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Well seedie, you're missing the text surrounding that statement which was (approx.) from a few dollars for the flash-based players up to several hundred dollars for our portable audio/video type products.
Not to worry you really captured the essence of it and painted it in a very fair light I might add LMAO.
Keep chippin away pal..
Report: 8% of U.S. Online Households Possess 1,000 Digital Music Files
Port Washington, N.Y. -- According to a new report, nearly two-thirds of
U.S. homes with Internet access also possess at least one digital music
file on their computers, while only 8 percent report possessing 1,000 or
more songs -- an amount the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) has deemed "egregious" enough to warrant suing individuals for
copyright infringement. Fifty-six percent of U.S. online homes report
having at least 50 digital music files on their computers. The report,
published by New York-based NPD Group, also found that two-thirds of all
digital music file acquisition can be attributed to file sharing, with the
remainder mainly accountable to ripping tracks directly from CDs. "A
majority of people have a very basic experience with digital music;
however, there clearly are a small percentage of users who have taken
advantage of file sharing services to compile massive libraries." said NPD
Group vice president Russ Crupnick. "The RIAA's focus on those sharing the
most files makes sense."
http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_030910.htm
Thanks Tenderloin. Do you have a link to the spec sheet?
Clunky looking with a smaller screen but definitely the type of competition we have to fear the most...
http://www.rockwellcollins.com/ps/products/videowalkman/
I wonder if they have any content partners lined up and if this will ever see the light of day? Obviously this mock-up would suggest Sony but as this product stands they look to be little in the way of competition so far...
While you are at it, ask them why they have to pay themselves a comission for each rental of a unit which you claim they already own??? Seems odd to me.--owd3
Well since they won't own the majority of content on the unit, either movies or commercials, what is it that you don't understand?? Sheesh!
Small-Jet Shocker
Mon Sep 8,11:00 AM ET
By Rick Karlgaard
On July 31 an alien-looking airship made of carbon fiber with two tails flew 774 nautical miles from its hatching grounds in Englewood, Colo. to the annual air show in Oshkosh, Wis. This strange, small jet, called the A700, is made by a company you've probably never heard of, Adam Aircraft Industries. It could shake up the business-travel market as nothing has since the arrival of the Boeing 707 in 1958.
Do you dream of a nationwide air taxi service? Boy, I do. Commercial air travel, let's agree, is modernity's great triumph. (Ninety percent of Americans have flown, a tripling over 30 years.) But its utility to business travelers is in decline. Now we must queue up like prisoners and trudge through endlesssecurity lines, shoeless and under thepresumption of guilt. Greater hassles await. In August the FBI (news - web sites) arrested a man trying to sell shoulder-fired missiles to terrorists. You figure it out.
Air taxis promise liberation from all this. If you don't hope for a bright new dawn of air taxis, you're too rich (with a jet of your own, thank you) or brain dead.
Hope alone won't take us to the promised land of private mass transport. For that we need bold entrepreneurs and favorable economics. Economics first. NASA (news - web sites) has studied the air taxi possibility and thinks it will happen. But only when private jets bring down a ticket price to under $2 per passenger mile. Today's generation of small jets, such as Cessna's six-seat Bravo or Raytheon's six-seat Premier, cost too much.
Can any jet manufacturer hit the $2-per-passenger-mile ticket price? Good news: Several are trying. Eclipse Aviation of Albuquerque, N.M. has raised $410 million from Microsoft founders Bill Gates (news - web sites) and Paul Allen and others to build a six-seat jet and sell it for $1.2 million. But Eclipse, the cheap-jet pioneer, has stumbled. It gambled on a new lightweight engine and lost--too fragile (see Digital Rules, Dec. 23, 2002). Switching to a heavier Pratt & Whitney engine will cost Eclipse two years of development time. Then last year Cessna, an aviation bigfoot, announced its entry, the $2.7 million Mustang. Nice plane, but not so cheap.
Textbook Disruption
The surprise winner could turn out to be Adam Aircraft, with its odd double-tailfin--or "twin boom," to be precise--A700 jet. The A700 will be priced at $1.9 million and offer a cabin size equal to $5 million jets from Cessna and Raytheon.
In mid-August I visited Adam Aircraft founder and CEO Rick Adam at his Centennial Airport headquarters near Denver. We toured his factory for three hours, then enjoyed an entrepreneur's lunch of chicken burritos and diet Cokes at a nearby mall. Adam described a textbook case of disrupter tactics.
Start with time and money. Cessna will spend $250 million to develop its Mustang, certify it with the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) and bring the jet to market in 2006. Eclipse has raised an eye-watering $410 million and is also hoping to deliver its Eclipse 500 by 2006. Adam, by contrast, will spend only $50 million to bring the A700 jet to market two years before Cessna and Eclipse! Amazingly, the A700 is Adam Aircraft'ssecond airplane. The first is a twin-piston airplane, the A500. It costs $900,000 and cruises 35% slower than the A700 jet, even though it uses the same composite fuselage and twin-boom tail. The A500 will ship this December.Seventy buyers have written checks.
Hands down, Adam Aircraft wins the time-and-money battle. Precisely what a disrupter must do.
So how did Adam do it? Rick Adam ticks off five reasons:
** Rapid Prototyping. In a previous career Adam was the CIO and a senior partner at Goldman Sachs. He turned around Goldman Sachs' IT operations and got the bank to see technology as a medium for profit. Adam's secret? "Big goals, small bites, rapid iteration."
** Frugal Spending. "For example, we use $35,000 supply-chain software on mail-order PCs," says Adam.
** Carbon Fiber Design. Bypassing traditional aluminum cuts development time by 75%. "Simpler tooling and less labor," Adam explains.
