Watermarked CDs?
Record labels have found that CDs with built-in restriction technologies have not worked in all CD players, have been incompatiblehttp://www.stereophile.com/news/11341/">incompatible; with some computers, and have engendered considerable backlash from irate consumers. But why should that stop them?
Watermarking Companies in Patent Dispute
Can pirate chasers attend to business while accusing each other of piracy? Digimarchttp://www.digimarc.com">Digimarc; and Verance">http://www.verance.com">Verance Corporation, two competitors in the digital watermarking race, have been swapping accusations over patent infringements.
Watermarking in the Studio
As digitally recorded music moves through the recording and production chain, it can be handed off to a variety of studios, musicians, producers, record label executives, and mastering engineers. Sometimes this is done with a recordable CD or DVD, sometimes with a portable hard disk, and sometimes via a high-bandwidth Internet connection. Somewhere along the way, a good percentage of those files (some estimate up to 80%) get copied in an unauthorized manner and quickly end up on">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11585/">on the Internet or on the street as pirated CDs before any official discs are released.
Watermarking, High-Resolution Audio Big Topics at AES
For the 109th convention of the Audio">http://www.aes.org/">Audio Engineering Society, the main floor of the L.A. Convention Center was transformed into a bazaar of new tools for audio professionals—but the panel discussions upstairs were where the real action took place. On Friday, September 22—just an hour before researchers Dr. Stanley Lipshitz and John Vanderkooy of Ontario's University of Waterloo presented a paper offering a mathematical proof for the "imperfectability" of one-bit delta-sigma recording systems—Sony Corporation issued a clarification of the technical standards for its Direct Stream Digital technology, the basis of the Super Audio Compact Disc. DSD, it now appears, is a one-bit technique as it applies to consumer playback systems, but uses a multi-bit PCM quantizer [presumably within a delta-sigma converter negative-feedback loop; see an article on this subject in the forthcoming November issue of Stereophile—Ed.] at the recording and mastering ends of the business. (The Lipshitz/Vanderkooy paper is available as AES preprint #5188.)
Watermarking: Back to Square One?
In December, after months of conducting listening tests with audio professionals in the US, the Secure">http://www.sdmi.org/">Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) choose a watermarking technology from Verance">http://www.verance.com/">Verance Corporation for DVD-Audio copyright protection. Test results had indicated that Verance's system was the least detectable of the contenders under consideration.
Watermarks Added to Broadcast Audio?
Amid news that its watermark technology for DVD-Audio may have been compromisedhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/11026/">compromised;, Verancehttp://www.verance.com">Verance; nonetheless announced last week the launch of its "ConfirMedia" watermarking service. The company says that ConfirMedia will monitor and report the airplay of encoded commercials, music, and programs broadcast by television, cable and radio stations in the 100 top US markets and on the national feeds of major broadcast and cable television networks in the US.
Web Fee Agreement
Webcasters will pay a new royalty rate to the recording industry, as of April 3.
Web No Threat to Traditional Media, Finds Arbitron Newmedia Study
This may come as no surprise to Stereophile's website audience, but a report released last week finds that the heaviest users of the World Wide Web are also avid consumers of traditional media, listening to CDs and radio and watching television as they point their browsers to e-commerce, informational, and recreational sites.
Web Radio News
When I submitted my Records 2 Die 4 selections this past winter, it seemed inevitable that I include a web radio station. Not only had I enjoyed listening to www.techwebsound.comhttp://www.techwebsound.com">www.techwebsound.com; more than anything else last year, but it had exposed me to more new music and led to more music purchases than any other source—by a wide margin.
Web Royalty Deal Near Completion
A long-running dispute between the music industry and small webcasters may have come to an amicable conclusion. Over the weekend of October 5-6, representatives from both sides agreed on a system of royalties to be paid to record labels and artists based on a percentage of webcaster revenue or expenses, rather than on a per song basis. Last summer, Librarian of Congress James Billington decreed that all webcasters should pay a royalty rate of 0.07¢ per song per 1000 listeners. Many small webcasters, including many college radio stations, chose to go offline rather than face fees they couldn't afford.