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Yahoo Exec: "DRM Doesn't Add Value"

Speaking at the Music 2.0 conference in Los Angeles on February 23, Yahoo Music's general manager Dave Goldberg startled listeners with a statement probably never previously heard from the head of a for-pay digital music service: Lay off the DRM.

"DRM is not a consumer value proposition, it’s a consumer cost," said Goldberg. "It creates a nice barrier of entry for the tech companies, rather than something that’s beneficial to labels, artists, or consumers."

Most of his talk was hardly revolutionary (listen to it here), but the part that caught our attention was his analysis of how DRM…

2002 CES Day One

The audio tribe is converging once again in Las Vegas for one of its its three annual gatherings (the others being CEDIA-Expo and the Home Entertainment Show, of course), and so far so good. Although the show officially opens Tuesday this year, several of the major manufacturers took advantage of the calm before the storm to hold their press conferences on Monday.

First stop was a Panasonic presentation in the main convention center, where, in spite of the noise of booths being assembled all around, the company outlined its goals for a timid economy. DVD-Audio made its biggest splash in…

TDK Announces 80-Minute Extended-Capacity CD-R Discs

Last week, TDK announced that it is introducing extended-capacity, 80-minute/700MB multimedia and music CD-R discs this July. The new discs add 50MB, or 6 minutes of stereo music capacity, to the conventional 74-minute/650MB CD-R disc. TDK says it is the first manufacturer to offer extended-capacity CD-Rs, and points out that it has been supplying recording studios with 80-minute CD-Rs for music-mastering applications since 1996.(Stereophile's new 77+ minute Bravo! CD, featuring chamber music by Elgar and Mozart, for example, was mastered on a 700MB TDK CD-R.)

The company says its…

RIAA Ups & Downs

As 2004 wound down, the Los Angeles sheriff's department successfully conducted five simultaneous raids on illegal CD replication plants in southern California on December 15. Dubbed "Operation Final Release," the joint operation between the Southern California High Tech Task Force and the LA sheriff's department put 65 officers into action, closing down five optical disc replication facilities in LA and Orange counties suspected of churning out millions of pirated CDs, which were sold throughout the United States.

"Virtually unprecedented in size and scope, today's anti-piracy operation by…

Satellite Radio Companies Work for Unified Standard

Satellite radio got a boost toward wider market acceptance on February 16, when Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio announced an agreement to develop a unified standard for satellite radios. The current batch of satellite receivers can pick up transmissions from one of the providers, but not both. The next generation of receivers will expand the technology's reach by enabling reception of both companies' broadcasts.

The two have come to the realization that they must cooperate if the satellite radio sector is to grow. Sirius and XM Radio will combine their research and…

Be, Inc.'s HARP: "Reference Platform" for Internet Audio?

At massive gatherings like the Consumer Electronics Show, some truly newsworthy developments by small companies go unnoticed, overshadowed by splashy launches put on by bigger firms. One such is Be, Inc.'s "Home Audio Reference Platform" (BeIA HARP), an all-purpose computer audio system. HARP will let computers access and broadcast Internet-based audio and services, and will also let them play CDs, tapes, and LPs.

Be, Inc. is well known for its BeOS, a cross-platform operating system. The Menlo Park, CA–based company debuted its HARP system for consumer electronics manufacturers at the…

RIAA Cracks Down on Unauthorized Compilers

The Recording Industry of America's ongoing pursuit of music pirates bore fruit last week on Tuesday, July 7, when the organization collected $750,000 in settlements from three companies that had produced and marketed CD compilations of hit records. The RIAA also received $20,000 in restitution from Lloyd Schiffres, owner of Top Hat Productions, a disc-jockey supply house. Schiffres, who has been arrested three times, handed over 31 sets of his For DJs Only compilations.

ETV Network of Los Angeles and Promo Only of Castleberry, FL, cooperated with investigators and turned over a half-…

Pirates Awash In Swag

As almost any Stereophile reader could tell you, if the record labels want to stem the rushing tide of big-time music piracy, they should consider starting with lower CD prices at retail. In other words, lessen the incentives that drive the illicit music market, and eliminate a sizable percentage of the problem overnight.

Lowering prices may be a hard pill for the recording industry to swallow, but the alternative is looking grimmer with every passing day. According to new statistics released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), 2001 saw global sales of…

NAB 2000: No Accord on Digital Radio Standards

A single standard for terrestrial digital radio is still somewhere over the rainbow. Despite pressure from broadcasters to form an industry alliance, leading developers of the new technology are intent on pursuing their own courses, attendees learned at the 2000 National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas in mid-April. Executives from USA Digital Radio and Lucent Digital Radio, the two biggest players in the sector, told NAB members that their design and testing programs are still in early stages of development, too soon for accord.

Both companies are working on versions…

Added to the Archives This Week

Steven Stone writes that "the Signature SC-VI is probably the most 'anti-tweak' flagship high-end speaker ever made." In his very thorough review of the Dunlavy Audio Labs Signature SC-VI loudspeaker, Stone details this legendary audiophile favorite from top to bottom. Is it the perfect speaker? Stone lays down his verdict, and more.

Said John Atkinson to John Dunlavy: "John, you've had an amazingly variegated career. You've designed antennae for the military, you've worked in pure science, you were involved in the International Geophysical Year back in 1957, you've lectured at university…