On Monday, December 16, the RIAA issued cease-and-desist letters to 80 retailers throughout the US, threatening them with lawsuits if they don't stop making, distributing, and selling pirated music. Alleged…
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The music industry intends to leave no stone unturned in its war on piracy. Just a week after reports emerged about crackdowns on sales of pirated CDs at flea markets and swap meets, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced a campaign to eliminate sales of unauthorized discs at gas stations, grocery and convenience stores, and small independent music outlets.
One of the cooler toys being shown at the Westin–St. Francis is the $199 hp digital media receiver en5000. This nifty remote-controlled Ethernet device connects to any TV and stereo in your home and links it to your home computing network. After you've loaded its software onto the network's computers, it will instantaneously communicate with all of them, allowing you to access all digital media contained on any of them. You can create playlists, slideshows, or show movies from, say, the room containing your hi-fi without needing to have a computer in the space at all. This struck us as…
Like many specialty audio companies, NHT has had its ups and downs. The Benicia, CA–based loudspeaker manufacturer, founded by Ken Kantor and Chris Byrne in 1986, was sold to Jensen International in the early 1990s, sold again to accesssories perveyor Recoton, and then acquired (and some would suggest saved) by Rockford Corporation towards the end of 2002.
With the Rockford deal, the company was again on solid financial footing leading to another round of innovative product development. Through it all, NHT earned a well-deserved reputation for affordable high-performance products, among…
Jonathan Scull gets intimate with the HeadRoom BlockHead headphone amplifier stating, "I listen to headphones for hours at a stretch while writing my reviews. The equipment I listen to spoils me to death, and I need a headphone rig to match." Has J-10 found the ultimate headphone amp? We'll see.
While reviewing the diminutive Joseph Audio RM7si loudspeaker, John Atkinson grapples with a dilemma: "Why recommend a stand-mounted speaker at all, when it is possible to buy a floorstanding design with more bass for the same amount of money?" JA analyzes the evidence and files the results.
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In late February, many California music fans discovered in their mail a one-page form letter from the state's attorney general, Bill Lockyer, announcing that he was "pleased to enclose payment for your claim in the settlement of the Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation." Attached to the bottom of the form letter was a tear-off check made out to the aggrieved music fan from "CD MAP Antitrust Litigation" in Faribault, MN.
Now almost ancient history, the lawsuit was brought against the music industry a few years back by the attorneys general of 41 states, charging record…
Singer Dusty Springfield died at her home near Oxford, England last Tuesday, March 2, a few weeks before what would have been her 60th birthday and only one day before she was to have appeared at Buckingham Palace to be honored by Queen Elizabeth. The cause was breast cancer.
Born Mary Isabel O'Brien, Springfield first gained notoriety in the early 1960s with a folk-pop trio called The Springfields, with her brother Dion O'Brien (known as Tom Springfield) and their friend Tim Field. The group had a popular TV show and several hit records in the UK. Their first breakthrough in the US was…
As Jon Iverson points out in another posting this week, a surprising number of readers expect downloads to be a viable music acquisition option in the very near future. Perhaps it's closer than we think.
The Grateful Dead's official online store now offers downloads. That in itself is not too startling, but here's the part that is: In addition to offering printable booklet and CD tray art, the site offers consumers a choice of download formats, including 128kbps MP3 (various prices, depending on length), 256kbps MP3 (around 50–76¢ more), and lossless FLAC files (usually a few bucks more).…
The world's third largest music company has thrown its massive weight behind Internet audio. On June 10, EMI Recorded Music, a division of EMI Group Plc, announced a five-year licensing agreement with Reston, Virginia-based Musicmaker.com, a major custom CD compilation service and digital download site. EMI has not simply made its enormous catalog available to the service---it has also bought into Musicmaker.com with a 50% equity stake.
Musicmaker.com currently offers more than 20,000 licensed songs in three secure digital downloading formats: Liquid Audio, Microsoft MS Audio 4.0, and…
The economic downturn doesn't appear to be hurting Tweeter Home Entertainment Group.
On November 21, the electronics retailer reported a 55.2% increase in total revenue for its fourth fiscal quarter, ended September 30. Citing huge demand for digital products, the Canton, MA–based electronics chain reported that fourth-quarter revenue hit $150.3 million, compared to $96.9 million for the same period a year earlier.
The company's quarterly net income declined, however, by a whopping 76%, thanks primarily to a $1.2 million write-off of its Cyberian Outpost investment, and slightly due…
Major Japanese electronics manufacturers reported mixed results for the quarter ended June 30, with Mitsubishi and Sharp posting sales gains, while Hitachi and JVC did not. Most electronics firms begin their fiscal year on April 1, making June 30 the end of the first quarter.
Mitsubishi Electric's consumer electronics division posted a 12% increase in sales, totaling $1.6 billion, up from $1.5 billion reported for the same period a year ago. Profits were off, however, which the company attributed to declining prices. Mitsubishi's operating income dropped from $108.2 million for the first…