When deployed at the mastering stage, the company's MediaMax technology can be used by record labels to control how buyers use the digital files on an audio CD. MediaMax's goal is to restrict consumers who share music with friends by only allowing the sharing of songs that…
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Music buyer beware: SunnComm announced last week the dubious milestone that it had shipped over one million restricted MediaMax audio CDs in March and expects to beat those numbers in April. The MediaMax M4 suite of "Digital Content Enhancement" technologies is built using the Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series platform.
The good news keeps coming. According to the lastest figures from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the month of May echoed previous months' continuous increase in audio product sales, with monthly revenues up 11% and year-to-date revenues up 12%, to $3.1 billion.
According to the CEA, CD-R technology and home-theater receivers have together pulled sales of home-audio separates far ahead of last year. In May, revenues from home-audio separates were up 21%, to $124 million. In the separates category, sales of Dolby Digital receivers were up 91%, and, most interestingly, CD-R…
The music industry repeatedly points to online file trading as the explanation for its declining market. But annual sales are still well ahead of 1998's figures and several analysts note that when you take into account the economic downturn, increased competition for entertainment dollars, high CD pricing, uninspiring new music, and consumer resistance to copy protection, those negative numbers should really be far worse.
Several studies also suggest that in light of the deterioration of radio in the US, unauthorized online file trading may be one of the few promotional avenues that…
You thought it was crowded last year? The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced last week that, as of the beginning of December, it looks like the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will feature a record-breaking amount of exhibit space, surpassing 1.2 million square feet.
The 2003 CES is scheduled to run January 9–12 in Las Vegas, Nevada. High-end audio exhibits will again be seen at CES at the Alexis Park Hotel and at the outboarder event, T.H.E. Show, which has moved to Las Vegas' Hotel San Remo and will run January 9–13.
The CEA's Gary Shapiro stated…
Thirteen months after announcing its return to manufacturing, Memphis-based speaker maker EgglestonWorks is back in a big way, with plans to debut a "radical" and "visually provocative" reference loudspeaker at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
Two years in the designing, the $39,000/pair Savoy is the latest addition to the company's Reference line of speakers, originally developed in conjunction with Bob Ludwig's Gateway Mastering Studio in Portland, ME. EgglestonWorks' Ivy Reference, the result of Ludwig's desire for a world-class two-way loudspeaker, was the basis for the Savoy…
Savvy music fans willing to ignore the built-in copying restrictions on consumer-targeted CD recorders have always had their computer-based CD and DVD recorders and hard drives to play with, especially when it comes to manipulating MP3 files. Maybe not for much longer. A new content-protection approach is attempting to tighten the digital noose around the necks of PC users who have spent the last few years virtually unencumbered when it comes to—as Apple so succinctly puts it—rip, mix, burn.
Software-based techniques for controlling content have been appearing over the last several years…
Folk wisdom has it that it's wiser not to lock the gate after the horses have escaped. The Secure Digital Music Initiative, a consortium of 140 music, software, and hardware companies, has taken that adage to heart. In a significant departure from its original intent to block the distribution of free music on the Internet, the Secure Digital Music Initiative announced in the last week of June that its forthcoming specification for music software and hardware will accommodate the "legacy content" already in existence. There are reportedly as many as 500,000 songs available in the MP3 format…
Well known in the European audiophile community, British hi-fi manufacturer Cyrus Electronics is preparing for the introduction of its brand in America. The company says it plans to use the upcoming 2002 Consumer Electronics Show next month to scout out US dealers and introduce several new products.
Cyrus' team of engineers developed Mission's first CD player, the PCM 7000, in 1984, and then created the first Cyrus-branded product the following year, the Cyrus 1 amplifier. Since then, the company has developed an entire line of audio products, including the latest generation of its $7000…
French-speaking Canada's premier A/V, home theater, and new technologies publication, Quebec Audio-Video has once again offered its readers an opportunity to attend Home Entertainment 2002 in New York City for free! Franco Moggia, editor of Quebec Audio-Video, says, "After the tragic events of September 11, we had to support our American friends and colleagues by repeating last year's contest."
First prize is an all-expenses-paid trip for two to New York that includes airfare and hotel accommodations for two nights during the Show, plus free admission to the event. The first prize winners…
A year-end report by Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks retail activity, states that compact disc sales through December 22, 2002, were off 9.3% compared to the same period the previous year, with 624.2 million units sold compared to 688.2 sold in 2001. Of all recorded music sold, 94% of it was on CD, the remainder on cassette tape and vinyl records. An insignificant amount of music was sold as legitimate downloads from industry-sponsored music sites. SoundScan did not expect the last week of December to impact the year's total.
2002 was the second straight year for declining music sales in…