What Is Happening With MoFi?

Maybe they are currently busy with stabilizing Supervinyl and ud1s. ..

 

I have a friend who works at MoFi. They are doing just fine.

 

I think most of us agree that they are doing fine.

The question is, why have they been releasing less and less SACDs? And will this trend continue?

 

Seems to me if Music Direct/Mobile Fidelity wants to continue selling expensive audio equipment (turntables, cartridges, amps and pre-amps etc.) they better continue producing audiophile Vinyl & Digital media.

 

I picked up the Billy Joel Greatest Hits set a few years ago for about $70-$75. To me it was worth it as a triple album box set, beautifully done.
I was interested in the S&G Bridge Over Troubled Water set, but $100 was just too steep for me for one album (even though it was 45RPM). Mind you, it'll go up in value, but I think for some like me there's a threshold of cost to content that I don't cross.

 

So, what did the boys at MoFi have to say to your questions?

 

Stupid money. There is no need to spend that kind of money on an album. Drives me mad

 

Agreed, why not a Original Master Recording LP to go with the MOFI SACD, and do both.

 

Mobile Fidelity also released a single LP 33 1/3 version priced at $35.00.

 

I love that album, but there is really no need to spend a fortune on it. The original cds sound amazing and the LPs are superb. I play the album on a regular basis, its fantastic and i will never bother wasting my money on a MF version. There is simply no need. IMO

 

We have several Chicken Littles here. At least one in this thread has them closing up shop too.

 

If you heard the 2LP 45RPM of this you wouldn't be so quick to judge. I have an original, the WB/Rhino pressed at RTI and both the 33RPM & 45RPM Mofis and compared them.....the 45RPM is clearly a superior product.

 

On the contrary, it just means I don't buy many audiophile releases. I'd love it if those labels would broaden their horizons, but I have no idea how much sense it would make in the marketplace. I would like to think it makes business sense at some point to start cultivating younger customers by putting out more stuff that appeals to Gen X and older Millennials.

 

I guess i am simply happy with what i have. I dont need to spend any more on this fab album. I will keep my money for stuff i dont already have. I mainly listen to it on cd which i think is one of the best sounding cds ever made.

 

I understand completely and I generally follow the same rule, but with some exceptions for albums I truly love.

 

Lots of people pay big bucks and enjoy nice gear but don’t go for the high priced so called audiophile editions.

I buy some of the Mofi releases, but not that many, and rarely see the cost ratio improvement. Of course there are some titles folks rave about (myself included ), but in most cases, original copies (at least on the vinyl side) are as good.

 

They make very few albums I want, but those that I do want are too expensive to buy in Europe or via US mail order. I wish they pressed copies over here for direct distribution in Europe and the UK.

 

That was ages ago, though.

There does seem to be lots of idle speculation about the end of MOFI on this board. None of it based on anything other than the length of time between their releases.

 

But when they do improve over the original they knock it out of the park. Beck Sea Change, Pixies Doolittle, the Dylans, the Cars, JA, just to name a few.

 

. . . but it's part of the cost.

 

Nope.

The price is $100.

The actual cost is $120.

 

Yes perfect examples. But that’s just a handful of albums.

Then there are those folks with very expensive gear and only 150 albums. Seems the gear is more important than the music in some of those cases.

 

The market for high end physical digital releases is pretty much dying. A few years ago you would could sell a couple thousand copies out of the box, and then sell off the rest slowly but surely over the next year or two. Today, whatever you sell out of the box is pretty much it, and that's probably closer to around 500 copies on many titles.

Vinyl, in contrast, continues to do well.

Now, if you have no inventory, and no investment in CD/DVD/SACD/BluRay infrastructure, this is fine. You just pivot to vinyl and the world moves on.

If you are MFSL, you have a pretty substantial warehouse full of older digital titles, and they're not moving.

So when you have identified the latest, greatest new shiny thing--One Step--and you see how you can make a few hundred thou a pop that way, vs the scary teetering stacks of digital discs in the warehouse...well, the story writes itself.

 

What is one step?

 

I would have to think they are doing pretty well actually. Maybe trying to bring the electronics and new super vinyl formula to market. They must have made lots of money on sol out One Steps...

For the record, 2017 saw 16 SACD releases, while 2018 has only these so far:
UDSACD 2161 Ry Cooder Chicken Skin Music Mar-18
UDSACD 2180 Bob Dylan Another Side of Bob Dylan {mono} Apr-18
UDSACD 2189 Supertramp Breakfast in America May-18
UDSACD 2194 Richard Thompson Rumor and Sigh Jun-18

On the vinyl front, 2017 saw 14 titles, while 2018 has these so far:
MFSL 458-2 (45) Bob Dylan Bob Dylan {mono} 6/28/2018
MFSL 459-2 (45) Bob Dylan The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan {mono} 1/23/2018
MFSL 461-2 (45) Bob Dylan Another Side of Bob Dylan {mono} 6/27/2018
MFSL 465 Ry Cooder Chicken Skin Music 5/14/2018
UD1S 004-2 Simon & Garfunkel Bridge over Troubled Water 8/10/2018
and probably the Marvin Gaye UD1S...