1999's total is almost double that of 1990, when music sales exceeded $7.5 billion. A surging American economy has lifted the music business out of the doldrums it experienced a few years ago, when it appeared the industry might have a difficult time ever topping the $12…
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A slump in the music business is officially over. Sales of recorded music in the United States last year totaled $14.6 billion, an all-time high. The figure is a 6.3% increase from 1998's total of $13.7 billion, the previous record, according to a recent report from the Recording Industries Association of America (RIAA).
Wiz stores sold: Cablevision Systems has made good on its promise to exit the consumer electronics retail business. On March 6, the Bethpage, NY–based cable giant announced the sale of its 17 remaining Nobody Beats The Wiz stores to GBO Electronics Acquisition LLC in a stock transaction, effective immediately. GBO will assume The Wiz's assets and debt, according to a Cablevision statement.
Cablevision closed 26 Wiz stores last year, and had announced recently that it would close or sell the remainder. The Wiz had a high profile in the New York metro area throughout the 1980s and early…
In a move that is likely to push record labels into the uncharted territory of direct sales, BMG has announced its intention to add in-house sales to its network of music sites. "BMG will be moving in the fall to its own fulfillment capability because of the demands of consumers," said senior vice president Scott Dinsdale at the Business Online 98 conference in San Francisco last week.
BMG already operates BMG Music Club, one of the largest and most successful mail-order music operations. Although online sales---$50 million in 1997---account for only a fraction of the billions of dollars…
The European Parliament has enacted a strong new law to protect copyrights, approving the use of encryption to prevent piracy of publications, movies, and recorded music. The new measure, known as the Copyright Directive, will give copyright holders better protection in Europe than they enjoy in the US, according to Italian representative Enrico Boselli, sponsor of the law. The widespread availability of advanced digital technology requires establishing "clear rules for consumers, consumer-electronics manufacturers, Internet service providers, and others," Boselli stated.
The directive…
One of the most revered names in the audio industry is seeking legal protection from its creditors. On November 19, Nakamichi Corporation Japan "applied to the court of Japan for a civil rehabilitation," in the words of a company press release on the development, issued the next day. On the 19th, Nakamichi stock closed at ¥22/share (approximately 17¢); the Tokyo Stock Exchange announced that the company would be de-listed effective May 20.
"Nakamichi Corporation Japan has been affected by the deterioration in the business environment in Japan, exacerbated by the slowdown of the global…
It might stand to reason that the first market for DVD-Audio discs will likely be consumers who already own DVD-Video machines. It also stands to reason that a large number of consumers who have set up a DVD-Video player in their systems have also added surround-sound speakers in their audio/video rooms, and are looking for new software to take advantage of the extra channels.
Most DVD-V players sold today have built-in DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding along with multichannel audio outputs, which music companies can take advantage of by encoding either format on the DVD-Audio disc along…
Consumers attending the Home Entertainment 2001 Show in NYC, May 11–13, 2001, will have a unique opportunity to speak with and learn from the home entertainment industry's leading experts. As part of the three-day audio and video extravaganza, the Show will offer educational seminars and panel discussions—included with the admission ticket price on a first come, first served basis. This is a rare opportunity for consumers to meet with legendary industry journalists, manufacturers, dealers, and others.
Home Entertainment 2001 is co-sponsored by Stereophile, Home Theater, and Stereophile…
Music industry executives may have a special dread of this year's Halloween festivities.
On Halloween evening (Friday, October 31), a loosely-organized group of music fans plans to launch a global boycott against the industry, with multiple "Raves Against the Bullies." The effort's aims include a cessation of lawsuits against file-sharers, more favorable contracts for recording artists, and changing "the way music is distributed and marketed," according to a Music News Alerts! item posted October 7.
Backers of the boycott are pushing for record labels to sign a "Music Artist's Bill of…
Want to improve your hearing? Have someone tickle your toes, or lightly stroke the palm of your hand. Sounds crazy, but it works, and things get even weirder.
Every day, in everything we do, our body collects information from our five senses and combines it into a coherent picture that helps to guide our actions and, in evolutionary terms, helps to keep us alive. It's a well-known phenomenon, but it has long been believed that this process, which scientists call "sensory integration," occurs in the brain at relatively high cognitive levels, in an area known as the associative cortex. But…
The music business is a $13-billion-a-year industry, but the high-end audio industry reaches only a tiny fraction of the music lovers that number represents. "Everybody loves music, so why don't they love specialty audio?" was the question addressed to a group of industry experts at one of a series of AudioCafe.com-sponsored panel discussions on Friday, January 7, at the Alexis Park, during the 2000 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The panelists—Ray Kimber of Kimber Kable, Janice Mancuso of Reference Recordings, Peter Noerbaek of PBN Audio, Russell Kibbee of TagIt, Doug Schneider of…