Is the `celestial jukebox' just pie in the sky?(South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

The new word to know in the debate over online music is "celestial" _ as in "celestial jukebox," a dream of a cache containing, well, everything. The entire, ever-expanding body of recorded music, digitally stored and available for listening anywhere at any time.

(Insert "gasp" here.)

Consumers in this fabulous future tap the big "J" using wireless devices that are installed or situated any old place: your laptop, cell phone, palmtop, dashboard, shower stall, treadmill, airplane seat or treehouse.

For a fee, of course, the Beatles songbook streams out of your living-room speakers at the touch of a button. Or, you might subscribe to a service that seeks and sends new music every month based on your listening profile.

The notion of a computerized universal library, filled with our collective knowledge and open to all, predates the rise of digital technology and the Internet. Visions of it sprinkle the science-fiction works of Dune-scaper Frank Herbert and Star Trek …