TTR Technologies and Macrovision hope to change all that. Last week they announced an agreement to jointly develop and market a copy-protection product designed to thwart the copying of optical audio…
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Audiophiles have been hit hard lately, as DVD-Audio's release schedule has succumbed to piracy concerns and Sony has so far refused to allow digital outputs on SACD decks. (Only digital outs for CD playback are allowed.) You can listen, but don't touch. But at least there are still no such restrictions on CD players that would inhibit the use of their digital datastreams . . . for now.
Stereophile editor John Atkinson---arguably the high-end audio publishing industry's single most important figure, and certainly its intellectual nexus---has seen it all in his 23 years in the high-end audio industry. At HI-FI '99 in Chicago, Audiocafe.com's Andrew Keen was able to pull JA away from his busy schedule for an in-depth interview about his views on the industry's current state of affairs---and on what's just over the horizon.
The American economy is in great shape, and yet the high-end audio industry is in a prolonged slump. Part of this slump is a repercussion from the Asian…
Billy Preston, the keyboard player, singer, and songwriter frequently credited as "the fifth Beatle," died June 6 in Scottsdale, AZ from respiratory complications from improperly treated pericarditas he experienced in an LA hospital visit on November 21, 2005.
Preston, born September 2, 1946 in Houston, TX, was mentored by Ray Charles. He was a regular performer on the mid-1960s ABC TV show Shindig! and toured Europe with Little Richard. In Hamburg, the soon-to-be-famous Beatles opened for Little Richard, then at the height of his popularity. It was there that the teenage Preston and the…
The world's two largest and most active music clubs may become one if preliminary talks between their parent companies bear fruit. Time Warner Inc. and Germany's Bertelsmann AG have conducted discussions with that outcome in mind, according to several reports appearing in late April.
Columbia House, jointly operated by Sony Music and Time Warner, could merge with Bertelsmann's BMG Direct if negotiations go smoothly. The two clubs dominate the mail-order music business, with deep catalogs in many categories, including jazz, classical, pop, rock, r&b, hip-hop, and country. The two…
How does a struggling satellite radio service increase its market exposure more than 20-fold in one fell swoop? Simple. It enters a sweetheart deal with one of the biggest satellite TV companies in North America.
That's exactly what Sirius Satellite Radio did in mid-May. The New York–based Sirius signed an agreement with EchoStar's DISH Network to provide 9.7 million DISH subscribers with an array of music programming that most of them have almost certainly not encountered before. The deal instantly elevated the potential number of Sirius listeners from a previous base of 400,000—a figure…
On July 25, New York State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer announced that Sony BMG Entertainment had agreed to "stop making payments and providing expensive gifts to radio stations and their employees in return for 'airplay' for the company's songs."
Spitzer said, "Our investigation shows that, contrary to listener expectations that songs are selected for airplay based on artistic merit and popularity, air time is often determined by undisclosed payoffs to radio stations and their employees. This agreement is a model for breaking the pervasive influence of bribes in the industry."
In…
Jack English noted in March 1994, "I lobbied ProAc designer Stuart Tyler tirelessly to take a crack at a truly full-range speaker which would preserve the strengths of the Response lineup. My wish came true in mid-1993, with the release of the monstrous ProAc Response 4 loudspeaker."
From June 1990, Sam Tellig grapples with the Spendor S100 loudspeaker, noting, that the S100s "sound somewhat old-fashioned. You know, the way big speakers used to sound—rich, smooth, sweet, not at all strident on top, laid-back rather than forward. Yet the Spendor S100s are up to date in terms of their detail—…
DVD-Audio may have gotten a boost on the production end with the impending release of DVD-Audio Creator LE, an authoring system developed and marketed by Sonic Solutions. Available October 15, the authoring system will sell for $5999, a price that could enable many small recording studios and mastering houses to begin working with the format. "DVD-Audio Creator LE puts powerful tools in the hands of professional mastering studios at a very low cost," said Dietrick Hardwick, DVD-Audio product manager at Sonic Solutions. "This enables facilities to significantly expand their service…
In the race to get satellite radio to market, XM Satellite Radio was the first to hit the air this past September. But competitor Sirius says they were saving the best for last, and has now announced that its official launch date will be as early next year as February 14, with initial broadcasts reaching Denver, Phoenix, and Houston.
Sirius' John Scelfo says, "This is a big day for Sirius. With our infrastructure fully in place and strong relationships with our retail, electronics, and automotive partners, we will offer consumers a great value and a great product." The company says that…
Incubus is following the Dixie Chicks' lead.
The hugely successful rock quartet has filed suit against Sony Music Entertainment seeking freedom from a recording contract that will come up for renewal this summer. Attorneys for the plaintiffs claim that Sony has benefited enormously from sales of Incubus CDs and DVDs while consistently underpaying the performers. Incubus is one the ten most popular rock acts now performing, and has sold a total of approximately 7.5 million copies of its recordings.
The lawsuit, filed February 1 in the Santa Monica branch of the Los Angeles County…