In a move that is likely to push record labels into the uncharted territory of direct sales, <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com">BMG</A> 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.
Fiscal year 1998 will be one of diminished expectations for <A HREF="http://www.harman.com">Harman International Industries</A>, Chairman Dr. Sidney Harman announced last week to assembled analysts and fund managers at a meeting in New York. He laid much of the blame on the continuing economic slump in Asia.
Digital radio company <A HREF="http://www.worldspace.com/">American Mobile Radio Corporation</A> announced last Wednesday that it has exercised a $52.9 million option to upgrade its satellites. The move will potentially double the channel capacity of AMRC's nationwide satellite-direct audio radio service (SDARS), scheduled for the year 2000.
The "world's largest bookstore" may be on its way to becoming one of the biggest music stores, too. Two weeks ago, <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com">Amazon.com</A> began a big push into CD retailing, more than doubling the number of its musical offerings to over 100,000 titles. (Competitor <A HREF="http://www.cdnow.com">CDnow</A> offers over 500,000 titles.) Visitors to the Amazon website can now click on a tab that will take them to a new music site, where they can listen to audio previews and read reviews, reprints of articles on bands and musicians, and music-industry news.
On June 7, <A HREF="http://www.cdnow.com"> CDnow</A>, the world's top online music retailer, announced that it had acquired <A HREF="http://www.supersonicboom.com">superSonicBOOM</A>, an Internet custom-compilation disc business. The acquisition gives CDnow the ability to offer its customers custom discs as well as catalog product, said Jason Olim, CDnow President and CEO.
Engineering facilities and a finished-goods warehouse at <A HREF="http://www.altecmm.com">Altec Lansing Technologies</A>' Milford, Pennsylvania, headquarters were damaged by fire late Sunday, May 31. The blaze was said to have been exacerbated by severe weather. No injuries were reported.
The practice of "Transshipping"---selling a product outside one's designated territory---is widespread in the audio industry. It's commonplace for dealers to sell not only to walk-in customers, but also over the telephone or Internet to customers in other dealers' territories, usually at discounted prices. While not problematic on a small scale, the practice favors large-volume dealers over smaller ones, and is almost always a violation of a dealer's agreement with a manufacturer.
Software giant <A HREF="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft Corporation</A> has entered the audio market with a satellite-and-subwoofer speaker system for use with personal computers. The Digital Sound System 80 made its debut at this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), held May 28-30 in Atlanta's World Congress Center. The system was designed in conjunction with <A HREF="http://www.philips.com">Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands</A>, one of the world's largest electronics companies.
In a move that establishes its leadership in the entertainment business, <A HREF="http://www.seagram.com/">Seagram Company</A> has purchased <A HREF="http://www.polygram.com">PolyGram NV</A> from <A HREF="http://www.sv.philips.com/">Philips Electronics NV</A> of Holland. The deal was valued at $10.6 billion.
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 <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A> sponsors an annual conference to help deal with the problem.