Toshiba Announces E-commerce Plan
In early June, Toshibahttp://www.toshiba.com/">Toshiba; will institute a new retailing program that embraces the Internet but favors traditional retailers. The electronics manufacturing giant will have "a defined group of Internet retailers" that will be built on a base of traditional retailers, according to an announcement made in late April. Later, the program will be expanded in stages to include Internet-only retailers. The announcement follows an">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10662/">an announcement by Sony Corp. late in January that Sony would begin direct Internet sales this year.
Total Audio Sales Up Nearly 10% in First Quarter
The Consumer">http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) reports that factory-to-dealer sales of audio products soared in March, with dollar volume increasing by 14% over March 1999, to a total of more than $721 million. According to the CEA, sales in the first quarter of this year were 10% ahead of first-quarter 1999, at approximately $1.75 billion.
Tower Can't Wait for no RIAA
Getting a jump on the RIAA's move to create a new music-download standard (see">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10338/">see related article), Tower Records announced last week that it will feature a new song-download service, created by Atlanta-based amplified.comhttp://www.amplified.com">amplified.com;, on the Towerrecords.comhttp://www.towerrecords.com">Towerrecords.com; website.
Tower Emerging from Chapter 11
Tower">http://www.towerrecords.com">Tower Records should be back in fighting form on Monday, March 15 when a Delaware bankruptcy court rules on the company's reorganization plans.
Tower Records Liquidated
Even after a two-day auction and federal bankruptcy court approval of a $134.3 million bid by the Great American Group, which has stated that it plans to liquidate the music retailer, it's not precisely clear what is in store for Tower Records.
Tower Records: No Bankruptcy
The fate of Tower">http://www.towerrecords.com">Tower Records has been the subject of music industry speculation for months. The company's financial difficulties have been no secret; several stories recently appeared alluding to a new Tower">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11041/">Tower policy of making some suppliers share the burden—especially distributors of small specialty classical labels.
Traitors In Our Midst
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. This is especially true for music lovers who have begun to fear that record companies purposely">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11261/">purposely corrupt the data on audio CDs in an effort to restrict their use as a source for copies or MP3 files.
Treble Clef Audio and Vinnie Rossi at AXPONA 2026
Miguel Barrio checks out Treble Clef Audio's TCA-M Signature active speaker; a new, as yet unnamed Vinnie Rossi phono preamplifier; and a Vinnie Rossi Brama preamplifier at AXPONA 2026.
Treehaus Audiolab
Can you judge an exhibitor's products by the music he plays? Perhaps not, but when I walk into a room playing "Hotel California," that mad percussion ditty "Music for Bang, Baa-Room and Harp," 90s grunge (footnote 1), or God No! Jazz at the Pawnshop, it's all I can do to stay put and not scream.
TriangleArt's Gold Almost Goes Solo
Ensconced in one of the Hilton Long Beach's larger rooms, Tom Vu had intended to present an all-TriangleArt system until the Great Egyptian Shipping God in the Sky announced total displeasure at the state of the world. Demanding a sacrifice for our collective sins, GESGitS blew a gasket and chose as his victims TriangleArt's Metis loudspeakers ($59,999/pair), which never reached the Hilton Long Beach. Borrowed Usher speakers saved the day.