Major Record Labels To Push New High Quality Audio Formats ?

[STKS]

At the weekend Universal Music hosted a seminar and debate at Abbey Road studios about the future of music technology. At the centre of the session was the issue of a new standardised high quality audio format (think FLAC with no compatibility issues). The two main arguments for were;

1) the price of storage space has plummeted since labels first entered into the digital market

2) high quality playback devices are much more affordable

http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/poll-is-it-time-the-music-industry-invested-in-a-new-high-quality-consumer-friendly-digital-format/053915

What do people think ? What file formats would they look at ? will it be backwards compatible for online purchases ? or will the new format be released as yet another special / limited edition or remaster ? Will .WAV files be able to be ripped from CD and compressed DRM free ?

[sebastianoswell]

Looks really interesting, if there was a format that was pushed standard across different platforms it would the first time the music industry itself is trying to innovate. It would be a different advantage to buying your music over streaming I guess too.

[STKS]

the first time the music industry itself is trying to innovate

Vinyl ?

CD's ?

Walkmans ?

MiniDisk ? (lol)

Its not the first time, but since the dot com bubble the music industry has generally being trying to protect its content rather than innovate! I mean its taken 10 years from the start of Pandora to now with Spotify for music streaming to take shape. It takes a long time to make decisions in music, because pretty much all the content owners and share holders have to agree :(

[sebastianoswell]

Sorry, I'll clarify, I meant the first time they are pushing innovation without a third party. CD's, vinyls, iTunes etc were all invented by third parties and contributed to the music industry, whereas the labels are essentially IMO the core of the industry itself as it stands today. But I totally agree, I think they know they need to be quicker on their feet to protect their assets.

[SnypeUXD]

I am really excited about this... not the article that says it. It mentions Beats by Dre as high end audio products... They are pieces of shit and if you want to argue with me, just don't I can prove it in two seconds with my V-MODA M-80s which are the same price. The problem is they have to stick to 44.1 or 48 KHz playback as most people don't have DACs (audio chips) that go that high. Plus there's already FLAC and ALAC which are both easily available and play on a wide range of devices. If they manage to create a file format @ 44.1-48 KHz that sounds better than either I will be extremely impressed. I just hope if they manage it they will make the encoding open source so everyone has access to it so that it can grow quickly. Now there's another problem... MP3 is so widely prevalent it will be harder to knock it off its pedestal. Especially since there's MP3 320 and it sounds almost as good as FLAC and ALAC that unless you have the proper audiophile equipment or have a really good ear it will be hard to notice the difference.

[rhyseyness]

I am really excited about this... not the article that says it. It mentions Beats by Dre as high end audio products... They are pieces of shit and if you want to argue with me, just don't I can prove it in two seconds with my V-MODA M-80s which are the same price. The problem is they have to stick to 44.1 or 48 KHz playback as most people don't have DACs (audio chips) that go that high. Plus there's already FLAC and ALAC which are both easily available and play on a wide range of devices. If they manage to create a file format @ 44.1-48 KHz that sounds better than either I will be extremely impressed. I just hope if they manage it they will make the encoding open source so everyone has access to it so that it can grow quickly. Now there's another problem... MP3 is so widely prevalent it will be harder to knock it off its pedestal. Especially since there's MP3 320 and it sounds almost as good as FLAC and ALAC that unless you have the proper audiophile equipment or have a really good ear it will be hard to notice the difference.

Just to add to this, most mainstream music listeners will not understand the value of higher audio quality. Everyone out there who has an ipod/iphone and uses stock headphones and just wants to be able to "plug and play" are gonna stick to mp3 just because they see no benefit to higher quality. I have a pair of ATH-M50's and my parents, brother and ex-girlfriend don't see any reason to buy a pair when ipod headphones are "not much different," in their opinions

[SnypeUXD]

Exactly Rhys, for myself I can immediately tell the difference between having my iPod amped and not amped, but most people can't.

[Aphexx]

while I'm 1 million percent for lossless distribution what grinds my gears is paying more for lossless files I'm sure they had to hire an extra 300 staff to rip a file to flac and post it up on the net what a money grab.

[Lyons]

Prepare for that format to be ALAC because of Apple + iTunes... iThings don't support FLAC and WAV, and they won't any time soon. iTunes and the use of iPods combined with the large userbase of iPhones (although Android is approaching 70% global market share) will be a big push for ALAC. Apple will no doubt have a heavy word in this.

Besides all of this, the average consumer has absolutely no appreciation of the quality of the music they're listening to. My teenage sister listens to 128kb/s youtube rips with Apple earbuds on her iPhone and couldn't care less. She doesn't represent all average consumers, but it's a hell of a large chunk of them.

I'm all for this push, but I don't see it happening soon.

[mtempty]

Flac attack!

[eshbop]

while I'm 1 million percent for lossless distribution what grinds my gears is paying more for lossless files I'm sure they had to hire an extra 300 staff to rip a file to flac and post it up on the net what a money grab.

This. It just wrong. But people pay for it despite the price jack cos there's no other choice. Lables win all round so they push it. If anything the lossless files should be "normal" price & the lower quality files receive a discount, but we all know that'll never happen.

[STKS]

Prepare for that format to be ALAC because of Apple + iTunes... iThings don't support FLAC and WAV' date=' and they won't any time soon.[/quote']

While Apple have bargaining power, the labels are the content owners, they have a huge amount of power every time apple comes to renew its iTunes contract, they were the ones that made apple introduce ALAC and variable pricing. If the content owners say no, most of iTunes goes down until a new deal is reached, they have more leverage power over Apple than even its biggest manufacturers

Its the record labels that are blocking Apple Radio:

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/digital-and-mobile/1551142/apple-is-pitching-labels-half-of-pandoras-royalty-rate

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/03/08/apples-internet-radio-delayed-because-they-want-it-cheap/

Also, to those people bringing up the inability to differentiate between current high quality MP3 and FLAC - both are ripped from the same quality file, what if the labels, during recording agreed upon a bigger more detailed file (even the best .wav files don't sound as good as some studio master tapes) for releases, then the 320kbps MP3 might not be enough.

[Lyons]

I think my main point is that while you and I would absolutely love if a change like this was to occur (and I may even start paying for music if it does), the average consumer simply doesn't care. If you want the real benefits of lossless format, you need to spend a lot more on the stuff you're listening to it with. If most people are content with the earbuds they get with their iPhone or crappy Samsung in-ears with their GS3, or the inbuilt speakers in their Macbook, they probably don't care enough to go and spend $100 or so on better earphones or even more on speakers. I want this change to happen, but unfortunately the current generation is fine with listening to Ke$ha at 128kb/s on some $5 earbuds. They're the ones who will be getting the change (if it happens) and they won't give one single f**k.

An alternative, everything should be available. If you pay for a song, you pay for THE song. At LEAST give me the .WAVs, if not the originals. My hard drives will gladly hold them, and I'll buy more if I have to. Maybe instead of replacing MP3, lossless/original will just be a more expensive alternative, and being a better business model, I think this is what may happen. Until then, I'll keep torrenting FLAC and spectrum checking it untill a better option is available to me!

[eshbop]

The thing is it's such a niche market as well. There'll be people that don't want to pay more for what they see as the same product, people with the inability to differentiate between them & this relates to those that don't audio equipment capable of producing those differences. Plus the people that just don't care. My point is, if this goes ahead it's more likely a money making scheme that anything else.

"The rise of brands such as Beats ... a product that is sold on the promise of audio quality"

Point in fact that people will pay for what they think is better, even though there is no perceivable difference (or in the case of Beats, them being worse).