Diamond Multimedia, a company we've been reporting on the last several weeks due to their tangle with the RIAA, announced several new deals to support their Rio MP3 player. Diamond and…
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The WebNoize three-day conference took place last week in Los Angeles, mixing record-company executives with Internet geeks, all trying to find profitable ways to distribute music online. Tom Roli, publisher of the Webnoize website, set the tone for the event, stating that "the industry is facing great change and uncertainty due to emerging technologies, shifting global markets, and media revolutions."
Forget about tuning dots, mystical poker chips, and clocks with programmed electrons. They're all hopelessly out of date.
In Berkeley, California, where I lived for many years, crackpot theorists of every variety are as common as cockroaches. I have known people who sincerely believe that the world's economic order is controlled by a secret cabal of bankers, who believe that crystals programmed in ancient Atlantis speak to them personally, who believe that a perky blond equestrienne from the Pacific Northwest is the incarnation of a 40,000-year-old warrior.
Even today, I know…
On Sunday, December 1, 2002, we celebrated five years of uninterrupted webcasting, our website having emerged from the Internet darkness on December 1, 1997 to become, at least in my eyes, an institution. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that "an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man," and www.stereophile.com is definitely the shadow of erstwhile high-end audio retailer Jon Iverson.
It was Jon, who is still our webmaster—or "web monkey," as he prefers to be called—who came up with the idea that timely audio news presented regularly would generate the repeat visits that are a website's…
Running audio signals around a home's AC power wiring has been a consumer electronics goal for several years. The reasoning goes that most folks live in homes that cannot be easily rewired for multiroom audio or multichannel surround, so why not use the AC wires that are already in the walls? Think of it as the ultimate solid-core interconnect.
Since the idea first surfaced to use AC lines for music, wireless digital networks have sprung to life and taken off, creating an alternative to running audio on cables. But that hasn't stopped development of what is known as HomePlug audio…
Hilary Rosen's 17-year tenure with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will come to an end this year.
On Wednesday, January 22, the 44-year-old chairman and CEO of the music industry trade organization announced that she would leave at the end of 2003. Rosen's official explanation was that she wished "to spend more time with her family," a reason often cited by departing executives.
The real reason may be closer to battle fatigue. Rosen joined one of the nation's most contentious industries as the compact disc was beginning its ascent, displacing the cassette tape…
More compact discs that attempt to restrict how you use them are coming to a record store near you. BMG announced last week that its Arista Records division will be the company's first label in the US to release a commercial CD using copy-restriction technology.
Until now, BMG says, its US labels have used copy management technology only on promotional CDs as part of their overall approach to restrict the use of copyrighted content. The first of the new restricted CDs will be Comin' From Where I'm From by singer/songwriter Anthony Hamilton, slated for release nationwide on September 23.…
Just about a month away, HI-FI '98, The Home Theater & Specialty Audio Show, will interest thousands of audio enthusiasts when it visits The Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel in Los Angeles, California from Wednesday, June 10 to Sunday, June 14, 1998.
"We intend to have several rooms at HI-FI '98 dedicated to demonstrations of DVD-Audio and HDTV," noted Larry Archibald, Chairman of Stereophile, Inc., HI-FI '98's sponsor. "The DVD demonstrations will expose customers to direct comparisons of Compact Disc, long-playing record, and the new 24-bit/96kHz DVD-based audio formats that will…
Used-equipment junkies take note: eBay will bring its popular roving university to New York City for the Home Entertainment 2002 Show (HES 2002), May 30–June 2, 2002. Since its inception, eBay University has instructed thousands of eBay users on the ins and outs of buying and selling on eBay. The special seminar from eBay at HE 2002 will provide specific tips for attendees on buying and selling consumer electronic products.
During the three-day home entertainment extravaganza, eBay will exhibit in booth # 2320 and also host Primedia's consumer electronics charity auction to raise money…
In the race for technological superiority, audio electronics companies in the United Kingdom, with a few notable exceptions, haven't often been first out of the gate. Arcam, however, may have already lapped the field with its Alpha 10 DRT (Digital Radio Tuner).
The £800 device goes on sale Monday, March 15, at approximately 100 dealers within range of the British Broadcasting Company's digital transmitters. The UK is the first nation on earth to have a fully operational digital radio system, with over 60% of its territory now receiving the signals---provided, of course, that citizens…
Providing another boost to the nascent DVD-Audio market, Zoran Corporation, a provider of integrated circuits (ICs) and software for digital video and audio applications, announced last week the availability of a new DVD decoder IC chip, the Vaddis IV. Zoran says the chip is optimized for fourth-generation DVD players and will include integrated DVD-Audio decoding. According to the company, the new Vaddis IV decoder enables the design of flexible and advanced---yet affordable---new DVD players.
The DVD-Video market is expanding rapidly, as players become more affordable and DVD titles are…