Recording Industry

Once a hub for at least two gangs trafficking in pirated audio tapes that took millions of dollars from the recording industry, Philadelphia is getting its pound of flesh. Four defendants were convicted by a jury yesterday, making it a clean sweep for federal prosecutors who have now convicted all 17 persons charged in the pirating cases. Losses to the recording industry approached $100 million, prosecutors said. Three natives of Palestine, brothers Yaser, Basem and Osama Allan, and a former city resident, printer Raymond Liess Jr., yesterday were convicted of conspring since 1988 to infringe on audio cassette copyrights.

On the eve of the California court decision that threatened to shutter the online song-swapping mecca known as Napster, a veritable Woodstock of file-sharing was logged on the Internet. Picture a music store the size of the First Union Center, or bigger: At one point Sunday, up to 14,000 Napster users were exchanging nearly 2.5 million computer files of music. That's twice the normal traffic - impressive, both as a barometer of interest in the Internet music revolution and as a spontaneous act of mass defiance.

Bob Girifalco faced a tough crowd Friday night. The middle-aged men and women at the bar in Yang Ming restaurant seemed more interested in pigs-in-blankets on the free buffet than in the songs the slim man at the piano sang in his smoke-roughened voice. The closing bars of "As Time Goes By" were greeted only by mingled conversation and the clink of silverware on porcelain plates. Undaunted, Bob Girifalco segued into a slow, improvisational rendition of George Gershwin's "Summertime.

Aspiring musicians, songwriters, producers and promoters take note. The Philadelphia Music Foundation will present its third one-day seminar - "Thriving in the Music Business: The Recording Industry" - Saturday at the University of the Arts, Broad and Pine streets. The seminar will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Registration is $25, which includes lunch. Participants can attend three workshops of their choice; the topics offered are "All About Record Producing," "Packaging and Submitting Your Demo - Professionally," "Recording Contracts - What to Expect When You Least Expect It," "How Radio Works - Formats/Promotion/Airplay," "Music Video - The New Frontier," "Songwriting, Copyrights and Publishing," "Home or Pro - The Studio Choice" and "Lawyers, Press and Money - The Business Side of Music.

THE RECORDING industry has resorted to suing 12-year-olds and grandparents in an effort to curb online music file-swappers. What a mistake. The industry is biting the hand that is feeding it. I know. I just spent a small fortune - all because a friend burned a CD for me that I'm sure he pulled from KaZaA. A month ago, my buddy asked me to go see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Camden. I told him I wasn't too familiar with their music. A few days later, he sent me a CD he'd burned that contained his personal "best of" the Chili Peppers.

Frank Sinatra Jr. was quick to make a correction when the 44-piece musical delegation that will support him this weekend at Trump's Castle came up in the conversation. The interviewer referred to it as a big band. "It's not a band," he said with a touch of indignation. "It's an orchestra - complete with strings. " Either way, the sound that results is something he loves. He also has a soft spot for the smaller jazz ensembles, but it's the lushness generated by a large gathering of musicians that cranks up the juices for this performer.

When times are bad in the recording industry, that which bruises artistic egos and batters profit margins is, for consumers, not far from heaven. More classical compact discs are selling for lots less than ever before. Could that really be the Charles Dutoit/Montreal Symphony recording of The Rite of Spring for only $5.99? Or, for the same price, a two-disc set of the Verdi Requiem and Rossini Stabat Mater with Luciano Pavarotti? Pinch yourself, but it's not a dream - it's the sale bins at Tower Records on South Broad Street.

Music publishers are threatening to go to court to stop Sony's hot-selling new digital audio tape deck, complaining it will rob them of royalties by allowing customers to make near-perfect pirate recordings. "We will seek court relief from the equipment being brought into this country," said Edward Murphy, president of the National Music Publishers Association in New York. The Sony DAT recorder - the biggest thing to hit the recording industry since the compact disc - made its debut over the weekend in 14 markets (not including Philadelphia)

In a pairing that would have been unthinkable a few months ago, the online music retailer CDNow Inc., of Fort Washington, began offering compact discs for sale yesterday on Napster, the Internet's controversial free song-sharing service. The move is one of several changes expected as Napster Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., attempts to go legitimate. Napster, which allows its millions of users to swap recorded songs in the popular MP3 digital format at no charge, is the subject of a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by the five major recording labels.

If cheapie classical CDs get any cheaper, record companies will be paying you to listen to them. How cheap are they? At the high end of budget lines, about $5.99. HMV is hawking a series of no-name groups and artists on the Pilz label at four sets for $10 - and each set contains two discs. That comes to $1.25 a pop. Best Buy is advertising classical titles for as little as 69 cents apiece. Bargain-basement prices are possible because CDs are cheap to record and press, and many foreign orchestras, especially in Eastern Europe, are willing to work for next to nothing.

