SoundScan survey showed an increase in legal downloads of music from 55
million the first half of 2004 to nearly 159 million for the same
period this year. Legal downloads of single tunes accounted for 6% of
total sales, compared to less than 2% last year. However, actual sales
for the music industry have decreased 2.5% so far this year – the drop
blamed on weak album sales.
Universities Curbing lllegal Music File Sharing – With the
faster connections provided, universities and colleges were where the
peer-to-peer downloading of free music and movies started. Now a
number of such institutions are taking steps to cut down on illegal
file sharing among students. More than 50 of them now offer legitimate
music services to their students. University of California and
California State U. have deals with CDigix to provide music and movie
downloads to 600,000 students on 36 campuses for $3 a month for music
and $6 for videos.
First Woman Conductor of Major U.S. Orchestra – Marin Alsop has
been named Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony, becoming the very
first woman selected to head a major American orchestra. Some
members of the symphony dissented from the decision, saying their
opinions were not heard and they had wanted to audition more candidates.
FCC Urged to Adopt Digital Radio Standard – With hundreds of
stations already broadcasting digitally, receivers are not yet widely
available. The problem seems to be that authorization for
multiple audio and data streams has not yet been made a part of the
IBOC (In-Band On-Channel) Digital Radio standards. The Consumer
Electronics Association (CEA) has urged the FCC to adopt the NRSC-5
standard to provide the needed confidence to receiver manufacturers,
broadcasters and consumers to invest in digital radio and thus to
ensure its success. The ability to transmit multiple audio
streams over a single channel will enable broadcasters to enhance their
service to the public, and will fuel a demand for IBOC digital radio
receivers.
