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In Reply to: RE: Whatever happened to MQA? posted by ahendler on May 05, 2017 at 11:44:46
" Streaming MQA from Tidal is a big thing ".Aside from a few rather obscure offerings from boutique labels streaming from Tidal is not just a big thing, it seems to be effectively the only thing, at least of any scale.
When Tidal started adding MQA tracks back in Jan/Feb there was a fairly regular posting here ( from you?) as to the number of new MQA " master" tracks added. I haven't seen a thing for the past couple of months. It looks as if Warner dipped a toe in the water and lost interest. Of course you may wish to update.
I was around for the introduction of CD and DVD . What was evident then was an incredible impetus from both hardware and software manufacturers to have a succesful launch of the medium. I see nothing parallel at all for MQA.
Look at the MQA website and the "partners" listed. Virtually the same small number as a year ago. 8 only of which 6 are basically minnows of little significance. OK UMG is a big catch but that does not mean more than that they will, like Warner, dip a toe in the water. Most significantly the only major hardware manufacturer previously listed, Pioneer, has now gone as has the only source for buying MQA downloads High Resolution Audio (the other listed is associated with Pioneer ( Onkyo Music) and now appears only to offer FLACs). Indeed Pioneer recently launched their 2017/18 receiver range. As far as I could see there is no MQA compatibility.
You can also look at the "news" section on the MQA website and see how limited the number of additons are since CES. As the UMG interest was known about months before that press release ( see MQA's presentation at RMAF 2016) it really is a case of a re-announcement to make up for the overall lack of any news.
I will watch out for MQA compatible product launches at Munich in two weeks. I doubt that I will have very much to report.
Note that I am not offering any opinion upon the efficacy of MQA. Its just that I strongly suspect a commercial failure at least in any mass market sense.
Edits: 05/05/17Follow Ups:
There are about 700+ MQA files on Tidal. Just looked and about 6 new files were added since yesterday. Had a chance to speak
privately with Robert Harley of Absolute Sound at a Glen Carroll audio event. Asked him about the rollout of UMG and Sony MQA files on Tidal. He said that he is waiting just like everybody else. He pointed out there are liscensing fees to the labels and fees to MQA which slow down the process. I still don't understand what people who don't like MQA are trying to accomplish with all the negative comments. Nobody is forcing you to get involved with Tidal if you don't want to. It's main advantage is in streaming. I like it and it doesn't cost me anything since I subscribe to Tidal anyway.
Alan
Alan, thanks for the updated figures. I assume that file = album and not track.
This means that 186 master albums have been added to Tidal since January and the launch. Is that a reasonable rate of expansion?
I am not making any comment about MQA as to its sound quality or Tidal subscribers enjoyment of it. I am simply trying to answer the question posed by the OP.
Whatever happened to MQA? Comparing the current situation with the position announced by them at this year's CES the answer seems to be one of regression not advancement. Most importantly there seems to be little activity visible which is not encouraging three years after the initial concept launch.
Licensing fees if accepted should not hold up the roll out but will affect the decision of whether or not to become involved in the first place. Currently it appears that for most record labels and hardware manufacturers that decision has been negative.
" little activity visible"
Again UMG and Sony are batch processing there catalogs for MQA. Why is everybody in such a hurry?
Alan
Why hurry? Of the hundreds of thousand titles out there we have less than a thousand on MQA, that's just not enough to keep me interested. Consider that maybe 25% (I'm being generous here) are of interest. As I posted below I've taken possession of at least that many LPs in the same time. I would think Tidal can do better than my sister in providing me music.
I'm losing interest in it, and I'm one of the people interested enough to post on a forum about it.
After the original Tidal free trial I decided to not pay to renew as the pace of rollouts was only a trickle. But then about 2 months later I tried again and paid my money (or my daughter paid my money for her student account) and it is still only a trickle. I have a setup with an old macbook hooked into my main system, but I started using the computer for work again, and never plug it back in even though it is as simple as inserting the connector into the USB. The content just isn't compelling enough.One other complaint about Tidal. On Spotify, Amazon, and Apple music I could always find decent playlist mixes that I could set and forget for an hour or two. Playlists on Tidal are almost all curated by Tidal, and they are almost all single artist. What's the point? I always used playlists to discover new artists mixed in with more familiar ones. Never mind the fact that Tidal caters to a different audience than myself in the first place.
So, 186 albums? I think I've collected more than that on vinyl in the last few months, and didn't pay for a single one.
This is all reminding me to cancel before the next auto payment goes out.Oh, and the sound quality of MQA is pretty good compared to the non-MQA. Try Eric Bibb's Migration Blues on Tidal Masters. Really nice sounding.
Edits: 05/06/17
Now over 700 albums
I know you guys are tired of me posting but the Mis-information is huge. You post without reading any of the other posts which would give you correct info
Alan
Zacster's number of albums is correct. 186 albums added since January. if you search the forum's archive you will find that on January 30th there were 514 master albums on Tidal. You say there are now 700. 700-514 = 186. No misinformation.
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