** Modularity. "The Burt Rutan twin-boom design is original," Adam says. "All the rest, from engine to avionics, is off-the-shelf." Adam says Eclipse made a classic entrepreneur's mistake of innovating on too many fronts at once: design, engine, avionics and manufacturing.
** 24/6 schedule. Adam employs double shifts. Each employee works 12-hour shifts in a three-day workweek. And Adam adds a seventh day whenever needed. This company moves fast.
I've met a thousand or more entrepreneurs in my life. Rick Adam lands in the 99th percentile. Which means--yes!--air taxis could happen.
Visit Rich Karlgaard's home page at www.forbes.com/karlgaard or email him at publisher@forbes.com.
Ray Henson, Technical Services Manager. Ray came to PC Pros with a diverse background in computers, security, and photography. In 1987 Ray joined the US Army where he worked as an intelligence analyst and counter-intelligence agent. Upon leaving the Army, Ray continued to pursue a career in information technology by working as a MIS manager for a casino, the Director of Information Services at a hospital and at Intel as a lab manager and software engineer in the high-end server division. Ray came to work for PC Pros in 1999 as our Technical Services Manager and has kept us in step with leading technology.
OT? On Command to Be Acquired by Liberty Media Corporation
Tuesday September 9, 8:01 pm ET
DENVER, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- On Command Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: ONCO - News), a leading provider of in-room interactive services, business information and guest services for the lodging industry, announced today that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with its indirect parent corporation, Liberty Media Corporation (NYSE: L - News and LMC.B - News), through which Liberty Media would acquire the approximately 26% of the issued and outstanding shares of On Command common stock not already owned by Liberty Media and its affiliates.
If the merger is consummated as planned, each issued and outstanding share of On Command common stock not owned by Liberty Media or its subsidiaries would be converted into the right to receive 0.166 of a share of Liberty Media Series A common stock, subject to adjustment under certain circumstances. Shares as to which appraisal rights under Delaware law have been validly exercised will not be converted into Liberty Media shares in the merger. If the implied value of the exchange ratio is less than $1.90 or more than $2.10 per share of On Command common stock, based on the average market price of the Liberty Media Series A common stock during the five trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the closing of the merger, then the exchange ratio will be adjusted upward or downward, as applicable, to yield an implied value of $1.90 or $2.10 per share, respectively, based on such average market price. Any adjustment of the exchange ratio to more than 0.190 of a share of Liberty Media Series A common stock for each share of On Command common stock will be at Liberty Media's sole discretion. If Liberty Media determines not to increase the exchange ratio further, then the exchange ratio would be fixed at 0.190 and On Command would be entitled to terminate the merger agreement. Any decision of the On Command board of directors to terminate the merger agreement would be made by vote of the independent directors.
The transaction was negotiated and approved by a committee of the Board of Directors of On Command composed solely of independent directors. Credit Suisse First Boston served as financial advisor to the committee of independent directors. Consummation of the merger is subject to the approval of the merger agreement by the shareholders of On Command and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The transaction would be taxable to On Command shareholders.
About On Command
On Command Corporation ( www.oncommand.com ) is a leading provider of in-room entertainment technology to the lodging and cruise ship industries. On Command is a majority-owned subsidiary of Liberty Satellite & Technology, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: LSTTA - News, LSTTB - News).
On Command entertainment services include: on-demand movies; television Internet services using high-speed broadband connectivity; television email; short form television features covering drama, comedy, news and sports; PlayStation video games; and music-on-demand services through Instant Media Network, a majority-owned subsidiary of On Command Corporation and the leading provider of digital on-demand music services to the hotel industry. All On Command products are connected to guest rooms and managed by leading edge video-on-demand navigational controls and a state-of-the-art guest user interface system. The guest menu system can be customized by hotel properties to create a robust platform that services the needs of On Command hotel partners and the traveling public. On Command and its distribution network service more than 1,000,000 guest rooms, which touch more than 300 million guests annually.
On Command's direct-served hotel properties are located in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, and Argentina. On Command distributors serve cruise ships operating under the Royal Caribbean, Costa and Carnival flags. On Command hotel properties include more than 100 of the most prestigious hotel chains and operators in the lodging industry: Accor, Adam's Mark Hotels & Resorts, Fairmont, Four Seasons, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Hyatt, Loews, Marriott (Courtyard, Renaissance, Fairfield Inn and Residence Inn), Radisson, Ramada, Six Continents Hotels (Inter-Continental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn), Starwood Hotels & Resorts (Westin, Sheraton, W Hotels and Four Points), and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
The foregoing are "forward-looking statements" which are based on management's beliefs as well as on a number of assumptions concerning future events and information currently available. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside On Command's control. For a more detailed description of the factors that could cause such a difference, please see On Command's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On Command disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there by any sale of, securities in any jurisdiction in which the offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: On Command Corporation
What the world needs now...
Simon & Garfunkel back together again
By Larry Fine
maybe they can show these kids what real music and lyrics sound like--damn I feel old...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Folk-rock troubadours Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel have put aside their personal squabbles and have announced they will reunite for the first Simon & Garfunkel U.S. concert tour in 20 years.
Simon and Garfunkel, boyhood friends who sold more than 40 million albums in the United States alone during their collaboration, will launch the "Old Friends" 32-city tour at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Michigan, on October 18.
Simon's desire to strike out on what became a spectacular solo career, and subsequent tussles over royalties and credit for their collaborative work, are generally seen as what drove apart the old partners, now both 61.
"It was a friendship that was estranged," Simon told a news conference on Tuesday at the Greenwich Village rock club The Bottom Line.
"Whatever it was, the squabbles, it was time to say forgive and forget and move on."
Simon said the genesis of the reunion came at last February's Grammy Awards when they were honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
They performed together for the first time in nearly 10 years when they opened the telecast with a performance of "The Sound of Silence," and decided to bury the hatchet.
