A Message From Marshall - Audio Fidelity to Close Shop

[Clint Eastwood]

A number of reasons.
Starting with the lower sales of Multichannel downloads - typically 10% of what a Stereo edition of an album would sell.

Add in licensing of albums separately for Stereo and Multichannel downloads by the major record labels, added storage costs (a 5.1 channel album takes up 3x the space of a Stereo edition), extra time in preparing the Multichannel download (extra channels to transfer, master and quality control, etc.).

The good news is that there are music download sites offering Surround Sound music downloads. In a few cases that even includes special combination pricing, pioneered by NativeDSD Music, where you can get both the Stereo and Surround Sound editions of an album for just $2-$3 more than the Stereo or Multichannel edition by itself.

But Brian....isn't it a self-fulfilling prophecy....there are fewer multichannel downloads than stereo downloads...and if you look at rock multichannel downloads.. the number gets even smaller..so naturally there is going to be a smaller number

 

[4-earredwonder]

So Brian, why are the pop/rock download sites like HDTracks and ProStudioMasters not hosting 5.1 or 4.0 downloads when the source material is readily available? They could obviously charge more for the download and I am pretty sure folks would pay more, and if they did not, who cares? It's not like they are stocking product in a warehouse.

If's pretty infuriating to go to HDTracks, see all of the former SACD and DVD-A titles listed there in HiRez Stereo only. Seems like a total marketing miss.

And probably even MORE infuriating when the price of the stereo download is MORE than the actual initial cost of the SACD/DVD~A multichannel disc with no case nor booklet, to boot!

 

[bmoura]

But Brian....isn't it a self-fulfilling prophecy....there are fewer multichannel downloads than stereo downloads...and if you look at rock multichannel downloads.. the number gets even smaller..so naturally there is going to be a smaller number

To get more multichannel downloads, the sales of the initial ones out there have to be strong enough to convince the download sites to pay for and create more.
Right now there is a lot of doubt in the industry as to the sales potential of multichannel downloads, especially when sold as a separate product.

I applaud NativeDSDand more recently Acoustic Sounds and Turtle for offering "combination pricing" where you get both the Stereo and Multichannel downloads for a price slightly above the price of Stereo only or Multichannel only music downloads (sometimes only $1 - $3 more). In the short term, that looks to me to be the way forward for Surround Sound downloads.

 

[JonUrban]

So what were the pop/rock mulitchannel downloads that HDTracks listed that did not sell?

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Yep, that's totally conclusive.

 

[humprof]

I applaud NativeDSDand more recently Acoustic Sounds and Turtle for offering "combination pricing" where you get both the Stereo and Multichannel downloads for a price slightly above the price of Stereo only or Multichannel only music downloads (sometimes only $1 - $3 more).

I applaud them, too--in principle. But their base price point is just too high for me. NativeDSD is carrying lots of interesting labels recording lots of adventurous music. The site is exceptionally well curated, and you can tell everyone involved in the company--not least you, Brian--really knows and cares about music and audiophile sound. But in many instances even the 64fs MCh version of the download is well above what you'd pay for the equivalent optical disc. (Even after a 15% discount!)

They're also making available lots of "DSD exclusives": music that isn't available in physical formats (or at least not available in Multichannel). Again, good on them. But that, too, is usually just too pricey for me to take a chance on, especially when I can't even hear audio samples ahead of time.

Take Roomful of Teeth's How a Rose, for instance: almost 11 Euros for the 64fs MCh version--for what is essentially a six-and-a-half minute single! (If I go to the label's Bandcamp site, I can name my own price for the stereo FLAC.) Or the Rembrandt Frerichs Trio's The Contemporary Fortepiano: 23 Euros for the 64fs MCh version--yikes! When I can regularly buy Multichannel FLACs for half that price at eClassical.com, that's where I'm gonna spend my money. I would love to support NativeDSD, and I'm sure that much, maybe most, of their pricing is a function of the licensing fees imposed on them by the labels. But with my failing middle-aged former audiophile ears, I'm just not willing to pay such a steep premium to buy music in a format whose theoretical superiority won't be perceptible to me anyway.

 

[4-earredwonder]

I applaud them, too--in principle. But their base price point is just too high for me. NativeDSD is carrying lots of interesting labels recording lots of adventurous music. The site is exceptionally well curated, and you can tell everyone involved in the company--not least you, Brian--really knows and cares about music and audiophile sound. But in many instances even the 64fs MCh version on the download is well above what you'd pay for the equivalent optical disc. (Even after a 15% discount!)

They're also making available lots of "DSD exclusives": music that isn't available in physical formats (or at least not available in Multichannel). Again, good on them. But that, too, is usually just too pricey for me to take a chance on, especially when I can't even hear audio samples ahead of time.

Take Roomful of Teeth's How a Rose, for instance: almost 11 Euros for the 64fs MCh version--for what is essentially a six-and-a-half minute single! (If I go to the label's Bandcamp site, I can name my own price for the stereo FLAC.) Or the Rembrandt Frerichs Trio's The Contemporary Fortepiano: 23 Euros for the 64fh MCh version--yikes! When I can regularly buy Multichannel FLACs for half that price at eClassical.com, that's where I'm gonna spend my money. I would love to support NativeDSD, and I'm sure that much, maybe most, of their pricing is a function of the licensing fees imposed on them by the labels. But with my failing middle-aged former audiophile ears, I'm just not willing to pay such a steep premium to buy music in a format whose theoretical superiority won't be perceptible to me anyway.

And as long as I can STILL purchase BIS, CHANDOS, PENTATONE, et alia multichannel SACDs, some with Super Jewel cases and elaborate booklets for UNDER $12 and Dutton Vocalion QUAD Two~Fers for US $16, I don't feel a need to download AT THIS TIME!

Not to denigrate the efforts of download sites Native DSD, etc., if we are to continue supporting independent music companies still producing, recording and manufacturing actual SACDs.......all the more power to them for their stellar efforts. We know this practice will hardly be indefinite, but while these maverick companies still support US I feel it's only right to support THEM!