THE RECORDING industry has resorted to suing 12-year-olds and grandparents in an effort to curb online music file-swappers. What a mistake. The industry is biting the hand that is feeding it. I know. I just spent a small fortune - all because a friend burned a CD for me that I'm sure he pulled from KaZaA. A month ago, my buddy asked me to go see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Camden. I told him I wasn't too familiar with their music. A few days later, he sent me a CD he'd burned that contained his personal "best of" the Chili Peppers.

When times are bad in the recording industry, that which bruises artistic egos and batters profit margins is, for consumers, not far from heaven. More classical compact discs are selling for lots less than ever before. Could that really be the Charles Dutoit/Montreal Symphony recording of The Rite of Spring for only $5.99? Or, for the same price, a two-disc set of the Verdi Requiem and Rossini Stabat Mater with Luciano Pavarotti? Pinch yourself, but it's not a dream - it's the sale bins at Tower Records on South Broad Street.

On the eve of the California court decision that threatened to shutter the online song-swapping mecca known as Napster, a veritable Woodstock of file-sharing was logged on the Internet. Picture a music store the size of the First Union Center, or bigger: At one point Sunday, up to 14,000 Napster users were exchanging nearly 2.5 million computer files of music. That's twice the normal traffic - impressive, both as a barometer of interest in the Internet music revolution and as a spontaneous act of mass defiance.

In a pairing that would have been unthinkable a few months ago, the online music retailer CDNow Inc., of Fort Washington, began offering compact discs for sale yesterday on Napster, the Internet's controversial free song-sharing service. The move is one of several changes expected as Napster Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., attempts to go legitimate. Napster, which allows its millions of users to swap recorded songs in the popular MP3 digital format at no charge, is the subject of a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by the five major recording labels.

Frank Sinatra Jr. was quick to make a correction when the 44-piece musical delegation that will support him this weekend at Trump's Castle came up in the conversation. The interviewer referred to it as a big band. "It's not a band," he said with a touch of indignation. "It's an orchestra - complete with strings. " Either way, the sound that results is something he loves. He also has a soft spot for the smaller jazz ensembles, but it's the lushness generated by a large gathering of musicians that cranks up the juices for this performer.

If cheapie classical CDs get any cheaper, record companies will be paying you to listen to them. How cheap are they? At the high end of budget lines, about $5.99. HMV is hawking a series of no-name groups and artists on the Pilz label at four sets for $10 - and each set contains two discs. That comes to $1.25 a pop. Best Buy is advertising classical titles for as little as 69 cents apiece. Bargain-basement prices are possible because CDs are cheap to record and press, and many foreign orchestras, especially in Eastern Europe, are willing to work for next to nothing.

Once a hub for at least two gangs trafficking in pirated audio tapes that took millions of dollars from the recording industry, Philadelphia is getting its pound of flesh. Four defendants were convicted by a jury yesterday, making it a clean sweep for federal prosecutors who have now convicted all 17 persons charged in the pirating cases. Losses to the recording industry approached $100 million, prosecutors said. Three natives of Palestine, brothers Yaser, Basem and Osama Allan, and a former city resident, printer Raymond Liess Jr., yesterday were convicted of conspring since 1988 to infringe on audio cassette copyrights.

No matter where you live, you can hear spotted owls in a magnificent old- growth forest. Or you can listen to the great humpback whales hooing their melancholy refrain in Glacier Bay, Alaska. Then, you can let the cicadas, crickets and frogs of the Amazon lull you to sleep. It's a big, loud world out there, full of raucous mating calls, territorial howls, cries of hunger, and a multitude of other snorts, snufflings, screechings and slurpings. But to hear those calls of the wild, you don't need backpacking equipment, and you won't get jet lag. You don't have to get drenched in a tropical rainstorm or attacked by a gorilla.

Bob Girifalco faced a tough crowd Friday night. The middle-aged men and women at the bar in Yang Ming restaurant seemed more interested in pigs-in-blankets on the free buffet than in the songs the slim man at the piano sang in his smoke-roughened voice. The closing bars of "As Time Goes By" were greeted only by mingled conversation and the clink of silverware on porcelain plates. Undaunted, Bob Girifalco segued into a slow, improvisational rendition of George Gershwin's "Summertime.

Music publishers are threatening to go to court to stop Sony's hot-selling new digital audio tape deck, complaining it will rob them of royalties by allowing customers to make near-perfect pirate recordings. "We will seek court relief from the equipment being brought into this country," said Edward Murphy, president of the National Music Publishers Association in New York. The Sony DAT recorder - the biggest thing to hit the recording industry since the compact disc - made its debut over the weekend in 14 markets (not including Philadelphia)