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Last week, BMG">http://www.bmgentertainment.com/">BMG Entertainment, the music and entertainment division of Bertelsmann">http://www.bertelsmann.de/">Bertelsmann AG, revealed that it will join several other major labels (see previous stories EMIhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10798/">EMI; and Universalhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10814/">Universal;) by bringing its own digital downloads to the Internet this September. The company says that it will start with approximately 50 songs and 50 complete albums, to be made available via several retail Web outlets at prices ranging from $1.98 to $3.49 per song and from $9.98 to $16.98 per album.

Five years after opening a research office in Moscow, BMG">http://www.bmg.de/">BMG Entertainment has launched an affiliate called BMG Russia OOO, which will work from the capital. The intent is to develop the Russian market for BMG products, discover and sign new musical talent—and combat piracy.

In a move that is likely to push record labels into the uncharted territory of direct sales, BMGhttp://www.bmg.com">BMG; has announced its intention to add in-house sales to its network of music sites. "BMG will be moving in the fall to its own fulfillment capability because of the demands of consumers," said senior vice president Scott Dinsdale at the Business Online 98 conference in San Francisco last week.

The most common complaint about record companies: CD prices are too high. In fact, many blame Napster's runaway success on the insistence of "greedy labels" on pricing discs at $15 or higher. Apparently BMG Direct, a division of BMG">http://www.bmg.com/">BMG Entertainment, has put two and two together and found it equals $9.99.

On January 19, Bertelsmann">http://www.bmgentertainment.com/">Bertelsmann Music Group Entertainment announced changes in senior management that include a new chief financial officer and new directors for its American and European divisions. A major division of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann">http://www.bertelsmann.de/">Bertelsmann AG, BMG suffered the loss of music industry veteran Rudi">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10930/">Rudi Gassner shortly before Christmas. Gassner, who had been slated to become CEO of BMG, died of a heart attack while vacationing in Bavaria.

More compact discs that attempt to restrict how you use them are coming to a record store near you. BMG announced last week that its Arista Records division will be the company's first label in the US to release a commercial CD using copy-restriction technology.

The age of downloadable digital music is showing signs of maturing. Territory that was explored by hobbyists, pirates, and startup companies eager to stake their claims will soon yield to the irresistible force of multinational conglomerates.

The "Big Five" of the recorded music industry is one step closer to becoming the "Big Four," according to late-January reports from Frankfurt, Germany, home of Bertelsmann">http://www.bertelsmann.de/">Bertelsmann AG. Bertelsmann is the parent company of Bertelsmann">http://www.bmg.com/">Bertelsmann Music Group, which has been in merger discussions for several months with the United Kingdom's http://www.emigroup.com/"> EMI Group PLC. Discussions are near completion, according to a BMG official.

Some musicians are remembered for a single remarkable album; some are remembered for a hit song—Bo Diddley will always be remembered for a beat. That eponymous beat—a rhumba-inflected Bomp a-bomp-a-bomp, bomp, bomp—may well have been "the most plagiarized rhythm in rock," as Rolling Stone claimed in 2005.

On September 8, the international custom-installation trade association CEDIA named J. Robert Stuart, co-founder of Meridian Audio Ltd. and Inventor of MQA, as this year's Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. Stuart will be recognized at the annual CEDIA Awards Celebration at CEDIA EXPO on October 17, 2015.