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On December 19, the Concord Music Group announced its acquisition of Telarc International Corporation, which includes the venerable audiophile label Telarc and the instrumental jazz and world music label Heads Up. Concord already owned many formerly independent labels such as Peak, Playboy Jazz, Stretch, and Concord Picante; in 2004, it acquired Fantasy Records, which encompassed Milestone, Pablo, Prestige/New Jazz, Riverside/Jazzland, Stax/Volt/Enterprise, Specialty, Takoma, and others.

Last week, www.stereophile.com posted an article concerning Pollara, Inc.'s Canadian Recording Industry Association–commissioned 144-page">http://www.stereophile.com/news/032006cria/">144-page report on the downloading habits of Canadian music consumers. We reported that the University of Ottawa's Dr. Michael Geist interpreted the Pollara data differentlyhttp://michaelgeist.ca/component/option,com_content/task,view/id,1168/I…; than the polling group did, in particular noting his conclusion that people who had downloaded music had legally purchased more music than their counterparts who had never done so.

There is a war of words—and numbers—being waged in the struggle over copyright infringement and the illegal copying of music. Downloading music is a boon to the music industry, claim some, because it leads to increased sales of CDs. Others present statistics that undeniably prove that downloading will be the death of the music business.

It's been a tough couple of years for those who like to make digital copies of audio recordings. What started with SCMS copy-restriction schemes in DAT machines has quickly spilled over into current digital formats such as those proposed for DVD-Audio. But a glimmer of hope has shone through the haze.

Is community radio at death's door? More than 1000 churches, schools and community organizations nationwide have applied for licenses to operate 10W-100W FM stations. Despite a strong grass-roots movement, and the support of Federal">http://www.fcc.gov/">Federal Communications Commission chairman William Kennard, the low-power radio (LPFM) movement is about to be buried by the combined weight of the National">http://www.nab.org/">National Association of Broadcasters, National">http://www.npr.org/">National Public Radio, and their many friends in the US Congress.

The Recording">http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industry of America is among the many organizations celebrating the recent ratificationftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/thomas/c105/h2281.ih.txt">ratification; by the U.S. Congress of two treaties signed by more than 100 nations at the 1996 World Intellectual Property Conference in Geneva.

The slippery slope established by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 could soon get much slipperier. Three major media conglomerates have teamed up to pressure the Federal Communications Commission to drop the remaining restrictions on the ownership of broadcasting stations.