News

We were taking our morning constitutional around the Interwebs one day last week when we happened upon an article on Timesonline titled "Why">http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music… Music Really Is Getting Louder". Oh boy, we thought, a mainstream outlet is catching on to the whole issue of dynamic compression—a subject we have inveighed against repeatedly over the years. (JA first preached that particular sermon back in 1999http://stereophile.com/asweseeit/177/">1999;.)

ArkivMusichttp://www.arkivmusic.com">ArkivMusic;, one of the Web's leading sources for classical music recordings, has struck a deal that enables them to release on their own reissue label, ArkivCD, out-of-print titles from the extensive catalogues of EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, and Angel Records. The reissues are available "on demand," copied from actual out-of-print CD releases (not master tapes) without compression or enhancement, and are often accompanied by copies of the original liner notes.

On May 30, Apple officially launched iTunes Plus, billed as "DRM-free music tracks featuring high-quality 256kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings." The initial material available from the iTunes Plus section of the iTunes Media Store is, for the moment, limited to EMI artists, although other labels have announced pending deals with Apple. The "improved" songs sell for $1.29 rather than the standard 99¢.

The Home">http://blog.stereophile.com/he2007/">Home Entertainment Show 2007 held May 11—13, 2007, at the Grand Hyatt New York Hotel in New York City, will be remembered by exhibitors, consumers, and visiting media as a well-attended showcase of some of the finest home-entertainment products available.

On May 23, Sonoshttp://www.sonos.com/">Sonos; announced the release of Sonos Software v 2.2, which adds Pandora's">http://www.pandora.com/">Pandora's personalized Internet radio service to Sonos' wireless multi-room music systems.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has taken its first giant steps into the digital domain. Hard on the heels of launching the orchestra's new in-house CD label, CSO Resound, it has announced a partnership with digital distributor IODA that will make CSO Resound recordings available for download via iTunes, Yahoo! Music, Rhapsody, Napster, Verizon, Sprint, and other online retailers.

It's not that we're jaded, but most mornings as we open the day's press releases, we manage to curb our enthusiasm as we read of the breakthroughs du jour. Yet, when we read that Steinway & Sons and Peter Lyngdorf had collaborated (as Steinway Lyngdorf) on a $150,000 "Steinway & Sons Model-D Music System," we knew we had to hear it.