidulina's In tempus praesens, written…