The pair played a series of shows in New York back in 1993 and a few shows in Japan that same year. But they have not undertaken a full-fledged tour since they played venues across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia in 1982 and 1983.
The duo, who recorded their first single in 1957 when they were known as 'Tom and Jerry,' went on to release hit albums ""Wednesday Morning, 3 AM" (1964), "Sounds of Silence" (1966), "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme" (1966), "Bookends" (1968) and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (1970), and the movie soundtrack "The Graduate" (1968).
'LIKE FAMILY'
"This is a very deep, old friendship," said Garfunkel, who went to high school with Simon in the New York borough of Queens. "It's like family for the two of us. Our moms know each other."
Simon said he knew they would still have their sweet vocal blend, featuring Garfunkel's soaring harmonies, that made them so distinctive. The pair went ahead and proved it with live renditions of "Old Friends," "Homeward Bound," and "The Boxer," to cheers from a media throng of about 200 people.
Simon said the duo would concentrate on performing their Simon & Garfunkel hits, which won them five Grammy awards in their heyday, in the big-arena concerts.
"We would like to stay as close to the spirit of the Simon & Garfunkel period and our work in the '60s and early '70s," Simon said. "We don't intend to reimagine that work."
Simon said they would work with a seven-piece band.
"I'll be the eighth," said Simon, who strummed his acoustic guitar during Tuesday's performance.
"And I'll be the ninth," chimed in Garfunkel, gesturing to his throat. "You know my voice is an instrument."
Simon rolled his eyes at that, but a grin quickly emerged in understanding of his old friend.
OT Certified to Fight Terrorism
Companies Seek the Department of Homeland Security's Seal of Approval for Their Products
By Matthew Swibel, Forbes.com
Special to ABCNEWS.com
Sept. 9 — Len M. Henrikson, 59, of Roseburg, Ore., is using the Web to sell a plastic air-filtering and pressuring system designed to wipe out toxins in the event of a terrorist attack. He's sold $250,000 worth over the past five months.
But he has a problem: His American Safe Room can't get liability coverage from insurers. Now, Henrikson thinks he's hit on a solution: Get the new federal Department of Homeland Security to protect him legally by awarding his product its seal of approval.
He's not alone. Thousands of businesses are lining up to take advantage of a provision in the Homeland Security Act of 2002 that instructed DHS to begin certifying antiterrorism products and services on Sept. 1.
How many of these products will actually help prevent or counter terrorism? Not all, of course, but companies have an incentive to get questionable products through if they can: Certified products will enjoy protection from liability suits — similar to the protection defense contractors get — when they are purchased by the 22 federal agencies under DHS, or by other state and local employees fighting terrorism. Even better, lawyers say this good-homeland-keeping seal of approval should also provide at least some defense in private suits.
Consider the marketing angle. "It will make it easier to sell," says Bryan Ware, chief executive of Digital Sandbox of Reston, Va., which has sold its terrorism risk-assessment software to the U.S. Department of Justice, among others. So he's now scouting for a plugged-in K-street lawyer/lobbyist to guide him through the certification maze.
Those lawyers are already plenty busy. Even before Sept. 1, companies were angling to have their products considered eligible for certification.
San Diego-based Qualcomm argued in a letter to the DHS that its software to run mobile communications devices should qualify because the 450,000 commercial trucks equipped with such devices "are uniquely positioned to report terrorist events."
Global Technology Resources of Starkville, Miss., made a pitch for its Web-based programs that help companies trace contaminated meat. "Lives depend on it," it declared.
Underwriters Laboratories asked that its product safety standards be certified because plaintiff lawyers might hold the standards accountable if antiterrorism technology fails.
SBC Communications wants its telecommunications network certified. It intends to resell a portion of it to governmental entities for notifying citizens of threats. "These notifications," SBC wrote, "might result in mass hysteria, interruption of business operations and even car accidents. However, the liability of all those in the supply chain should be limited."
An Internet trade group representing Verizon Communications and other companies wants its members' Internet services certified because they play a "unique and pivotal role as a conduit for deployment of antiterrorism technologies."
Then there's Unisys. In August 2002, it won a contract with the new Transportation Security Administration that's worth up to $1 billion over seven years. At the time, the company was given oral assurances it would ultimately get liability protection. Negotiations for that protection were interrupted by the passage of the Safety Act. Now, a senior Unisys executive says impatiently, "I want to see some conclusion to this request."
So when will the certifications start flowing? By law, the DHS has only 150 days to rule on an application once it's formally submitted. But it hasn't yet issued final regulations governing the process, and President Bush's nominee to run the certification area is still awaiting Senate confirmation.
Moreover, the department has hired only 12 attorneys and an estimated 50 in-house program managers to consider the applications, which are expected to number in the thousands.
"The DHS is very understaffed,'' says Booth Jameson, director of global government affairs for Electronic Data Systems. "It could be a real headache."
To ease the pain, DHS is planning an informational road show to five cities, with dates to be determined.
For more, go to Forbes.com..
And this time it's us...the company is following thru and making good on it's promises....and that's a good thing
You're missing online reservations of tickets/devices made by credit card and the swipe with the portable cc scanner that APS will also introduce this weekend...there's more but this is not the forum
Now here's progress LOL... US Airways has started letting customers buy a headset for in-flight entertainment for $5, and bring it back for the next flight, as opposed to having to rent ...
Since digEplayers can be carried on any flight, there are many options.
1.
Purchase digEplayer System at a fraction of installed IFE cost and make profits on rentals.
2.
Revenue Share with APS System with initial investment of 1/10 of installed IFE cost and some profits on rentals.
3.
