"Rusty Boudreaux" wrote in message

"John Atkinson" wrote in
message om...
Here are the relevant figures from Stereophile's "Publisher's
Statements," published in the December 2002 and 2003 issues: 82,932
paid circulation in 2002, 81,668 paid circulation in 2003. (Both
figures are 12-month averages.) Yes, I would have liked to see a
rise, but hardly a major drop, IMO.

So roughly 1 out of every 3600 people in the US are subscribers.

What about total circulation instead of just paid and the drop
from the peak (early 90's I think)?

Your opinion, Mr. Boudreaux, not mine. The reality is that the
overwhelming majority of music sold in stores and played back
in the
home is still 2-channel. Stereophile does cover multichannel music
reproduction, BTW, but it is still very much a minority
interest for
resadres in general.

Currently that's true. However, once the following takes place I
bet the vast majority of consumers will choose multichannel over
stereo.

1. End of format war.
2. Mass availability
3. Backward compatible (old car players for example)

Video is definitely a plus.

It makes it a different experience, "cold" rather than "hot,"
in Marshall

Not if you don't watch the video portion. I prefer to choose the
experience I wish to have.

McLuhan's terminology, which very much changes the relationship
between medium and consumer.

That relationship needs to change. Pure audio is dying due to
among other things the growing availability of other media. If
changes aren't made to increase interest in audio it will become
purely a commuter or background music market. For many people it
already has.

Last year's Rolling Stones holiday offering was a number of DVD-A remasters.

This year's Rolling Stone Holiday offering appears to be a plain old DVD-V
release.

Perhaps someone is learning about what the market wants...

Once bitten, twice shy?