Last year in late October, Universal Music Group finally <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11476/">announced</A> its first set of SACD titles and the high-rez format's supporters jumped for joy. Then, at the January 2003 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Universal stood on the podium next to Sony and announced several key SACD releases from the Police, Peter Gabriel, and others.
It's no secret that the music industry has added watermarking to its arsenal in an effort to restrict how audio content is used. With SACD, DVD-Audio, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11604/">now CD</A>, audio watermarking has been used mainly for digitally stored content. But the music business also has problems with live concert bootlegs as well as bootlegs surfacing after special broadcast events.
Audiophiles know <A HREF="http://www.linn.co.uk">Linn</A> as a high-end consumer electronics company, creator of such products as the legendary LP12 turntable, compact amps, preamps, and speakers, and the innovative <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/497/">Kivor</A> hard-disk music server.
Record labels have found that CDs with built-in restriction technologies have not worked in all CD players, have been <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11341/">incompatible</A> with some computers, and have engendered considerable backlash from irate consumers. But why should that stop them?
Corporate consolidation has been likened to gravity: an inexorable, hard-to-resist force of nature always lurking in the background. <A HREF="http://www.dm-holdings.com">D&M Holdings</A>, parent company of Denon and Marantz Japan, has clearly felt its effects, announcing last week its latest acquisition: <A HREF="http://www.mcintoshlabs.com">McIntosh Laboratory</A>.
In some ways, entrepreneurs resemble the folks who fix your roof: When they see a hole somewhere, their job is to find a way to fill it. Long-time high-end audio veterans Mel and Howard Schilling and Doug Goldberg say they have spotted a hole in the audio market and are getting ready to launch a new company to fill it.
Combine the challenge of establishing a start-up with the launch of an entirely new consumer electronics market and you've got the recipe for a highly volatile and explosive brew. But news of a successful $1.2 billion re-capitalization announced last week indicates that three-year old digital radio pioneer <A HREF="http://www.sirius.com">Sirius</A> will likely remain intact—at least for now.
One of the most significant trends in audio, witnessed at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, is the emergence of the music server market. Pioneer, Panasonic, Marantz, Meridian, Onkyo, Rotel, Philips, Linn, and others have emphasized audio products that can be networked with each other and the Internet, and are able to share content throughout a home. Pioneer even suggests that networks will not necessarily involve a PC, but instead consist of dedicated music-server-like components.
It has become commonplace these days for a hot album to hit the streets days—if not weeks or even months—before its official release, inspiring all manner of stupid promo tricks on the part of record labels. Pearl Jam's recent <I>Riot Act</I> was distributed to the press in portable CD players with the lids glued shut and last week saw the White Stripes record label create 500 promo vinyl LPs of the group's impending <I>Elephant</I> release in place of the traditional advance CDs in an effort to stymie the digital pirate's plans.
It's tough to know which CDs, SACDs, and DVD-Audio discs have been restricted through watermarks or other "copy protection" techniques. This has created a thriving underground community, with websites such as <A HREF="http://www.fatchucks.com">Fat Chuck's</A> devoted to sussing out the corrupted audio products and posting notification to consumers.