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One of the challenging attributes of the new DVD-Audio format is the ability to release music in high-resolution multichannel (four or more) sound. For some this will be a thorny issue: Can previously released recordings be remixed to take advantage of the extra channels without sounding gimmicky? Should classical and/or live recordings use the surround channels for concert-hall ambience? How long will it be until consumers even care about setting up their systems to take advantage of more than two full-bandwidth channels?

BluePort Jazz's catalog of 15 titles, recorded in jazz clubs and studios by Jim Merod, is now downloadable in lossless FLAC format from the House">http://www.houseoflinn.com">House of Linn website. Merod—a PhD professor, an author of numerous books, a music critic for Enjoy the Music.com, and an equipment reviewer for Positive Feedback Online—is known for recording with as few microphones as possible and mixing everything live to two tracks in high-resolution (24-bit/96kHz) PCM format.

I never "got" the spurs with which Jimmie Lee Robinson provided a percussive accompaniment to his singing and guitar playing, but I became a fan of Jimmie Lee's when I saw him perform on two successive nights at Acoustic">http://www.acousticsounds.com">Acoustic Sounds' first blues festival in Salina, Kansas in September 1998. His subsequent live appearances at Consumer Electronics Shows and at HI-FI '99, Home Entertainment 2001, and HE2002 on behalf of Acoustic Sounds' associated APO">http://www.analogueproductions.com">APO label, were highlights of those events. (I took the accompanying photo at Jimmie Lee's May 31 HE2002http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">HE2002; gig in New York with harmonica player Wild Child Butler.)

Tom Fine reports on the impending merger between BMG Rights Management GmbH, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann Group, and Concord Music Group.

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.

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.