Let APS handle entire program for your airline;will distribute units only at gates of flights you assign, long haul and/or competitive routes.
In either case:
*
Save on Weight/Fuel vs. an Installed System Savings – 50 Aircraft, 5 Years = $15,000,000
*
Eliminate Installation/Repair Downtime/
Lost Revenue – 50 Aircraft, 3 days @ $65,000 lost revenue per day = $10,000,000
Other significant advantages:
*
No installation
*
No down time or lost revenue or
months of scheduling.
*
digEplayers rolled on board in 10 minutes.
*
No weight, no wiring, no worry.
*
Great backup for installed IFE aircraft.
Why delay a flight, waiting for an IFE screen or seat problem? Give passenger his own digEplayer.
If we make insanely great products and they never sell to the mass market in any significant way, we will always be in the dumpster. We are definitely wildcatting here and have seen a lot of dry holes..maybe this won't be a gusher but it sure could go a long way to getting us over the hump...
MIR, still takes money to make money some things never change. Yes we are "testing the waters again" however it's really not that different than any other company. How much is MSFT making on the Xbox? Point is, they have money to burn and we do not...at least not any more LOL.
lickily, I've never been impressed with their ease of use in the past.. e.g. everyones need to fumble around for three bucks to rent the headphones to listen to the one movie offered on their now passe built in IFE systems...
Since many will rent the players when they book online (which Alaska offers a $10 discount for doing--gee, that pays for the player!)they will already have credit card info for many passengers. Now if they are sophisticated about it once you rent online you will be able to eventually load content a couple of days before your flight so you have the most up to date stuff available if you so choose. The wireless billing unit they are launching should make it convenient to catch all those passengers who did not rent online..
On a six hour flight, you could technically watch at least 3 movies. It seems to me, there will be some billing for any movies or content viewed after an initial freebie...
lickily, it wouldn't seem to be too hard imo. If the users can now select among 9 different movies I am guessing they can watch more than one and the billing is being tracked after return of the device. Just put a catalog on and know that once you select and item for purchase from the catalog it will be billed to the credit card you rented the digEplayer with. Would not require wireless per se imho...
8-10 dollars is fantastic..very accessible.eom
File-sharers scoff at lawsuits
By Shawn Langlois, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 6:51 PM ET Sept. 8, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- The recording industry continued to push mounds of paper Monday, filing suit against 261 people for allegedly pirating songs on file-sharing Websites like Kazaa.
That leaves about 59,999,739 to go.
But if the countless tune-swappers trolling through cyberspace were intimidated by the spate of lawsuits, you wouldn't know it. The consensus message from a bounty of cavalier posts aimed at the Recording Industry Association of America became abundantly clear: Bring it on!
Nanuk, for example, heartily pounded his chest along with his cronies on Yahoo: "You can take away my MP3's when you pry my mouse out of my cold dead hands."
It's all about the money, according to Tnintbubse: "Consumers will not tolerate their price gouging and they need to come up with something else besides suing college kids. The industry has gone unchecked too long and has passed the cost down to us. Now they are crying."
Howler24 drew a line of futility between what he feels are two ill-fated crusades: "Yes, you can cry and moan about the 'evils' of drugs and file sharing. But when you're through foaming at the mouth, you have to realize that they are BOTH here to stay. No law, no court can change that. The best thing to do is to control it and make it profitable, instead of driving it underground."
Needless to say, the RIAA's option for file-sharers to turn themselves in didn't go over to well. See full story.
From Rmonster: "I have a feeling that anyone who signs up for this 'amnesty' is going to find themselves up the creek. Sending a notarized copy of your ID and statement that you did, in fact, break the law (in their eyes at least) does not sound like amnesty, but suicide."
As Apophis sees it, the RIAA is out of touch "It's time for the RIAA as we know it to go away and an agency more in tune with the 21st century needs to be put in its place. One that looks forward and not stuck in decades old business practices."
Though greatly outnumbered, some did play devil's advocate --AndyCane, for instance, didn't see much wiggle room for the virtual apologists: "I'm no huge fan of the RIAA, but they have a right to protect their copyrighted material and (neither) you, nor I, nor anyone else, has the right to 'share' it without paying for it, at least not on the scale that it's done on file-sharing sites."
Then, of course, there was plenty of cheeky advice. This morsel from SkyPilotTB: "Stop book sharing. Sue libraries."
And WWWFairfield hinted at hopping aboard the Justin and Britney bashing bandwagon with his take: "Look at the top ten -- THAT explains why sales of CDs are lacking. Stop looking for pretty faces and recruit real musicians to record and sell music."
Finally, ArbaCadarba painted the picture just about everyone on line has been clamoring for since the rise and fall of Napster: "Now what I would love to see is all music artists selling their stuff directly to music lovers, bypassing the music industry completely.
"That would bring more money to the artists, more music to the people, and the extra pleasure of watching rich music industry execs pulling their hair out."
Shawn Langlois is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com, and the editor of its community message boards.
MIR, imvho I think this is where our work with Actel's anti-fuse FPGA is coming into play. Part of the secure platform is using mOS in this regard imo. In conjunction with proprietary connections, which have been mentioned, I suspect we are securing the content in this way as well. Finally DivX's DRM platform would be the final key imo.
Self contained, encrypted/secure video, audio and games – refreshed every 30 to 60 days:
20-30 full length movies; early release, classics
Cartoons, sitcoms, games, business seminars, language courses Many hours of digital quality music and/or music video
Airline route maps, airport maps, destination and travel information
Airline advertising and revenue; 30 second spots and fixed ads:
Destination advertising; menu driven; hotels, restaurants, entertainment
Promotion of airline’s own travel packages, spots, featurettes, ads.
A self-contained system. Carried on board
or flight attendant hands out.
