But some manufacturers have trouble keeping all four bases covered, often developing a great product while struggling to find the right distribution. Such has been the case for New Zealand's critically acclaimed high-end manufacturer Perreaux in its quest to…
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For any audio company to be successful, it needs to cover what my business school teachers used to call the "Four Ps": Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. In other words, success will follow if a company can slice up its resources to properly promote the right product at the right price and make it available in the right places.
Our report two weeks ago on Grateful Dead Productions and its dispute with MP3 sites was tainted by some bits of misinformation. Dave Rosenberg, webmaster at OtherOnes.net, has pointed out that his site did not receive a cease and desist order, but was asked to remove any Grateful Dead logo. Rosenberg was appreciative of the publicity the issue has received. "Thank you for publishing and making known the problems Deadabase is currently facing from Grateful Dead Productions," he wrote.
For its part, Grateful Dead Productions claims that it is going after only those sites that are…
Exhibitors at Home Entertainment 2003 (HE2003), the premier home theater & specialty audio show, are gearing up for one of the most important international events of the year. HE2003 will take place June 5–8, 2003 at The Westin–St. Francis Hotel in the heart of downtown San Francisco. This historic location will provide the perfect setting to showcase the latest in home audio/video and home theater entertainment. This will be the show's fourth visit to San Francisco—previous events were held in 1989, 1993, and 1997.
Open to the public, the three-day show gives home theater…
Audiophiles everywhere were saddened to learn of the death of Frederick Fennell on December 7. He was 90, which made him only a few years senior to the process of electrical recording—an art form in which he made quite an impact.
Fennell was instrumental (ahem) in establishing the Eastman School of Music's Eastman Symphonic Wind Ensemble, which recorded several of the most highly regarded band recordings ever made for the Mercury Living Presence record label. These performances include a flabbergasting rendition of Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy—a disc that was the acid test of many…
Nowhere is the inflationary cycle spinning faster than in concert ticket prices. The best tickets for performances by major pop and rock stars this summer will be priced in the low-to-mid hundreds. No, that's not a misprint, and it doesn't include "service charges" and other bogus fees tacked on by ticket agencies. Good seats for Eric Clapton's summer tour will be more than $250 each; similar seating at Simon and Garfunkel's "Old Friends" show at the Hollywood Bowl will go for $700, according to "Parsley, Sage and $350 Seats," a revealing look at skyrocketing ticket prices by Ethan Smith in…
Echo.
It sounds like a codeword for a secret military maneuver, but it's really a coalition of heavyweight retailers who have teamed up to offer music online. Best Buy, Tower Records, Virgin Entertainment Group, Wherehouse Music, Hastings Entertainment Inc. and Trans World Entertainment Corp. (owner of the FYE, Strawberries, and Coconuts record stores) have formed a partnership to deliver "non-physical product" to consumers via the Internet.
Still in the planning stage, the online move comes as a concession to the Internet's inevitability as a major source of entertainment, and as…
Coming soon on the Madrigal Audio Laboratories website is La Folia, a music webzine. Edited by Mike Silverton, La Folia sets out to supplement the audiophile press by directing its emphasis at recordings elsewhere neglected: present-day art music (aka "classical"), free and improvisational jazz, category-defying hybrids, and whatever else strikes their "clutch of sweet-spot stuckees as rare and well done."
"Look, too," Mike tells us, "for talk about core repertoire, good-sounding bargains, aspects of pop, and whatever else inspires comment. And perhaps most important, discussion of…
Sales of recorded music declined by 9.2% on a monetary basis and 11% on a unit basis worldwide during the first half of 2002, according to recently released figures from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The drop is a continuation of a long slump that began in the mid-1990s, blamed by many music industry executives on the widespread use of CD burners and the popularity of downloading tunes on the Internet. Others acknowledge that increasing competition for consumers' time and money—especially films on DVD—is eating into music industry profits.
The London-…
It's a season of mixed results in the electronics industry. On April 9, Peabody, MA–based Boston Acoustics announced that it has slashed jobs due to a slow fourth quarter, reducing its workforce from 389 to 327 as a result of slowing sales. The loudspeaker manufacturer expects earnings of more than $4.2 million for the year ending March 31, a figure that puts the company in a profitable position despite a loss of close to $1 million for the final quarter.
With a fiscal year that also closed March 31, Kenwood Electronics' US division showed both sales growth and profit, despite an overall…
This month, Stereophile brings you the Internet's largest community of qualified audio and video buyers and sellers, powered by industry leader Audiogon. Visitors to Stereophile.com will find a new "AV Marketplace" link that connects directly to the most robust venue for buying and selling used and new audio and video equipment on the Web. Services also include an online Bluebook for quick evaluation of used equipment prices, online used equipment forums, member product reviews, information on manufacturers, and a member feedback system.
Unlike eBay, the Stereophile Marketplace only lists…