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The roller-coaster fortunes of MP3.comhttp://www.mp3.com/">MP3.com; took a downturn April 28, when US district judge Jed S. Rakoff found in favor of the Recording">http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industry Association of America in its copyright-violation suit against Internet music site MP3.com. Investors in the once–high-flying startup immediately began unloading shares of the company's stock, which had dropped 40% by the end of the trading day.

It's been an up-and-down week for consumer-electronics companies, as revealed by recent earnings reports surfacing around the globe. First, the bad news: Sonyhttp://www.sony.com">Sony; reports that its profits fell 32% in the latest fiscal year, and cites the strong yen for depressing the value of the consumer-electronics and entertainment company's overseas earnings.

Progress toward a working digital radio technology took a big step forward in April with the addition of Lowpass">http://http://www.lowpassprototype.com/">Lowpass Prototype Inc. to the development team. According to an April 27 press release, USA">http://www.usadr.com/">USA Digital Radio, Inc., a privately held digital radio technology company owned by the nation's largest radio broadcasters, has added the manufacturer of radio-frequency systems for radio and television transmission to its coalition to develop and commercialize digital AM and FM radio.

Can Jah Atkinson believe his ears? The PS Audio Power Plant P300 touched an audio nerve with JA, who interviewed the designer, Paul">http://www.stereophile.com//interviews/222/">Paul McGowan: High-End Survivor, for the May 2000 Stereophile. As a bonus, we include JA's">http://www.stereophile.com//accessoryreviews/181/6">JA's follow-up to Robert Deutsch's review of the P300, also from the May issue.

The healthy trend for the audio market continues: the Consumer">http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association reported last week that revenues from factory shipments of audio products to dealers this February increased by 8% over last February, to a total of $542 million. "The fantastic sales in February spurred the year-to-date total for audio sales to more than $1 billion; a 6% increase over the first two months of 1999," said the CEA.

The numbers are looking better for MP3.comhttp://www.mp3.com/">MP3.com;, the music-archiving site under attackhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10657/">attack; by the Recording Industries Association of America and its allieshttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10708/">allies;. Despite the legal pressure, MP3.com has seen its revenues surge as the popularity of downloadable music continues to grow. On April 20, the San Diego–based company reported that its revenue increased to $17.5 million for the first quarter of 2000 compared to $666,000 for the same period a year earlier. MP3.com now has 10 million registered users, according to CEO Michael Robertson.

They may sing about death and destruction, releasing albums with titles such as 1983's Kill 'em All, but underneath the menacing exteriors, Metallicahttp://www.metallica.com">Metallica; is really just a group of sensitive artists.