6+ hour computer battery or run off
seat AC or DC power
Compact - 12 units and 12 extra batteries in one under seat case
Weighs 2.4 pounds with battery 48 units = 115 pounds
Can save more than 2,000 pounds over an installed system
2,000 pounds saved = approx $80,000 fuel/year
Don’t have to haul IFE weight on empty or short flights
Thats $80,000 fuel/year/plane no doubt and so with a fleet of 20 planes $1.6 million/year savings...There is no doubt that this is the future of airline entertainment. Just waiting to see how big our role will ultimately be..
Very cool moxa1. Thanks.
I don't know drag they might need port-a-jons LOL.eom
Whatever BD any marketing is better than none. The products will speak for themselves....or they won't. But to suggest that having a presence at a music festival attended by a hundred thousand or so music fans is a negative is truly absurd...
HP, Ford, they're there because they're employees are huge REM fans??
Yeah, right.
Same reason, build brand, sell product....by whatever means necessary
Another fox in the henhouse. Thanks so much fred you are truly a prince...
New RIAA Chief Seeks a Hit Single
16 minutes ago
Add Technology - washingtonpost.com to My Yahoo!
By Robert MacMillan, washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Mitch Bainwol stops talking and a puzzled look settles over his face. He's sitting at the Daily Grill on 18th and M streets in the heart of Washington, D.C., and something is not right.
He reaches for his Blackberry handheld messaging device, stares at the screen and says in a quiet, almost perplexed tone, "I haven't gotten any messages for an hour."
For Bainwol -- an influential lobbyist and former Republican congressional aide -- this is unusual. As the new head of one of the most controversial and powerful industry associations in town, he is a man in demand.
Bainwol, 44, was largely unknown outside the Beltway until last month when he accepted the top job at the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites).
But all that's about to change, as he prepares to lead the recording industry's campaign against the millions of people who illegally download and trade songs on the Internet.
Congressional staffers and the K Street lobbying community say that Bainwol is the natural choice to represent the world's biggest record labels in their race to stop Internet music piracy.
"He's bright, he's tough and his word is golden," said Greg Farmer, a senior vice president at Nortel Networks and at one time Bainwol's rival on the campaign trail.
It's Hip to Be Square
Music is not Mitch Bainwol's passion, and he's never used a file-sharing service like Napster (news - web sites) or Kazaa. NCAA (news - web sites) college basketball is where this Georgetown graduate's extracurricular interests lie.
Of medium height with short dark hair, the standard-issue white shirt and suit pants, Bainwol, looks like the part of a D.C. lobbyist. One Democratic operative described him -- apart from his ever-present Blackberry -- as "the world's least hip-seeming guy."
Hipness is not part of the RIAA job requirement, even if he's the new Washington voice of the music world's hottest acts. Representing the interests of the nation's largest recording companies -- and to a certain extent their stable of artists -- with unparalleled zeal is the primary mission. And, as his predecessor Hilary Rosen demonstrated in her seven-year tenure, a take-no-prisoners policy is the necessary modus operandi.
In interviews with numerous sources for this profile, a collective picture emerges of Bainwol as someone who has the rare combination of steely-eyed resolve, uncanny intelligence, a friendly attitude, the ability to tell it like it is and the tact required to achieve compromise when necessary.
Bainwol has "the ability to manage an organization. His intellect allows him to fully appreciate all the nuances of issues," said Connie Mack, the former Florida senator who was Bainwol's boss for 12 years. "He has an incredible ability to grasp in a very short period of time the essence of a debate."
Mack learned to appreciate this quality almost two decades ago when Bainwol managed his first Senate race -- the first time the up-and-coming Hill staffer had ever managed a campaign of any sort. Bainwol helped Mack to victory against former Rep. Buddy McKay (D-Fla.) in what became the closest Senate contest in Florida history.
"We went through some very intense times and at the end of it I had nothing but good things to say about him and Connie," said Farmer, the Nortel vice president, and McKay's campaign manager in the '88 race.
Farmer isn't the only Democrat to heap praise on Bainwol.
"He's a pretty affable guy despite his partisan background and bare-knuckles style in a political fight," said Jim Jordan, campaign director for presidential candidate John Kerry (D-Mass.).
Jordan ran the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the 2002 election season while Bainwol worked as his opposite number in the Republican camp.
"We found it was helpful to have lines of communication open," said Jordan, adding that they would meet occasionally over beers to talk through various issues in their respective campaigns. "He'll get things done, but with a minimum of bloodshed."
Then there's the human touch that any tough political operative needs to not just be respected, but liked.
"Mitch is the only person I know in Washington who returns every single call he gets," said Laura Dove, a Republican Hill staffer who has worked in various capacities with Bainwol for about seven years. "Ninety-nine percent of the time he does it the same day. He genuinely wants to help people."
Bainwol's entire career in the political world started with a helping hand. After enrolling at Georgetown University in 1977, he was looking for something to do in D.C. besides studying. He took an acquaintance's recommendation to make a cold call on Rep. Robin Beard (R-Tenn.).
"My secretary called and said there's this young man from Georgetown that wants to come here and work as an intern, so I said, 'Who is he?' They said, 'We don't know. Nobody sent him. Nobody's recommended him. He just said he wants to work in Robin Beard's office,'" Beard said in an interview. "I said I have no money in the budget. He said, 'I'll do it for free.'"
Aside from earning his MBA at Rice in 1983, Bainwol has been a political animal ever since.
When he wasn't working in the Senate or at the Republican National Committee (news - web sites), Bainwol spent two years representing corporate technology, defense and healthcare giants like Microsoft Corp., Lockheed Martin and Schering-Plough at the D.C. lobbying firm Clark & Weinstock.
