SUMMIT SUM-UP

The third annual MP3 Summit 2000, held in San Diego June 20-21, is over, but the memories will last a lifetime, won't they? Years from now, we'll all look back on our photos from the conference and think, "Did I ever look that young? Who is that person standing next to me? And remember what life was like before President George W. Bush's 24-hour Execution Channel?"

As a sort of electronic post-partum, MP3.com Chairman/CEO michael robertson',390,400);">michael robertson',390,400);">Michael Robertson sent out his Top 10 list to the geekiest of the geeks, the Pho List newsgroup. Here are a few highlights from Robertson's breathtaking list:

• Upstage.com showed up in bright Cal-Trans orange shirts. Not sure what they do, but when they filled a whole row, it looked impressive.
• Samsung's combo portable MP3 player and cell phone is a must have.
• Quote of the show was from Ian Clark, "If you see water in the desert and it starts to rain, you better find a new business."
• MP3karaoke.com was neat stuff. Did ya know karaoke is a $10 billion/year business reportedly? Imagine digital applications—intriguing.
• Empeg had their car player finally. What they didn't bring, but what is cool, is the wireless transmitter for the garage so when you park your car, it loads up your music.
• Free food and drink courtesy of sponsors was great.

Handed out at the close of the summit were the best of show awards. PhatNoise's Phatbox was the only multiple award winner, taking home honors for Best Overall Product and Best Car MP3 Player. The remaining awards broke down like this:

• Best Home Digital Audio System—ReQuest Multimedia's Audio ReQuest;
• Best Portable MP3 Player—Sensory Science's rave:mp 2200;
• Best Mobile Phone MP3 Product—Samsung's SPH-M100;
• Best MP3 Player Software—MusicMatch's MusicMatch Jukebox;
• Best MP3 Audio/Visual Software—LAVA;
• Best Digital Audio Software For Musicians—SonicFoundry's Vegas Pro;
• Best Show Booth—Visiosonic's PCDJ booth.

More than 1,800 delegates attended the summit, which was sponsored by MusicMatch, i-drive.com, InterTrust, Adaptec, Scour and Earjam.com, among others.

A Webcast of featured panels and speakers from the event will be available on www.mp3.com/summit beginning June 27.