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Group Claims RIAA Does Not Speak for All Musicians
Jon Iverson  |  Oct 22, 2000  |  0 comments
The Recording Industry Association of America has recently been getting press ink by the bucketful for its defense of the music business against the perils of the Internet. But the Future of Music Coalition is urging the US Copyright Office to be wary of efforts by the RIAA to establish itself as the sole and exclusive collection agent for digital performance royalties for sound recordings. Instead, the Coalition has proposed that an independent body would be a more appropriate vehicle to collect and distribute these and other monies, including Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 royalties.
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EMusic's MP3 Subscription Service: All You Can Eat for $10
Jon Iverson  |  Oct 22, 2000  |  0 comments
The online music world has been hit by one jolt after another as the record labels go after anyone they can slap with the "music pirate" label. In response, the e-sharks smell blood and are circling. Internet music-distribution company EMusic sent out a press release recently making the assertion that "now that Napster and MP3.com are both on shaky legal ground, many downloadable-music fans are going to be looking for compelling, 'legitimate' alternatives."
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Willie Nelson's Night and Day slated for DVD-Audio release October 31
Jon Iverson  |  Oct 22, 2000  |  0 comments
It may still be a trickle, but at least a little music relief has reached the parched throats of audiophiles awaiting the arrival of DVD-Audio discs. Last week saw the announcement that Aaron Neville's latest CD release will also hit stores as a multichannel DVD-A on Immergent Records on October 24. This week sees the announcement that another recording legend, Willie Nelson, will soon take the plunge.
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Picture Improves for MP3.com with Pending Licensing Agreement
Barry Willis  |  Oct 22, 2000  |  0 comments
Widely assumed to be at death's door, streaming-audio site MP3.com may be on the rebound after reaching a preliminary agreement October 19 to license more than one million songs from the National Music Publishers' Association, Inc. (NMPA) and the organization's primary subsidiary, the Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA). Individual music publishers represented by the Fox Agency must approve the agreement before it can take effect.
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Added to the Archives This Week
Stereophile Staff  |  Oct 22, 2000  |  0 comments
John Atkinson shuffles his feet a little and finally mutters, " . . . Convergence." He laments, "I swore I wasn't going to use the 'C' word, but when you're faced with writing about a product that smashes the boundaries between component categories as completely as the CardDeluxe does, you have little choice." JA reviews the Digital Audio Labs CardDeluxe PC soundcard and answers the pointed question: "But it's only a PC soundcard. What's the big deal?"
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SDMI Evaluating Hundreds of Submitted Hacks
Barry Willis  |  Oct 22, 2000  |  0 comments
With $60,000 in award money as incentive, the hacker community is helping the Secure Digital Music Initiative find out just how secure six proposed watermarking technologies really are. On October 12, as SDMI representatives were testing the audibility of three of the watermarks, the organization announced the closure of a month-long challenge it had offered hackers: break the code. According to the terms of the challenge, each defeated technology will mean $10,000 to a successful hacker.
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Added to the Archives This Week
Stereophile Staff  |  Oct 15, 2000  |  0 comments
Kalman Rubinson gives a long listen to the 1998 Stereophile Editor's Choice winner, the Z-Systems rdp-1 digital preamplifier. Like many audiophiles, Kal eschewed tone controls in favor of the purist approach—until he met the rdp-1. As he puts it: "Now, the time has come for DSP to give the audiophile some powerful tools to tailor frequency response and to correct faults in the recording."
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SDMI Conducts Phase II Watermark Tests in Nashville
Barry Willis  |  Oct 15, 2000  |  0 comments
Last night I saw him on the stair—
the little man who wasn't there.
I saw him there again today;
oh, how I wish he'd go away.
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BMG Plans to Have It Both Ways
Jon Iverson  |  Oct 15, 2000  |  0 comments
The most common complaint about record companies: CD prices are too high. In fact, many blame Napster's runaway success on the insistence of "greedy labels" on pricing discs at $15 or higher. Apparently BMG Direct, a division of BMG Entertainment, has put two and two together and found it equals $9.99.
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Will Watermarking Really Work?
Barry Willis  |  Oct 15, 2000  |  0 comments
Mastering engineer Denny Purcell let out a long sigh. "Does anyone in this room really believe that any of this is going to do any good?" he asked. Of the eight or nine people—each with decades of experience in the music and/or audio industries—hanging out at Georgetown Masters Studios in Nashville for SDMI's Phase II listening tests, no one said "Yes." The consensus: The watermarking issue will probably be dead and forgotten within a year.
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Aaron Neville Reveals His Devotion to DVD-Audio
Jon Iverson  |  Oct 15, 2000  |  0 comments
Following on the heels of its announcement last week of the first commercially available DVD-Audio disc (Swingin' for the Fences, by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band), Silverline Records says that Aaron Neville will become the first major artist to release an album in the format. Silverline expects that, on October 24, Neville's solo album Devotion will be released on DVD-A. The disc will also include audio tracks compatible with standard DVD players.
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Warner Music Group Releases First DVD-A Discs
Stereophile Staff  |  Oct 08, 2000  |  0 comments
After a difficult gestation, DVD-Audio may finally be moving toward becoming a market reality now that a major record label has stepped forward to support it. Warner Music Group (WMG) has issued several recordings in the new format, covering a range of genres. DVD-A is "the most significant industry format launch since the introduction of the CD nearly 20 years ago," according to an October 2 WMG press release.
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Added to the Archives This Week
Stereophile Staff  |  Oct 08, 2000  |  0 comments
Slap echo got you in a flutter? Jonathan Scull writes, in "Fine Tunes" #27, that "last month I delved into avoiding reflective, parallel-wall slap echoes from ruining your audiophile day. But I've since learned of a perfectly useful workaround that's much less costly and involved than horsing around the Sheetrock." George Cardas lends a hand.
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Independent Record Label Claims First DVD-Audio Release
Jon Iverson  |  Oct 08, 2000  |  0 comments
Warner Music Group may have just announced its first DVD-Audio titles (see related story), but an upstart independent label is claiming the first DVD-A discs actually available for sale. In an attempt to establish itself as the leader in the new DVD-Audio format, 5.1 Entertainment Group's Silverline Records says it has begun shipping the first commercially available 24-bit/96kHz DVD-Audio disc, Swingin' for the Fences, by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band.
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CEA Promoting Audio with Free Gear for Students
Barry Willis  |  Oct 08, 2000  |  0 comments
You want to grow your market, you've got to plant some seeds. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is doing just that with the BuzzNet 2000 tour, a traveling educational event that will hit college campuses beginning this month, as reported last week.
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