Recently, Young Chang Piano Co., one of the largest Asian piano makers and the parent company of Kurzweil, went bankrupt after the Fair Trade Commission prevented Samick, another large instrument maker, from buying out the company's assets in a hostile takeover bid. Young Chang's major creditor, Korea Exchange Bank, stated that the piano maker defaulted on a 460 million won ($400,000) debt and the stock market halted trade in the company's shares after the announcement. All assets of Young Chang Piano Co., including Kurzweil, are now frozen.

The Future: Despite the reassurances from Kurzweil USA, there's going to be some fallout from Young Chang going down. Although the exact financials of Kurzweil is unknown, their recent products have been met with uninspired sales. All this translates into more consolidation.

>>> Digihear? October 2004

Part of Experiments In Sound, TestDrive will feature the lab results of our DJ Experiments so that everyone can get in on the action. Take the latest electronic music releases, mix vigorously with bleeding-edge DJ technology in a large beeker, and then cook the hell out of it! Be the first to hear about TestDrive by joining Futuremusic Direct.

Futuremusic wants to thank everyone who participated in The Next Big Thing 2004. John Digweed, Beatport, Alienware, M-Audio, Native Instruments, IK Multimedia, PVDJ, PK Graphics, Ableton, The DubHouse, Propellerheads, Technics, FreeFloat, The Church, PCDJ and every DJ who entered this year's event thank you. From the sheer number of quality mixes, we can tell you that dance music is thriving in the United States. The amount of outstanding talent and creativity really blew us away, and every DJ who's putting their heart, mind and soul behind the music is a winner. John Digweed has made his decision and the winner is...