[news]

The CBS Sunday Morning show today had a segment on the state of the music
business today. They start it out with a visit to a high end store in New
York where the first image you see is a turntable that has a foot tall
cylinder for a platter. Next comes their CD player that is composed of 5
boxes on a spiked stand. Stick with me - they show the listening room with a
pair of what appear to be Shahinian obelisks, pardon if I am wrong, don't
keep up with all that. Then the interviewer asks the "expert" how much a CD
player like that might run - "Oh about 100,000." And the whole system? "A
quarter of a million."

They explain that it's necessary, of course, if you want the best sound, but
then go on to show all of the sources for streaming audio that you can have
for free and put on your i-Phone and listen anywhere, anytime. The royalties
on a tune might be 6/10 of a cent, but there are more plays, and it IS MP3
after all, so what do you want? (my comments).

This is what the recording industry is up against now.

Gary Eickmeier