NHT's Happy Ending
If you read Stereophile's audio news regularly, you'll frequently see items such as XYZ Audio Acquired by Megalomart, Inc. Have you ever wondered about what that really means? I haven't, and I write those stories. Heck, now that I think about it, over the last eight years, Stereophile has even lived one of those stories.
No Agreement in Sight for Watermarking Issue
As digital distribution grows, the protection of copyrighted material---music, film, video, photographic images, paintings, drawings, and text---becomes ever more important. Tied to this are widespread concerns about maintaining security during online transactions---keeping credit-card numbers and customers' identities hidden from would-be thieves.
No Digital Allowed at David Michael Audio
Brinkmann Balance turntable
Friday, February 17, 59pm: David Michael Audio (4341 Delemere Court, Royal Oak, MI) will host an Evening of Turntables and Vinyl featuring outstanding new pressings from ORG. In addition, all ORG releases will be available for purchase. Space is limited. For more info, e-mail info@davidmichaelaudio.com, call (586) 244-8479, or visit David Michael Audio.No Merger for CDnow, Columbia House
The courtship between two music-retailing giants is over. CDnowhttp://www.cdnow.com/">CDnow; and Columbia">http://www.columbiahouse.com/">Columbia House have decided to call off a merger that had been in discussionhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10496/">discussion; since last summer. The official explanation from executives close to the deal was a sharp decline in Columbia House's profitability over the past several months.
No Show for T.H.E. Show
The Home Entertainment Show—aka T.H.E. Show—which was originally scheduled for June 12–14 in the Long Beach Hilton, has canceled for 2020. According to a May 13 announcement, T.H.E. Show team of President Maurice Jung and Director of Marketing Emiko Carlin had hoped to postpone the event until December 2020. Not happening.
No Slowdown in File Sharing
Napster may be down for the count, but audio file-sharing is more popular than ever, according to a study released October 10 by research firm Jupiter">http://www.jmm.com">Jupiter Media Metrix Inc.
Noisy E-mail and Recordless Record Companies
E-mail spam just got a lot noisier thanks to AT&T's a2b">http://www.a2bmusic.com">a2b music and BMG">http://www.bmg.com/">BMG Entertainment. (See previous stories 1http://www.stereophile.com/news/10198/">1;, 2http://www.stereophile.com/news/10133/">2;.) Last week, they announced that BMG will deliver the first "mass communication" of a2b MAIL to the consumer databases of each of its websites, www.bugjuice.comhttp://www.bugjuice.com">www.bugjuice.com; (alternative and rock music), www.peeps.comhttp://www.peeps.com">www.peeps.com; (urban music), and www.twangthis.comhttp://www.twangthis.com">www.twangthis.com; (country music).
Nonesuch Donates $1 Million to Katrina Relief
On August 29, Nonesuch Records gave its first donation of $1 million to Habitat for Humanity International. The funds, raised in only eight months through sales of 150,000 copies of Nonesuch's superb benefit album Our New Orleans 2005, will be used to build homes for displaced musicians and others in the New Orleans Habitat Musicians' Village, whose centerpiece will be the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music.
Nordic Entertainment Adopts MusiCode Watermarking
On April 8, Nordic">http://www.nordicdms.com/">Nordic Entertainment Worldwide announced that it has adopted ARIS Technologies' MusiCode audio watermarking system. The Napa, California-based company operates the Downloadable Music Site, one of the Internet's most extensive music archives. MusiCode is an attempt to discourage piracy by embedding signals in recorded music, which can later be extracted for tracking the recordingÆs origin.
Nordost & Cambridge Audio Seminar in Pittsburgh Saturday
Saturday, February 10, 10am3pm, Northern Audio (3003 Babcock Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA 15237) welcomes Mike Marko of Nordost Corporation and Bob Scranton of Cambridge Audio for their "2018 Audio Innovations" seminar. Mr. Marko will provide the latest product demonstrations and cable comparisons, while Mr. Scranton will present how the right gear makes music lovers' lives better.