It was his work at the National Republican Senatorial Committee that earned him the admiration of Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), the committee's chairman at the time. There he established more than ever his ability to respond to the demands of many different and occasionally competing interests.
"Mitch was a critical part of my campaign," said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who ran against Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) before Wellstone died in a plane crash weeks before Election Day. "Mitch was in many ways kind of my rabbi or teacher."
World War Music
The RIAA's chief concern these days isn't its public image, which is fairly dismal among Internet users and privacy rights advocates. The group long ago stopped playing nice and adopted a no-holds-barred philosophy in its race to defeat the online pirates who it claims are robbing music companies of sales.
There are more than 57 million Americans swapping digital music files on the Internet, according to the Boston-based Yankee Group research firm. The RIAA estimates that its biggest members -- Universal Music Group, Warner Bros. Music, BMG Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment and the EMI Group -- are losing up to 10 percent of their annual revenue as a direct result of online piracy.
Forrester research analyst Josh Bernoff said in a report this week that the industry lost $700 million to file sharing in 2002. More importantly for the RIAA, Bernoff found that of the 20 percent of Americans who use file-sharing services, half bought fewer CDs after they began downloading pirated songs.
The record companies spin a standard mantra: stealing is stealing, whether it's done in the spirit of Robin Hood or Al Capone. Recording artists and the companies that back them, they say, deserve to profit from their work, just like any other business.
The RIAA's chief weapon to date has been the subpoena, which the group uses to force Internet service providers to cough up the names of suspected music pirates. The group sent out more than 1,600 of them this summer, and the first lawsuits are just around the corner, an RIAA official said. Some of the subpoena targets are inveterate practitioners of copyright infringement, while others are hapless teenagers whose even more hapless technophobe parents had no idea what their kids were doing online.
Critics like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge take issue with the group's legal tactics. Many disaffected music buyers further complain about what they see as the over-inflated cost of buying music and an industry that, until recently, refused to embrace the Internet as a distribution medium.
Into this conflict steps Bainwol, who after stepping down from his position earlier this year as chief of staff for Frist -- now the Senate majority leader -- was ready to work hard but in somewhat more comfortable circumstances.
Why would he want to step into this minefield? It's not the money. The chief executive slot at the RIAA pays well -- some sources say around $1 million a year -- but Bainwol likely could have gotten more compensation for less work if he had continued consulting for big-time clients like Freddie Mac at his lobbying shop, the Bainwol Group.
"I'm really drawn by the challenge," he said. "It stretches the imagination, dealing with issues that are broad and have a societal impact."
Bainwol will take the RIAA helm from Hilary Rosen, whose name was, to say the least, vilified across the Internet because of her hard-hitting tactics against file sharing.
Will the RIAA under Bainwol take a kinder, gentler approach? Not likely, said Rosen.
"I think if they were looking to soften their image, they would be taking a different tack right now," Rosen said of her replacement.
A Blank Slate, for Now
Dinner at the Daily Grill was supposed to be an occasion to get Bainwol to talk a little bit about himself, but that's one thing he doesn't like to do.
And he's not ready to talk in detail about what the RIAA's next concrete steps will be in the file-trading controversy.
RIAA chief lobbyist Mitch Glazier and Bainwol made introductory visits on the Hill, but Bainwol is reluctant to talk too much about what the RIAA's solution will be to reconciling the music business and the Internet.
"The way I approach issues is to listen, read, talk to folks and get a broad range of thoughts, and understand them, hopefully at a level that extends beyond the superficial," he said. "Then you form conclusions. You have instincts, but you test them."
There is one thing he can safely say at this time -- illegal file trading is plain wrong, but he is aware that it will take more than subpoenas and lawsuits to change the perception of a generation of adolescents and children for whom it's a part of their lives.
"People do intuitively understand that you just don't walk into a store and take something," he said. But Bainwol acknowledged that there's a generation of 15-year-olds out there who don't see it that way when it comes to the tantalizing variety of music available for free, easy and illegal downloading.
That availability is what justifies the RIAA's tough legal action. "They've done the right thing," he said. "It comes on the heels of lots of other efforts. There has to be a real change in understanding."
RIAA President Cary Sherman acknowledged that changing the Internet generation's perception that music should be free isn't going to come through a raft of new legislation, though having Bainwol on board will certainly help the group get what it wants from Congress.
Wayne Rosso, president of the Grokster file-sharing service, said that Bainwol "can only be as effective as his constituents will allow him to be... I just hope he brings some sanity to the situation."
But it's hard to get even the voluble, mercurial Rosso to say a discouraging word about Bainwol.
"Our guys in Washington say good things about him. I think we're no better or no worse off than we were with Hilary Rosen," he said.
"He's a bit of an unknown quantity," said Fred Von Lohmann, senior attorney with the EFF. "I think the opening months of this tenure are going to be defined by an issue that at least he himself was not pivotal in selecting. It's certainly a big challenge for anyone."
Will Bainwol find the ultimate solution to square the Internet with the recording industry? That remains a big question. If he's had any sudden flashes of inspiration, he's not saying anything ... yet.
One notable twist in his Capitol Hill relationships shows that even if he ends up butting heads with some of the RIAA's critics, they still want to accommodate him.
Case in point: Norm Coleman, who said Bainwol was such a big help to his 2002 campaign, now is the chief Senate critic of the RIAA's legal tactics against file traders. He's not sweating this disconnect with their otherwise affable relationship, though.
"I talked to Mitch about that," Coleman said. "Sometimes you have to tell your friends you're doing the wrong thing ... I have no problem telling Mitch, 'Hey, I have a concern about the path that they're on.'"
Coleman is quick to add, "If a guy can say he loves somebody, I love this guy!"
