MQA Ldt goes into Administration (similar to bankruptcy in U.K.). What happens to Tidal and others?

[Sharp_3yE]

MQA Ldt, the company behind the MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) audio standard, is going into Administration which to US citizens that means Bankruptcy.

 

https://www.whathifi.com/news/mqa-is-going-into-administration

 

Quote

Partial statement from MQA reads, "MQA’s main financial backer is seeking an exit. In order to be in the best position to pursue market opportunities and expedite this process, the company has undergone a restructuring initiative, which includes entering into administration and is comparable to Chapter 11 in the US.

 

"During this process, MQA continues to trade as usual alongside its partners." 

 

What does this mean for the company or the others who have adopted their technology such as Tidal who uses MQA for their Master audio standard for their Tidal HIFI Plus subscribers? 

Well, we don't know for certain exactly. 

 

But, we have heard from Tidal's CEO Jesse Dorogusker recently in a AMA on Reddit. What Tidal's CEO said was they will be introducing FLAC as an option alongside MQA for their Master audio files. MQA will still be there but FLAC as another option. FLAC though is apparently a larger file for transfer then MQA. 

Tidal already uses FLAC for their CD quality/16bit 44.1khz files. 

 

https://www.whathifi.com/news/tidal-is-introducing-hi-res-flac-to-its-hifi-plus-subscription-tier

 

I think this is good news. More good options are never a bad thing. Plus, MQA in some tests have shown to add a little bit of distortion in the process of the MQA process. 

I believe the MQA technology is suppose to work like how a ZIP file works where it somehow shrinks a file and then opens it back up. In theory that was the idea I believe. Though it apparently has added distortion in the process some people have said. 

 

Thats my understanding. So, to me this is really interesting and good news for Tidal users. 

[dizmo]

That's...odd. I wouldn't have thought anything would happen to the file format just because the company hits rocky roads.

Though it should be noted that Chapter 11 still allows the company to run.

[BobVonBob]

8 minutes ago, dizmo said:

That's...odd. I wouldn't have thought anything would happen to the file format just because the company hits rocky roads.

Though it should be noted that Chapter 11 still allows the company to run.

MQA is the only one with the "special sauce" (read: proprietary encoding, magic audio dust, and lawyers) to make MQA mastered tracks. If MQA Ldt dies, the MQA format dies with it. Theoretically the company that scoops their IP if they go truly defunct could resurrect it, but why would they do that when they've seen it already fail once?

[SorryBella]

54 minutes ago, Sharp_3yE said:

MQA Ldt, the company behind the MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) audio standard, is going into Administration which to US citizens that means Bankruptcy.

Tidal just got more usable again.

 

[trag1c]

Good, let it die. A propritory file format that only has marketing hype around it, worse quality, and increased costs for the end consumer from them taking a cut at every point between recording and playback.

[Sharp_3yE]

3 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

Tidal just got more usable again.

 

It doesn't mean it's done. Bankruptcy doesn't mean a company is dead. It's often a way to keep a business going. 

[jamaniek]

3 hours ago, trag1c said:

Good, let it die. A propritory file format that only has marketing hype around it, worse quality, and increased costs for the end consumer from them taking a cut at every point between recording and playback.

Pretty much this. There's nothing special about MQA except for the "Authenticated" part. Even ALAC makes more sense (which Apple actually made open source). 

 

IMO we don't need MQA in the music industry. It should be up to the artist themselves to make sure their music is up to standards in terms of quality (both on records and streaming service) - whether they do that and whether most of the users care is an entirely different issue though.