Would you purchase new Quadio releases as lossless downloads?

[Tribby2001]

I don't, and never will purchase ANY "files"<period>

 

[Mesozoic Mike]

Nope.

 

[par4ken]

Wow, I'm kind of baffled at the negativity here towards the idea of downloads. You get to own them, they sound just as good as Blu-Rays, there's no extra charge for shipping or having to wait for the disc to arrive, and the labels get to save on authoring/manufacturing. What's the downside?

You have nothing to hold in your hand. I have copies of discs on my hard drive that I did not purchase either because they are no longer available or are too highly priced but it is just not the same as owning the actual disc. Downloads for me do not carry the same value. I have many HD track releases that I did purchase (for their supposed high quality) but have not purchased any more in a long while as they are often brickwalled just like the CD releases. In many/most cases I also have the vinyl LP or a CD copy as well.

That being said I've always maintained that the record companies (or rights holders) should make available their entire back catalogue at least as a purchasable download, if physical releases are not practicable. I would accept downloads as a last resort, never as a first choice.

 

[JonUrban]

How true. It's very annoying to pay for a HiRez download, like from HDTracks, then looking at the file and seeing it maxed out by Loudness peaks. Ugh! Very distressing, actually.

 

[The Rang]

Nope
Will buy the disc only.
Nothing against downloads but prefer something I can hold in my hands

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

How true. It's very annoying to pay for a HiRez download, like from HDTracks, then looking at the file and seeing it maxed out by Loudness peaks. Ugh! Very distressing, actually.

One reason I like to be transparent about DR readings on all the mixes I do...it attracts customers! I personally don't even bother mastering...digital has enough headroom, let there be no limiter! (I realize some original mixes may have been compressed, but that was BEFORE I knew about this whole DR thing, and I even went back and reissued them without...and then noted the changes here!).

Thank god for the Dynamic Range Database...but obviously, not all releases are there.

Sometimes there's music that has an artistic loudness...which causes trouble in 5.1...but that can be retained with dynamics! My mix of toad's second album was loud as all hell because it was the artistic intent...but has a DR of 9, as opposed to the original stereo with a DR of 3!

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

I enjoy good blu ray authoring. But we don't always get it. Some just make me wonder if they know what they are doing? Of course, some are very well done.

I think usually they skip out of proper verification because of deadlines. Also because authoring in Scenarist is practically like coding, and it's very easy to get lost, especially when authoring advanced features.

 

[Malhomme]

I really favor physical media. By very far. But I would buy flac files if it were the only alternative, to, say, an over 100 euros price, or an alternative between a release and no release.

 

[gvl_guy]

Wow, I'm kind of baffled at the negativity here towards the idea of downloads. You get to own them, they sound just as good as Blu-Rays, there's no extra charge for shipping or having to wait for the disc to arrive, and the labels get to save on authoring/manufacturing. What's the downside?

Some of us don't do or can't do the download thing. But everyone seems to be able to play the Blu-ray

 

[~dave~~wave~]

Holding the Music in Your Hands ® - the Super Deluxe Edition motto.

Enough said.

 

[hi-res_edition]

Wow, I'm kind of baffled at the negativity here towards the idea of downloads. You get to own them, they sound just as good as Blu-Rays, there's no extra charge for shipping or having to wait for the disc to arrive, and the labels get to save on authoring/manufacturing. What's the downside?

I have mentioned this elsewhere on the forum - if we lived in a world of download media only, it must include the artwork, credits, commentary, etc that would have been included in the physical package. All too often I have only seen a cover image, and nothing else. Additionally, these materials need to be available in an accessible format for vision impaired and blind users.

Also, I am well aware that plenty of listeners have difficulties playing multi-channel audio files. I guess if there was a tidy box that would act much like a physical media player, handle all of the various file formats (DSF, FLAC, MP4, MKV, WAV, MP3, etc) - play them gapless in stereo, surround, Atmos, etc, and connect to a processor via HDMI that would be a start. Provided that tidy little box had an awesome media player that gave listeners full access to their vast libraries in whatever wacky methods they want to organize, sort, shuffle, radio-ize, then the world of downloads would be favorable to me. Oh, and remember all of the artwork that comes with the physical media too! Even Roon can't do all of this.... Meanwhile, I will stick with physical media.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Pretty simple for me. I prefer physical media & would never buy a download if I had a choice. If download is the only choice I would gladly take that as that's better than no surround music at all! And as download on the good 'ol hard drive is much better than being stuck with streaming.

 

[Cyber 1]

no disk, no buy

 

[knifeman]

Please don't! I want physical releases!

THIRDED! Screw the downloads. Edit: I'm going to walk back this comment a bit. I must have been half asleep and was thinking streaming rather than downloads when I typed this. If a lossless download is the only option for a record I really like, I might go for it, although I'm a definite physical media person I realize not every quad title will see a hard copy release. Streaming I'll probably never do.

 

[Rstaylor]

All 4 of these new Quadio’s are totally not in my normal listening bracket, but I’m somehow more excited for these 4 than I was for the last batch. I auditioned a little bit of Sundown having only known the title track, and while the stereo mix is what it is, sonics wise, I’m sure the quad will be beautiful.

@ForagingRhino since the market for these unreleased quads I would think is pretty niche, have you guys considered the purchase of lossless downloads of the quad master and skipping the Blu-ray manufacturing process entirely?

Maybe by some divine miracle, the remaining Eagle with all the power will sanction the first two records to be candidates for the newly mixed quad program. How awesome would that be?

I would certainly be willing to purchase Quad downloads, especially if it means more releases

 

[bnyhof]

I don't buy any downloads and never will.

 

[ubertrout]

Downloads are essentially dead, the options are physical for enthusiasts and streaming for everyone else. I'd assume part of why we're getting these from Rhino is the value-added of doing these quad transfers so an Atmos mix can be done for streaming.

 

[sjcorne]

Downloads are essentially dead

They’re alive and well for stereo music (via sites like HDTracks, Qobuz, Bandcamp, etc), but for multichannel the concept had never really been attempted on a similar scale until IAA.

 

[ubertrout]

They’re alive and well for stereo music (via sites like HDTracks, Qobuz, Bandcamp, etc), but for multichannel the concept had never really been attempted on a similar scale until IAA.

I'd be curious as to their sales numbers; I have to imagine the market share is tiny. I use them, as do many others here, and it's likely going to endure (fixed costs aren't that high) but it's not the future.

I'd like to say the reason for the failure of MCH downloads is the pie-in-the-sky pricing, but in truth the demand just isn't there.

 

[sjcorne]

…in truth the demand just isn't there.

You could say the same thing about MCH discs, hence why they tend to be bundled as part of a larger package and standalones (such as the SDE Surround Series) are pressed in very small quantities. Or why a very, very small percentage of the Atmos content available on the streaming services has been released physically.

It’s far too early to say that MCH downloads have “failed” considering that no major label titles have been released in that format (yet).