Are You Listening to a Radio Station Right Now?
The Internet is having a startling effect on radio, as evidenced by a new report released by The">http://www.arbitron.com">The Arbitron Company, entitled "Arbitron Internet Listening Study: Radio in the New Media World." Arbitron concludes "that Internet broadcasting is a fast-growing medium which presents both challenges and opportunities for radio broadcasters."
Are You Ready For the Transporter?
Slim Devices, the company best known for the Squeezeboxhttp://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/306Bstph.html">Squeezebox<…;, has announced what it is billing as "the most advanced networked audio system available." At Stereophile, we hear this claim all the time, and it usually means that a computer peripheral company has added another USB port to a product aimed at the MP3 crowd.
Arista Records Faces Tough Sledding in Davis's Absence
One of the most astute bits of folk wisdom is the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
ArkivMusic Mines the Greats
ArkivMusichttp://www.arkivmusic.com">ArkivMusic;, one of the Web's leading sources for classical music recordings, has struck a deal that enables them to release on their own reissue label, ArkivCD, out-of-print titles from the extensive catalogues of EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, and Angel Records. The reissues are available "on demand," copied from actual out-of-print CD releases (not master tapes) without compression or enhancement, and are often accompanied by copies of the original liner notes.
ArkivMusic Resurrects Out-of-Print Warner Classics Titles
ArkivMusic.com has just signed a deal with Warner Classics to reissue, on demand, out-of-print recordings from Teldec, Erato, and Warner Classics. The site's first 300 offerings from the Warner USA catalog, available at the end of October, will join the more than 4000 other out-of-print titles from EMI, Sony/BMG, Universal Music Group, and two dozen independent classical music labels now available on demand from ArkivMusic on ArkivCD. An additional 1000 ArkivCD reissue titles should become available by the end of 2007.
Art Dudley, Rest in Peace
The hi-fi world has lost a giant, and we at Stereophile have lost a brother.
Art Dudley passed peacefully this morning around 4am after a short illness. The cause was metastatic cancer.
Artistic Freedom Act of 2003
Tuesday, May 6, 2003 could be a turning point in the contentious history of recording artists and record labels. On that day, hundreds of American musicians will converge on Albany, NY in support of the Artistic Freedom Act of 2003. If passed, the bill would give artists unprecedented freedom in negotiating and terminating recording contracts.
Artists Take On Record Companies
Vivendi Universal's Universal">www.umusic.com">Universal Music Group will establish a settlement fund of approximately $4.75 million to pay royalties to as many as 300 artists and their heirs. The fund is the result of a lawsuit brought by torch singer Peggy Lee, who had accused the music giant of accounting improprieties reaching back as far as the 1940s.
ASCAP and Liquid Audio announce Strategic Alliance
On April 15, ASCAPhttp://www.ascap.com/">ASCAP; (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), the music performing-rights organization, and Liquid">http://www.liquidaudio.com">Liquid Audio, a developer of secure online music delivery systems, announced a strategic alliance to protect ownership of music on the Internet. According to a Liquid Audio press release, the initiative encourages, streamlines, and simplifies music-rights licensing and reporting, and will benefit website creators as well as music writers, publishers, and composers.
ASCAP Goes After Online Pirates with EZ-Seeker
Are order and justice coming to the lawless frontier of the Internet? The American">http://www.ascap.com/">American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers has a new tool for cracking down on unauthorized use of copyrighted material on the Internet. Developed by Online">http://www.omservices.com/">Online Monitoring Services, EZ-Seeker is "web crawler" software that tracks down music and then issues license forms to the users of that music. The announcement followed by less than a week the news (see previous">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10208/">previous report) of the Recording">http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industry Association of America's $750,000 settlement from makers of unauthorized "DJ compilations" of hit songs.