New Laws May Doom Second-Hand CD Sales
John Mitchell, an outside counsel for the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), warns that Florida and Utah have passed second-hand goods legislation (familiarly known as "pawn-shop laws") that could make the buying and selling of used CDs extremely unprofitable for stores and inconvenient for consumers trying to unload music they no longer wish to own.
New Legislation Proposed to Restrict Fair Use
On our regular visit to the Electronic Freedom Foundation's (EFF) Deep">http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004340.php">Deep Links website last Friday, we were alarmed to learn of proposed US Senate broadcast flag legislation that includes provisions to limit fair use to "customary historic use of broadcast content by consumers to the extent such use is consistent with applicable law."
New Life For An Old Musical Style?
Who says classical music is having trouble finding a contemporary audience? According to the latest Arbitronhttp://www.arbitron.com/">Arbitron; webcast ratings, for December, 2000, classical music and internet-only webcaster Beethoven.comhttp://www.beethoven.com">Beethoven.com; ranked number one with the most aggregate tuning hours (ATH) for the month. ATH describes the sum total of all hours that listeners tune to a given channel.
New Meridian 800 Combo Player Pushes Performance Envelope
Is there a computer in your audio future? Meridianhttp://www.meridian-audio.com/">Meridian; thinks so. An expensive new flagship disc player hints at things to come at more affordable prices. Working at the far edge of the digital playback frontier, the UK company has just announced its 800">http://www.meridian-audio.com/p_800s.htm">800 Reference, a new combination CD/DVD player, built like a computer, that takes digital audio and video playback to a new level. The player "sets the bar for DVD and CD reproduction," according to a June 16 press release.
New NARM Report Outlines the Future of Digital Distribution
According to a report just released by the National">http://www.narm.com">National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), Digital distribution—particularly streaming technology—will seriously disrupt the music industry, but has the potential to "benefit all segments of the business if companies can leverage their traditional strengths and create compelling consumer value propositions."
New Onkyo CD Recorder Will Debut at CEDIA
CD recorders are the hottest ticket in audio at the moment. Philips and Marantz once dominated the category, but other manufacturers have recently jumped on board with their own versions, among them Pioneer and Harman/Kardon. Onkyohttp://www.onkyo.co.jp">Onkyo; will introduce its DX-RD511 dubber later this month at the 1999 CEDIAhttp://www.cedia.org/">CEDIA; Expo in Indianapolis. The machine is expected to arrive in stores in October—just in time for the holiday season.
New Partnership Hopes to Make the Web Secure for Recording Artists
MP3 audio files have quickly become the dominant format for downloading music over the Internet, and have just as quickly raised the ire of music labels and artists looking to protect their musical assets. For example, a petition signed by nearly 400 European recording artists (including Mstislav Rostropovich and Barbara Hendricks) was handed to the European Parliament last Tuesday by French composer Jean-Michel Jarre to protest lax copyright protections exacerbated by digital technology. The petition states, in part, "We want to use new digital technologies like the Internet to create and to deliver our music, but we will only feel confident doing so if we know that the laws are there to stop our works falling victim to pirates."
New Products
Lexington, KY–based Thiel">www.thielaudio.com">Thiel Audio has announced a new line of SmartSub subwoofers, "designed as the ultimate solution for bass management and reproduction in home theater and music sound systems." The line includes the SS1, SS2, SS3, and SS4 subwoofers, the SmartSub Integrator, and the PX02 and PX05 Passive Crossovers, a group of products said "to offer the most seamless and realistic low frequency reproduction possible." Company president Kathy Gornik describes the new line as "the world's first intelligent subwoofers."
New Products Abound
Manufacturers sometimes suspect that they have been intentionally slighted if they don't get mentioned in a Stereophile show report. The truth is that the overwhelming enormity of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) prevents even the most aggressive journalists from seeing everything. (SGHT editor Tom Norton may be the sole exception.)
New Products at Montreal's Sonor Filtronique
An opportunity to return to Sonor Filtronique came sooner than expected: I was invited there for a September 4 new-product launch co-sponsored by AudioQuest, Wilson Audio, Audio Research, and dCS America. Encouraged by the dual prospects of good sound and a chance to enjoy the beautiful city of Montreal without an overcoat, I booked my train ticket right away.