Huh. Not sure how you missed that particular moving of the goalposts. A shame too, because it made for some fantastic rationalizations.
Too funny. I’m not actually sure that anyone can keep track of all the goalpost moving performed by Stuart and company.
Mobile streaming and getting MQA into cellphones was a big part of the MQA presentation I attended several years ago. That's likely the only situation where they may be concerns about bandwidth limitations. As has been pointed out in the myriad other MQA threads here, if you are concerned about storage of the audio assets, one can use something like FLAC to save server storage space. In these days of HD video streaming to the home, MQA makes no sense, which has led to the theory that it is all about control, and nothing to do with sound-quality or streaming efficiency.
It's fun to watch something evolve from being a better mousetrap for all music listeners to a way for non-audiophiles to save their unlimited bandwidth by listening to smaller file sizes that are still much bigger then the 320K MP3's they're fine with because they're non-audiophiles. But the important part of this is once The Industry makes some more deals and shakes some more hands, that above description of the target MQA customer will no longer be a paradox. Waiting patiently here.
The industry is no longer dictating consumer's consumption, otherwise it would not need MQA in the first place.
I'd say it depends on what you mean by that. I don't listen to many independent garage bands, so I buy my music from The Industry, at least nominally. I'm not sure they ever dictated my consumption, if they did I'd probably own less 70's rock music and more Nicki Minaj. Now perhaps you mean consumption habits, which could play into formats and media. There is this sect here on The Steve that believes the music industry's ultimate endgame is to remove access to owning music, and make everything pay-for-play. Switching music from a product to a service, in other words. The reason these folks have nothing to worry about is they don't understand that the music industry is this rare example of the supplier being beaten into submission by its customers. Digital music is trivially easy to steal and distribute. The only way to prevent this is by making it more convenient to pay for it then to steal it. Also, how far do you think we are from Taylor Swift negotiating directly with Spotify? Why does Taylor Swift need to hand so much cash to a middleman so the 3% of her customers that purchase CDs can be served? So suffer not The Industry, my friends. They lost the Napster Wars and part of the armistice is they shut up and do what they're told.
I'm not even sure there is "A Customer" anymore. The advent of the internet, the availability of information, the newer and more fluid ways of socializing and networking means that strategies that were used to identify and target specific audiences don't work anymore because by the time they are implemented the target is already gone and focused on something else. The big labels lost control over what people listen and how they do it and are unable to understand that they will never again be able to regain control. I'm not sure that anyone has an idea in which direction the markets will develop but I'm sure that the labels don't have a clue and that MQA isn't the answer. I'm basing this not very professional analysis on my experience in the AV where the changes are more radical and the introduction of technologies is more frequent. What I saw is that almost every single attempt by the industry to shift the market in a specific direction failed. It failed with 3D, it failed with curved screens, it's not exactly creating a revolution with Atmos but it's too early to tell. 4K adoption seems to be the exception until you realize that anyone looking to replace or buy a TV doesn't have a reason to buy anything else.
Any evidence, besides anecdotal stories and your personal practice, that shared playlists are driving choice and consumption? Of course such things take place - people have been sharing playlists/mixtapes since the cassette days in the ‘70s. Wasn’t an industry driver then. In the ‘90s and later, file sharing had a major impact no doubt. But playlist sharing?
But would you agree that one of the reason that music is "stolen" is due to the attitude and business practice of the labels? They treated their customers like dirt or milking cows and got kicked in the nuts when their customers realized that they are penalized for being honest. BTW I totally agree with your claim that buying should be simpler than stealing.
You may be gettng too deep into the weeds. It’s true that the major labels and distributors lost their way for a period of time. But they’re the entities that are now wholly in bed with all the contemporary companies (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., etc., etc.), that provide vectors and vehicles and huge numbers of potential consumer ears & eyes. The labels and distributors and all their marketing agencies and subsidiaries use vast networks of contractors to drive expectations, plant excited reviews, and stimulate sales. Juat because the big records stores disappeared doesn’t mean the labels and distributors disappeared. They didn’t. They evolved and they’re underwriting and underpinning an important part of most of what’s going on.
No, I definitely do not. I can point to music piracy as an "is-what-it-is" situation, but I've always mocked the people who claim they pirate music due a complex series of ethical considerations. They pirate music because they can, no other reason. If the music industry was run by nuns who used the profits to feed orphans, piracy would continue.
In Hip Hop / R&B where the action is? Most of the marketing starts one person at a time and sharing through social media and that includes playlists. Can't (won't) give you more because I'm asked should I sign a record contract or go it alone? My personal experiences are based on live music. I might go to local coffee shop four blocks away or I might go 500 miles away like I did last weekend for a concert. But then my personal music preference is mostly Americana.
You're probably right, but how in the world is there any expectation by the people producing MQA CDs that this new CD format would take off? Outside of these forums and the audiophile community, not many people have a clue what a DAC even is. I have a hard time understanding why they think this would ever be more than a tiny niche market. Perhaps they will make some money off it, who knows, just seems unlikely to ever catch on enough to make it worthwhile to produce. Time will tell, I suppose.
This post makes me envision nuns sitting at a mixing-board and holding their ears in shock while attempting to mix/master some recording with explicit lyrics.
Thanks to you and Coricama for your replies. I missed out on buying the Oppo 205 (I have an Oppo BDP 103EU) but will try and get one if I can find one. If not I will get a 203. Yes I was looking for a player that you put the disc in and it just plays the MQA stuff for you. I have ordered a couple of titles just for fun. Albums I love so if I can only play the redbook layer it really does not matter too much.
Good call and I have no idea. Part of the problem for me when I was looking on google for info on the MQA discs was I just found loads of info on streaming which really is not my cup of tea.
