People traveling with their laptops are taking risks visiting the USA or just passing through it.


According to Tim Kane, a lawyer from Washington researching this matter, under the new federal law officials do not need any probable cause to confiscate your computer for an uncertain period of time.
If you travel internationally with your portable laptop audio workstation you’d better send to yourself your music files (i.e., your sound card drivers, audio applications you work with, and sound files) just in case, if upon entering the USA, your laptop is scrutinized by Customs Inspectors. For smaller files, you can use temporary storage like megaupload.com. For large files, you might want to consider using rapidshare.com or mediamax.com.

                         - A Remembrance

Next year, 2007, marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Andres Segovia, the father of the classical guitar for almost the entire 20th Century. This remembrance of what was to be one of his last concerts, a 1985 performance at the Arlington Centre, Santa Barbara, is a tribute to his extraordinary and ground-breaking influence on the classical guitar repertory.

Segovia was born in Linares, a village in southern Spain. Originally he was taught to play the violin, but after discovering a guitar at the home of a friend he rebelled, determined to make the guitar a "respectable" instrument on the concert stage. Both his family and teachers at the Granada Institute of Music objected, but to no avail. Unable to find a teacher capable of instructing him, the young Segovia became his own guide. "To this day," he has commented wryly, "teacher and pupil have never had a serious quarrel." >>>

It's one of the most popular TV shows of recent years, drawing tens of millions of viewers every week. Even I admit, American Idol is fun to watch. The show provides all the elements of good pop culture entertainment: passion, emotion, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, dreams attained and lost ...

So, what's wrong with American Idol?

Considering it's lumped into the "reality" TV category, the show is doing a great disservice to aspiring musicians (and the public at large) by distorting perceptions of how the music business really works. It sends an outdated message of "dependence" on the industry vs. the more realistic "independence" that artists have today to control their own careers. >>>

                                 If You Think Your Music’s Great, Record It!

Throughout the history of modern music, there hasn’t been a musical artist/band who doesn’t think that their songs are all #1 hits just waiting to be discovered. Many of these artists have been correct and have stood by grinning as their tunes screeched up the charts. This inspires a new crop of musicians every year to feverishly pen their potential hits in hopes of making it big.

Musicians write. They rehearse. They play clubs and hope that one day they’ll encounter that special A&R guy (or gal) that will, see them, dig them, sign them, and make them stars. But surprisingly enough, many of these bands never complete what is probably the most important tool for any musician signed or unsigned…they never record a CD. >>>

If you use a laptop for recording or performance you should be ready for "surprises." Massive recalls started by Dell and Apple for Sony batteries are escalating. Although there have not been any current reports of fire, explosions, or injuries, Toshiba is now recalling 340,000 batteries worldwide. The recall includes 100,000 Sony Energy Devices Corp laptop batteries in the US and 45,000 in Japan. These batteries were installed in Satellite laptops and Toshiba Dynabook made in the spring of 2006. Sony itself is recalling its own 60,000 Vaio notebooks, which were sold in China and Japan.

As vinyl records, or music boxes, gone long before them in the course of progress and prosperity, CDs are also slowly losing the competition to digital downloading. Currently, we witness the music industry metamorphose into an industry that is composed, recorded, distributed, and consumed entirely via computers, making CDs outdated.

Along with the technical progress made in the recording business, crime, in the form of music piracy, finds devilish ways to make super profit spending practically nothing. Illegal downloads cause serious damage to the music industry, but there are legal alternatives and file-trading offered by Apple's iTunes Music Store that can help remedy the situation.

Has Wal-Mart gotten so big that it can now control the music industry? Wal-Mart represents nearly 20% of major-label music sales giving it an unheard of edge in what label or artists will, or won't be available to the consumer. As a result, the music industry goes to great lengths to make sure Wal-Mart is happy. Losing Wal-Mart as an outlet, particularly since the demise of small record stores, would be a heavy blow for the music industry while having little, or no, impact on the retail giant.

Apparently, Wal-Mart is demanding CD's for less than $10, while record industry figures show the breakdown to make a CD, between overhead and royalties, at around $15.99. According to music industry sources, Wal-Mart executives strongly hinted, that if they did not comply with the drop in price, CD stocks could be reduced and replaced with more lucrative DVD's claim. Wal-Mart, unlike Tower Records which stocks 60,000 titles, only carries around 5,000 CD's which they view to be family friendly. >>>

" I have a hard time imagining Russia becoming a member of the WTO and having a Web site like that up and running that is so clearly a violation of everyone's intellectual property rights," said Susan Schwab, U.S. Trade Representative after a speech to a services industry organization.
If Russia has serious intentions to become a member of the WTO, it must shut down the Allofmp3.com Website. This site has been selling Western pop music at very low prices using a loophole in Russian copyright law as an excuse for music piracy. >>>

As the classical music business continues to work toward reversing the overall decline in attendance one of the issues many overlook is the impact concert length may have on audience development and retention. Nevertheless, it may be just the right time to re-examine whether or not the "tried-and-true" concert length of two hours plus intermission is something that should remain a business standard. >>>

Among all of the contemporary forms of art, I've always felt classical music has the most potential for growth. Unfortunately, it has a nasty habit of getting in its own way by perpetuating decades old exclusive barriers.

At the same time, many classical music institutions are trying harder than ever before to consciously tear some of these barriers down. However, I find that some of these issues are so entrenched in the behavior and actions of long time classical music enthusiasts; they may not even realize they are unconsciously contributing to the problem. >>>

On Tuesday, October 3, at the Soho Theatre, London, a British company 57 Productions with the support of the Arts Council of England launched a new website iPoems & Poetry Video-Jukebox, designed as an electronic audio-visual catalogue.
iPoems presents new recordings as well as 57’s archive from over 50 poets in both streaming & downloadable mp3 format.
The Poetry Video-Jukebox features recently produced films and archive poetry films; some materials are available only on 57. >>>