Sirius Stock Deal Erases Debt
In August, the future looked cloudy for Sirius">http://www.sirius.com">Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. Despite the eventual commercial promise of satellite radio, the startup suffered from massive debt accrued during its development and from a slow initial subscription rate. Company officials had discussed a possible">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11421/">possible bankruptcy filing if additional financing couldn't be found.
Sirius Subs Double, But Trouble Looms
Digital satellite radio is one of the most promising entertainment developments since the invention of the DVD. It's also a high-risk venture for investors.
Sirius Supports The Bottom Line
Sirius Satellite Radio is concerned about The Bottom Line. Not the company's profitability, but the venerable Greenwich Village music cabaret, which has suffered since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Sirius Surges
Industry observers have long debated the ultimate fate of satellite broadcaster Sirius Radio. Front-runner XM Radio, with more than two million subscribers, is already above the break-even point, but for many months Sirius struggled against technical problems and overwhelming debt. Would the fledgling survive, get devoured by its larger competitor, or worse, get picked up in a fire sale by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.?
Sirius to Go
Sirius">http://www.siriusradio.com">Sirius Satellite Radio may be positioned to make the next great leap forward. In mid-May, Kenwoodhttp://www.kenwoodusa.com">Kenwood; and Audiovoxhttp://www.audiovox.com">Audiovox; announced the first transportable receivers, which will let Sirius listeners enjoy the service wherever they go—home, office, boat, beach, etc—not only in the comfort of their cars.
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Software Pirates No Longer Safe in Brazil, say Lawmakers
February 20---Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazil's president, has signed into law two bills intended to rein in that nation's widespread abuse of intellectual properties and bring Brazil into compliance with worldwide copyright law. One covers software piracy; the other, authorship rights.
Some Discs Are More Super Than Others
Monster Cable has begun shipping a new series of "SuperDiscs"—specially remastered, limited edition CD/DVD combinations and special release DVDs—designed to excite audio consumers about high-quality multichannel music possibilities.
Some Rights Reserved
Running counter to the music industry's paranoia concerning the perils of modern digital technology, some musicians want you to share their music—within limits. GarageBand.comhttp://www.garageband.com">GarageBand.com;, which bills itself as "the world's largest musician community," announced June 7 that it now offers the Creative Commons Music Sharing License as an optional tag for all songs uploaded to its website.
Somebody Let Them Know It's Not Quite Set Yet . . .
In anticipation of the upcoming 1.0 DVD-Audio specification (see previous">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10236/">previous article), Sonic">http://www.sonic.com/">Sonic Solutions and Warner">http://www.warnerbros.com/frame_moz3_day.html">Warner Music Group wasted no time in announcing their intent to collaborate in creating new multichannel high-density recordings to showcase the new format. Warner was one of the first major labels to deliver music via CD, and Warner's video division has never been shy in their support of Open-DVD for video. So it comes as no surprise that they're one of the first major music houses out of the gate for the audio version of DVD.