MP3s Without An IPod
Arik Hesseldahl, 09.05.03, 10:00 AM ET
NEW YORK - If for some reason you think that the only digital music player on the market is Apple Computer's iPod, then maybe you have Apple's recent TV advertising blitz to thank for it.
Samsung's Yepp YP-55V
True, Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) iPod is probably the most popular player on the market, but that doesn't mean others don't have great ideas as well when it comes to product design and features. The iPod is essentially a hard drive in a nice package built for playing music, and the package works terrifically well and stores lots of music. But if you're in the mood for something a little more compact that doesn't necessarily have to hold 7,500 songs all at once, then there are certainly plenty of players worth checking out.
Two that have caught our eye recently are Samsung's latest Yepp player, and the MuVo NX from Creative Labs (nasdaq: CREAF - news - people ).
The latest model of the Yepp is the YP-55V, a tiny player that Samsung has shown being worn as a pendant as though it were a futuristic bit of jewelry. It weighs in at about 2 ounces and boasts 256 megabytes of memory, enough for about four hours of MP3 music. It also has an FM radio receiver if you get tired of whatever it is you've stored. It can also record sound, so students may find it comes in handy in the lecture hall. It's selling for about $200, though we've seen it listed with some online retailers in the $170 ballpark, so shop around.
Creative Labs' MuVo
Another notable player, this one also small, is the Nomad MuVo NX from Creative Labs. It resembles those keychain drives you may have seen around, in part because it is one. It plugs directly into the USB port of your PC or Mac, and can store regular files as well as music files. When you're ready to play the music, it slips into an external casing which holds the AAA battery. It comes in capacities of 128 MB ($150), enough for two hours of MP3 play, and 256 MB ($200), enough for four hours, and weighs about an ounce.
Don't get us wrong. We love the iPod. And comparing it with the Yepp and MuVo isn't quite fair. But the iPod is the only player we know of that's had the benefit of being featured in a major TV ad campaign, at least in recent memory.
The Yepp and MuVo store their music on flash memory chips, and flash-based players tend to be much lighter but also have much smaller capacities than hard drive-based players. Without a hard drive, it's less likely to skip if you take the player jogging, though we've yet to hear an iPod skip, truth be told. Flash-based players also tend to be cheaper, which is why you see more teenagers with flash players while their parents may splurge on the iPod, which starts at $300. See? There's plenty of market segmentation to go around.
Music Biz to Give File Sharers Amnesty
The Recording Industry Assn. of America plans to announce an amnesty program this week that will let individual online copyright infringers off the hook if they change their ways, sources say.
The amnesty program would apply only to alleged infringers who have not been sued by the music industry trade group or identified by Internet service providers as a result of the trade group's subpoena process. Alleged commercial pirates will not receive amnesty.
According to sources, the RIAA will not pursue legal action if infringers delete all unauthorized music files from their computers, destroy all copies (including CD-Rs) and promise not to upload such material in the future. Each infringing household member will have to send a completed, notarized amnesty form to the RIAA, with a copy of a photo ID. Those who renege on their promise will be subject to charges of willful copyright infringement. ADVERTISEMENT
The amnesty program will be revealed at about the same time the RIAA is expected to announce the filing of "several hundred" infringement suits.
The RIAA had no comment.
Reuters/Billboard
Sony To Launch US, European Net Music Service Next Spring
Thursday September 4, 6:58 am ET
PARIS -(Dow Jones)- Japanese electronic giant Sony Corp. will launch an internet music service in the U.S. next spring, Howard Stringer, chairman and chief executive of the company's U.S. operations, said at a conference Thursday.
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Speaking on the sidelines of the Sony Dream World exhibition, which opens Saturday, Howard said the service would be called the "Net Music Download Initiative."
A spokeswoman for the company later said the service would be launched in Europe "around the same timeframe."
She said the platform would be suitable to Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and give access to Sony's music catalog.
She said the company was in talks with five independent labels to include them in the service, but declined to name them.
Sony Music Entertainment, a unit of Sony, is the world's second-largest music company after Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music.
In May, Sony and Vivendi Universal sold their online music joint venture Pressplay to digital media company Roxio Inc. (NasdaqNM:ROXI - News) of the U.S. for about $40 million.
Sony Executive: US Consumer Electronics Picking Up Since June
Thursday September 4, 9:14 am ET
PARIS -(Dow Jones)- Sony Corp. Chief Operating Officer Kunitake Ando said Thursday that consumer electronics sales in the U.S. rose over the summer.
"In June, July and August we have seen electronics sales picking up," in the U.S., he told reporters.
ADVERTISEMENTHe added that the company also saw growth in Europe and Japan. He made the comments at a conference ahead of the Sony Dream World exhibition, which opens Saturday.
At the same event, Howard Stringer, chairman and chief executive of Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE - News) of America, said the company had yet to decide whether it should respond to the announcement Wednesday that one its rivals would deeply cut prices to try and stimulate sales.
Universal Music Group, a unit of Vivendi Universal SA (V) and a competitor of Sony's music division, said Wednesday it would cut prices and recommend almost all its top-line CDs be sold at $12.98.
"We will have a meeting this afternoon to evaluate the impact of this announcement," Stringer said. "We're not sure what it means."
He said Sony's main focus in this area was the migration to digital delivery, such as the development of Internet music services.
Cassie wrong again?.. no..couldn't be...
Bill Boyer, Jr., President of APS, said, "As a certified airline service and equipment provider, we have established key relationships with major airlines.
Napster Turns Legit
The site plans to relaunch, but will it sound as sweet when you have to pay?
By ANITA HAMILTON
Monday, Sep. 01, 2003
We've been waiting for years for a guilt-free Napster, the pioneering music-sharing service that shut down in 2001 after losing a legal battle over its role in distributing copyrighted songs.
