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In a move that establishes its leadership in the entertainment business, Seagram">http://www.seagram.com/">Seagram Company has purchased PolyGram">http://www.polygram.com">PolyGram NV from Philips">http://www.sv.philips.com/">Philips Electronics NV of Holland. The deal was valued at $10.6 billion.

In an effort to make computers more useful as audio systems, MusicMatchhttp://www.musicmatch.com">MusicMatch; and Xing">http://www.xingtech.com/">Xing Technology recently announced MusicMatch Jukebox, a digital audio management software program for the consumer market.

This past week, The">http://www.avacademy.com/">The Academy Advancing High Performance Audio & Video (AAHPAV) released its 1998 Golden Note Awards Nominations.

Returned products are problematic for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers. Returns have always eaten into profits in the audio and video business. Everybody knows that. What isn't widely known is that the Consumer">http://www.cemacity.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association sponsors an annual conference to help deal with the problem.

On May 18, 1998, James D. Dunning, Jr., Chairman and CEO of the Petersen Companies, Inc., announced an agreement to acquire Stereophile Magazine and Stereophile Guide to Home Theater---two of this country's leading high-end audio and home-theater publications---as well as HI-FI '98, The Home Theater & Specialty Audio Show.

Media conglomerate Viacomhttp://www.viacom.com">Viacom;, parent company of http://blockbuster.com"> Blockbuster Music, has reportedly put the ailing chain on the auction block. Most likely buyer is Torrance, California-based music retailer Wherehouse">http://wherehouse.com">Wherehouse Entertainment, Inc., which has 220 stores of its own, primarily on the West Coast. On Wednesday, May 13, Reuters news service reported that Wherehouse had tendered an offer of $200 million for Blockbuster. Wherehouse has been in intermittent discussions for several months with Viacom.

Author and television producer Howard J. Blumenthal has completed his Jazz and World Music CD Listener's Guides, the first two volumes in a four-volume series. The publications include brief biographies of the top artists in each genre, arranged alphabetically, and hundreds of short reviews of the discs the author considers essential.