Study Predicts $42.8 Billion Music Market by 2005
The global market for music could reach $42.8 billion within five years—more than $7.5 billion higher than the present level, according to a recent study by PriceWaterhouseCoopershttp://www.pwcglobal.com/">PriceWaterhouseCoopers; and Wilkofsky">http://www.wilkofskygruen.com/">Wilkofsky Gruen Associates. In the about-to-be-released study, The Global Entertainment & Media Outlook: 2000–2004, the firms make their prediction based on buying patterns and other economic factors in several regions of the world.
Study: Filesharing Shows No Slowdown
Napster may be down for the count, but its millions of former members are happily swapping audio files elsewhere, according to an October 10 report from technology research firm Jupiter">http://www.jmm.com">Jupiter Media Metrix Inc.
Subscriptions or Charge by the Track?
In an effort to move their businesses into cyberspace, record labels and audio content distributors are still experimenting with their online formulas. Key to the new economic models for selling music over the Net is this question: Would you rather pay a monthly subscription fee to download music, or pay for music track by track? According to market researcher Gartner">http://gartner11.gartnerweb.com/public/static/home/home.html">Gartner Group, sites that plan to sell music via the subscription model should seriously reconsider.
Suing the RIAA
We've reported many times on the mass lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against individuals or institutions that it alleges are illegally participating in peer-to-peer file-sharing activities, so we felt it only fair to report on a lawsuit where the trade group is being sued. Actually, the RIAA's attorneys are being sued by James and Angela Nelson, who were themselves the target of Motown v. Nelson, which alleged that the couple had allowed an employee of Ms. Nelson's home-run daycare center to access P2P websites from their computer.
Summer Against Hunger
As it has for the last 12 years, The">http://www.thecableco.com/">The Cable Company, along with many of its vendors, is dedicating August to help some of "the poorest people in the most ravaged regions of the world."
Summer Begins with a Frenzy of Music-Related Lawsuits
Music industry attorneys may not enjoy much of a summer vacation. The season got off to a litigious start with a flurry of lawsuits by and against record labels and music-based websites.
SunnComm Buys DarkNoise
SunnCommhttp://www.sunncomm.com">SunnComm; and others have been trying for years to find ways to prevent consumers from copying music discs. While their success in preventing digital copies has">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11754/index.html">has been mixed, lurking in the background was a problem many felt could never be solved.
SunnComm Upgrades MediaMax
Efforts to restrict the ways consumers use music they have purchased continue unabated. SunnCommhttp://www.sunncomm.com">SunnComm; (along with its sales and marketing arm MediaMaxhttp://www.mediamaxtechnology.com">MediaMax;) has announced that its "newest patent-pending passive technology makes it even more difficult to bypass or 'hack' the copy protection structure contained on the MediaMax CDs."
SunnComm's Ups and Downs
The last few weeks have been a roller-coaster ride for CD copy-restriction developer SunnComm. The company was riding high in early September when it was announcedhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/11734/">announced; that BMG and Arista had chosen its MediaMax CD-3 Technology to restrict how discs are used.
Sunny Components Scores Again, this time with Vinnie Rossi Brama, Meitner MA-3, Neodio Origine, Bowers & Wilkins 802D4 with DB1D sub, AudioQuest, and HRS
Only as I was leaving this room did Theresa Merchant tell me that when she, her husband Sunil, and the Sunny Components team first encountered the abysmal acoustics in this room, they thought all was lost. Thanks to the set-up acumen of David Ellington, AudioQuest Director of Sales for Independent Dealers, and a bunch of acoustic paneling, the room was a major success.