Well they may or may not give a hoot but categorically they've totally lost my custom on these two discs (and I bought 28 of the 29 SACDs AF released in Surround so far.. nope, I just couldn't bring myself to get that Mannheim Steamroller, even just to "support the cause") so their new business strategy is already going swimmingly isn't it..
Personally, I'd rather see them thrive than survive and that such cost-cutting measures would not be necessary.
The whole thing is disappointing, the whole situation is unfortunate, not just the failure of releasing these two discs in Surround, the seeming flop of the whole endeavour is borderline crushing to me.
One thing that bugs me is the insinuation (nobody's said it outright but the inference is there isn't it) that yet again Surround is unfairly both scapegoat and victim in these situations.
I may be one of the young'un's on this board but I've been buying Surround Music discs for 15 years+ now and like all of you guys here have seen and heard all the excuses before..
(gets on soapbox; "nobody wants surround".. "oh that terrible/naughty/evil surround is stopping people from buying our product, we must scrap it immediately!".. "surround is just not viable, its too expensive to license/remix from the multi's/transfer or remaster from the master tapes/whatever the excuse is, it'll be nothing new - and it'll be untrue and unfair.)
Other labels can make it work - look at things like all the wonderful Yes/XTC/King Crimson/Jethro Tull kinds of releases.. all include surround, all bells and whistles, all amazing, all available, all reasonably priced, those labels and producers/teams involved can pull it off, including all the costs of remixing from the multi tracks not just remastering from old Quad tapes, the Tull sets even include all the Quad too in addition to the Surround remixes - at no extra cost!
Bowing out of this conversation again for a bit to simmer down, getting mildly agitated, I'm afraid..