Now it's back. Software maker Roxio, which bought the Napster name and assets for $5.3 million last November, will launch by the end of the year a new Napster service that offers consumers a monthly subscription plan or a pay-per-song download fee — a combination that's an industry first. The company even signed Napster creator Shawn Fanning as a consultant. While pricing has not been announced, "Napster will be much more comprehensive than anything else that is out there," promises Roxio CEO Chris Gorog.
It needs to be. The brilliance of Napster 1.0 lay in its simplicity and comprehensive catalog of songs. No pay service has been able to sufficiently untangle the copyright mess to allow for a broad range of downloadable music. Apple's iTunes Music Store made a breakthrough in April by letting users download individual songs for 99¢ a pop (as opposed to requiring a monthly subscription plan). RealNetworks' Rhapsody music service scored last week when it added some 500 Rolling Stones tracks to its 350,000-song catalog. Napster 2.0 promises 500,000 songs at launch — but that's still less selection than your average music store.
Companies from Amazon to Microsoft are mulling plans to enter the business. The reason: Jupiter Research estimates that revenue from online music will zoom from $80 million this year to $1.5 billion in 2008. That's just a sliver of today's $12 billion CD market, but it's a real business.
Can Napster hit it big? Certainly the name will help. "Napster is a well-recognized entity," says Jupiter analyst Lee Black. The key will be the finished product. If it can come close to the original, Napster 2.0 will have been worth the wait.
Learning to Live with Legal Music Services
2 hours, 27 minutes ago Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Lucas van Grinsven
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - After five years of regarding one another with fear and contempt, the music and technology industries are finally rolling out services that aim to make a business out of downloading music.
Competing with free music services like Kazaa and Morpheus is not an enviable position for anyone. But with the record industry suing individual users of those services for copyright infringement, consumers will almost certainly be looking for viable alternatives.
In the last four months, companies like Apple Computer Inc., Microsoft Corp., RealNetworks Inc. and BuyMusic.com, have struck licensing deals with the world's largest record companies to begin offering alternatives that allow users to download individual songs for around $1 each.
The services all perform differently. You will be disappointed if you're looking for the wide selection that the free services offer. Some sites are easier to navigate than others. Unlike most conventional CDs, there are limitations to how many times you can copy a song you've bought. And of course, you have to pay.
"They've been designed around how the industry wants to sell music, rather than how consumers want to buy it," says senior analyst Rebecca Jennings at Forrester Research in London.
On the positive side, you can buy downloads of complete albums more cheaply than buying the compact discs in stores. In most cases, the quality and speed of downloads are more reliable -- and you won't get sued for using them.
PRICING
With much fanfare, Apple launched its pay-per-download iTunes service in late April. In its first month, it sold 3 million songs to a relatively small community of Macintosh (news - web sites) users in the United States, a tiny fraction of computer users.
In recent months, BuyMusic, which was started by Buy.com founder Scott Blum, presented itself as the iTunes equivalent for users of Microsoft Windows-based computers. RealNetworks and Microsoft followed suit shortly thereafter. America Online and Amazon.com are among those considering similar services.
ITtunes, which is only available in the United States, offers a flat rate of 99 cents-per-song, or $9.99 for an entire album.
BuyMusic.com says it offers songs starting at 79 cents each and $7.95 an album, but most songs are in the 99-cent to $1.14 range, and albums cost $9.49 to $12.79.
RealNetworks' Rhapsody sells songs for 79 cents, but only after a $9.95 monthly subscription fee.
MSN Music Club, which is mainly available in Europe, is even more convoluted in its pricing. Songs are essentially the equivalent of 83 pence to 99 pence each -- or about $1.31 to $1.56. Users cannot buy songs outright from the service. Instead they must buy "credits" that can be redeemed for individual songs. One song typically sells for 100 credits, but MSN sells the credits in bundles of 150 and up. The more credits you buy the cheaper they are.
SELECTION
Although all sites offer hundreds of thousands of tracks, many early users failed to find their favorite songs. The Beatles, for example, are not available on any online service.
R.E.M (news - web sites).'s most popular songs like "Losing My Religion" or "Everybody Hurts" are absent on BuyMusic, while MSN Music Club lacks almost all of David Bowie and Earth, Wind & Fire. More recent albums appear to be better represented.
Big names like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna (news - web sites), Metallica (news - web sites), Green Day and Linkin Park refuse to make their songs available as individual tracks. They want consumers to buy entire albums.
Where the services often provide the most value is in hits by individual artists by whom you wouldn't necessarily want complete albums. While BuyMusic came up short on Petula Clark's "Downtown," users can find such gems like "Everybody Plays The Fool" by The Main Ingredient and "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray.
TO EACH HIS OWN MEDIA PLAYER
The availability of album sleeves for printing, artist information, album release dates and the option to sample a song also differ widely between the different services. ITunes offers artwork, while MSN Music Club and BuyMusic do not.
MSN Music Club and BuyMusic often lack the option to sample tracks. MSN Music Club and BuyMusic's artist information and original release dates are missing or incorrect.
Finally, there are the limitations for customers. Songs from MSN Music Club and BuyMusic can only be played back with Microsoft's Windows Media Player, available on personal computers and built into some portable MP3 players.
Apple's iTunes only plays on its own devices, from computers to the portable iPod music player. Rhapsody plays on RealNetwork's proprietary media player.
Apple has restricted consumers to make only three copies of a song, a line followed by most other services, although BuyMusic sometimes allows unlimited copying. Rhapsody allows consumers to burn songs on a CD, but copying onto a portable music player is not permitted.
(The PluggedIn column appears weekly. Comments or questions on this one can be e-mailed to lucas.grinsven@reuters.com.)
(Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan in Washington, Reed Stevenson in Seattle and Derek Caney in New York.)