The copy cat will soon be out of the bag down under. Australia's musical copyright society has reluctantly agreed to the deployment of CD-copying kiosks throughout the nation in exchange for what an Australian news site calls "a modest royalty payment" of about 6% of the $5AUS copying fee—or 30¢ per disc.
<I>Stereophile</I> writers and editors were saddened to learn of the June 27 death of colleague Timothy White, editor-in-chief of <A HREF="http://www.billboard.com"><I>Billboard</I></A> magazine. White collapsed of an apparent heart attack in an elevator at <I>Billboard</I>'s New York offices and died shortly thereafter at St. Vincent's Hospital. He was 50.
If you've ever hunted for a song title or a performer's name on the Internet, you've probably used <A HREF="http://www.cddb.com">CDDB</A>, the Compact Disc Database.
Some Webcasters were given a stay of execution in late June, when the Librarian of Congress announced that they would be required to pay royalties at half the rate proposed by an arbitration panel last winter.
Using personal computers to listen to music may be heresy in some audiophile circles, but the practice is definitely on the rise. Recognition of the fact has led at least one maker of computer motherboards to introduce a model with a vacuum-tube audio circuit.
It's still too early in the game to guess what a profitable music download business might look like, but it's clear that it won't involve highly restricted access—or high prices.
Some ultra-high-end two-channel specialists may still be singing the blues, but others in the electronics retailing business are humming happier tunes.
Companies that thrive do so by adapting to a changing market. Sony is revamping its manufacturing and marketing plans in an attempt to become both more efficient and more responsive to consumer needs.
Beginning next year, <A HREF="http://www.xmradio.com">XM Satellite Radio</A> won't merely offer 100 channels of news, sports, talk shows, and the entire spectrum of music nationwide. Thanks to a partnership announced May 30 with <A HREF="http://www.commandaudio.com">Command Audio Corporation</A>, XM will allow listeners to personalize their radio programming.
The music industry was much in the news in late May, with file-sharing lawsuits launched, Web royalties deferred, the payola system attacked, and an artists-and-record labels coalition questioning the homogenization of radio.