|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
108.5.178.99
In Reply to: RE: Gergiev and the LSO escape the Barbican on their latest recording posted by PAR on November 16, 2016 at 16:44:52
downloading has become the dominant music medium. IMO, higher-rez downloads haven't been more popular because the premiums being charged for them are just too high. When technological capabilities improve, maybe that will change.
Follow Ups:
I agree the premiums are offputting. However the main barriers IMO to hi-rez downloading include first having to know where to get them. All of the suppliers are obscure, small companies that are basically unknown as far as the great unwashed public are concerned. Secondly they require more computer expertise than many are happy to cope with including many of my, admittedly now somewhat aged, friends; installing dedicated download managers, zipped files etc. No way.
Most people downloading use services like i-tunes or Amazon: see an album or track, check a button and, zap, its on your phone and/or tablet, no worries. But it's MP3. Good enough for me, they say.
I am genuinely fearful that the great mass of music consumers really don't desire anything better than 320kb/s MP3. As mass consumption ultimately defines the market, come 5 years time that is therefore all we will be able to buy/listen to (ignoring audiophile labels with artists that you have never heard of making artisically dull but technically stunning stuff). This is why, for example, I think that all of that huffing and puffing elsewhere on these boards about MQA is just a waste of breath in the face of a real threat.
Well, if listening to better sounding music requires extra computer expertise, that's a cost, right?
But it doesn't have to be that way. I think higher resolution audio and video will come to the masses.
"I think higher resolution audio and video will come to the masses."That's a good positive hope. I don't know anything about video but as far as audio is concerned I can, however, find no evidence to support this.
No hi-rez format post CD has been succesful in any true sense. The only really succesful format after CD has been MP3. I count CD as hi-rez in this respect simply so that I can include streaming services offering 16/44.1 flac streams as hi-rez. In the latter espect all of the figures that I can obtain so far (they are very difficult to find) indicate that services offering MP3 have subscriber bases many times that of hi-rez services e.g. paying subscribers: Spotify 40+ million, Tidal maybe 3+ million.
I don't think hi-rez will come to the masses simply because they have no aspiration for it.
As for needing additional computer expertise this could be seen as a "cost" but is actually a barrier. Most ordinary people (i.e. non-audiophiles) just do not find the effort of learning the skills required worthwhile as the result is not that important to them.
Just to add a little flavour in regard to the demise of true hi-rez physical medium recordings, Linn Records also now appear to have stopped issuing SACDs for new releases and only CDs are available for their latest offerings.
Edits: 11/18/16 11/18/16
I also like being able to buy one sample track before taking the plunge on a whole symphony. Save a lot of money that way.
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: