BecauseDVDAudioDoesntMatter.com?

[tomwrock]

It would seem that it might be more productive to have different people post about DVD-A rather than the same few people repeatedly. How about some others posting there. Otherwise, it loses power.

I've just posted again at BSM asking for news of when we're going to see DVD-A releases. Maybe if we all post there once a week they'll pay attention and give us some answers. I wonder if these 2 guys at BSM have ever heard a good DVD-A on a decent quality surround system?

 

[JonUrban]

We need to keep a constant BUT LOW profile over there, folks. The more we post with "Where are the DVD-A's", the more it looks like we're spamming the place. Let's give them some time and see what happens. More posts by different people are better than repeated posts from the same folks over and over again. Think about it.

 

[timbre4]

Other than thanking Spence today publicly, I'm not posting.

These are other individuals (non-QQ) and I'm PM-ing them so that they are clued in that there is some quiet progress being made on a private channel so that they don't post even more to the threads.

 

[wavelength]

We need to keep a constant BUT LOW profile over there, folks. The more we post with "Where are the DVD-A's", the more it looks like we're spamming the place. Let's give them some time and see what happens. More posts by different people are better than repeated posts from the same folks over and over again. Think about it.

Spoken like a true moderator. Good job buddy!

 

[hwkn]

I posted on the site today too[i'm the one who mentioned they should do a DVD-A of Yessongs].

 

[JonUrban]

Spoken like a true moderator. Good job buddy!

Thanks. I try!

 

[neil wilkes]

We need to keep a constant BUT LOW profile over there, folks. The more we post with "Where are the DVD-A's", the more it looks like we're spamming the place. Let's give them some time and see what happens. More posts by different people are better than repeated posts from the same folks over and over again. Think about it.

Makes perfect sense to me.
The Gods only know I have been tempted - especially in light of the recent info from Tim where it would now seem this is a fan thing within Warners.
BUT - it does open up some possibilities.
I wish I had the finance to approach the labels myself to do limited runs of, say, 1000 a time on some desirable material. That pays back the license & replication/origination costs & makes a nice profit to boot. Further repressings could be done in batches of 1,000 or more as required and if it all proved popular.

If I had the dosh, I would do it myself for sure.

 

[Quadzilla]

Makes perfect sense to me.
The Gods only know I have been tempted - especially in light of the recent info from Tim where it would now seem this is a fan thing within Warners. BUT - it does open up some possibilities. I wish I had the finance to approach the labels myself to do limited runs of, say, 1000 a time on some desirable material. That pays back the license & replication/origination costs & makes a nice profit to boot. Further repressings could be done in batches of 1,000 or more as required and if it all proved popular.

If I had the dosh, I would do it myself for sure.

Sadly, it seems as though the record labels don't want to play in their sandbox any more, but they don't want anyone else to play in it either.

Didn't Audio Fidelity run into that issue with they did the Bad Company HDCD? If I remember correctly, they wanted to do an SACD, but they could only get the rights to do a 24kt gold HDCD. That would have been an excellent multichannel title ... although I am sure that Steve H. would only have done a stereo disk anyway.

I am afraid it is a total cluster fu@k at this point, and nothing more ... Sony selling an SACD car player (not to mention SACD freakin' video game machines) years after they killed the format? Warner hyping the shit out of sound mattering, and then giving up on DVD-Audio. It is no wonder that even we die-hards are fed up with the whole thing.

I know that you and I have not agreed on much from the format side of things Neil, but it is surely all over now. Well, I still have my quad LPs!

 

[rusinurbe]

Makes perfect sense to me.
The Gods only know I have been tempted - especially in light of the recent info from Tim where it would now seem this is a fan thing within Warners.
BUT - it does open up some possibilities.
I wish I had the finance to approach the labels myself to do limited runs of, say, 1000 a time on some desirable material. That pays back the license & replication/origination costs & makes a nice profit to boot. Further repressings could be done in batches of 1,000 or more as required and if it all proved popular.

If I had the dosh, I would do it myself for sure.

Could this cue up a Quad form Boutiqe label, If we all chipped in up front costs !
Happy to lend some spare time (what ever that is !!). It would be great to have just that a small albel reissuning Quad mixes already completed !! artists get some dosh and we get some music!

 

[EMB]

Probably wouldn't work, even then. One thing about the reissue bid: you'll wanna do a lot, but the words you usually hear are 'no' or 'not interested,' or the licensing costs are too prohibitive, or the label has its own vague 'future plans,' etc.

Silverline may be a fair example. Leaving aside for the moment our personal feelings about *some* of their catalog, notice that, after the initial batch of 5.1 comps(from the EMI catalog), things sort of dried up? They resorted to faux 5.1's from the Sanctuary/Pye catalog? What does this tell us? It tells me that maybe they couldn't get the numbers that allowed for more licensing from EMI, or maybe other companies simply wouldn't play ball with them. Whatever happened, most of the DVD-A's and SACD's we got were from major labels, doing in-house work. 'Outside' or 'boutique' licensing was a very small percentage, ultimately. Too bad, but that's the reality.

ED

 

[neil wilkes]

Could this cue up a Quad form Boutiqe label, If we all chipped in up front costs !
Happy to lend some spare time (what ever that is !!). It would be great to have just that a small albel reissuning Quad mixes already completed !! artists get some dosh and we get some music!

I am going to ask what the realistic chances of getting a limitred release license are. It's only words etc, and the worst they can say is no.

 

[bmoura]

Sadly, it seems as though the record labels don't want to play in their sandbox any more, but they don't want anyone else to play in it either.

Didn't Audio Fidelity run into that issue with they did the Bad Company HDCD? If I remember correctly, they wanted to do an SACD, but they could only get the rights to do a 24kt gold HDCD.

Yes, you would need to pay an advance to both the artist and record label just for the rights to the title. So it wouldn't be a low cost option.

Audio Fidelity ran into issues with both the advance costs and labels green lighting vinyl LP and Gold CD editions but not SACD editions.

With all of the hurdles, it's amazing that labels like Mobile Fidelity and Groove Note continue to come up with SACD reissues !

 

[timbre4]

I am going to ask what the realistic chances of getting a limitred release license are. It's only words etc, and the worst they can say is no.

Check your email....

 

[PaulT]

With all of the hurdles, it's amazing that labels like Mobile Fidelity and Groove Note continue to come up with SACD reissues !

Since Cowboy Junkies 'Whites Off Earth Now' and Pixies 'Surfer Rosa' were released all we are seeing near future from MoFi are CD's:

coming soon:
The Allman Brothers - Idlewild South Ultradisc II 24kt Gold CD
Little Feat - Little Feat Ultradisc II 24kt Gold CD
Natalie Merchant - Tigerlily Ultradisc II 24kt Gold CD

Chesky continues with their single inventory SACD releases though if you are a Jazz fan.

 

[bmoura]

Since Cowboy Junkies 'Whites Off Earth Now' and Pixies 'Surfer Rosa' were released all we are seeing near future from MoFi are CD's:

coming soon:
The Allman Brothers - Idlewild South Ultradisc II 24kt Gold CD
Little Feat - Little Feat Ultradisc II 24kt Gold CD
Natalie Merchant - Tigerlily Ultradisc II 24kt Gold CD

Chesky continues with their single inventory SACD releases though if you are a Jazz fan.

Actually, Mobile Fidelity also released a Milt Jackson SACD in addition to the Pixies and Cowboy Junkies.

As to Jazz, don't forget the Telarc, Heads Up and Songlines Jazz SACDs as well in the U.S. market as well as other Jazz releases in Europe and Japan.

 

[timbre4]

Since a member asked if I knew something he didn't I posted this today:

Thoughts On DVD-A Is Coming
Submitted by DVDAWins on Sun, 08/05/2007 - 10:59am.
Perhaps even the critics will appreciate this better with a brief timeline:

Jan 2007 - Tip that a new WEA site will include DVD-A releases.
Feb-Apr 2007 - Speculation on DVD-A; frustration
May 2007 - Soft launch of site, no DVD-A?
June 2007 - Outpouring of DVD-A support & requests
July 2007 - Hello msg appears with no DVD-A news
July 2007 - Blowback postings (me included)
July 2007 - 1st post by 'grover' assuring us DVD-A was coming in some form

After a round of emails with BSM last weekend, I decided to edit previous posts (couldn't delete) to indicate that I feel we are FINALLY on our way to getting DVD-A releases. Prior to these conversations, I was losing faith in the stated BSM premise of providing DVD-A.

The WEA folks behind the site probably didn't realize: 1) the extent of serious DVD-A interest still out there today, 2) how long or involved it would be to get actual DVD-A releases going, 3) how long a rabid fan base will wait for updates, 4) that the forum requires a lot more time and closer moderation

Having said that, I believe anything new title-wise will be months away. The DVD-A groundwork that I figured was going on between January to now, has only just begun. That's disappointing but having to live in my own world of skidding deadlines, sometimes it takes longer than we all think it should.

In reaction to cost factor for DVD-A, we have supplied lists of legacy quad releases that we would buy, existing 5.1 mixes that exist in lossy formats or were completed but never issued. There is no commitment on any of these as yet.

Many have also said they would accept 2.0 stereo DVD-A releases if the cost of 5.1 was too great a hurdle. No word yet if this is happening.

There is a strong possibility that some DVD-A re-issues will appear soon to get the ball rolling. This is the most likely thing to happen for now. I suggested these titles be put back in print:

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery / Donald Fagen - The Nightfly / Eagles - Hotel California / Fleetwood Mac - Rumours / Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies / Chicago - Chicago II / Neil Young - Harvest

That is as much as I know right now; the rest is faith that the principle players want to make DVD-A releases available once again.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Thanks Timbre4 for keeping up on this. We know the music industry is fundamentally changed in part because of the Internet and other factors like MP3. I wonder if anyone could speculate an answer to these questions:

Exactly what shape is the music industry in right now? Do they even exist now as functional companies or has the bottom fallen out and in many regards are now bankrupt despite or in part because they are now owned by large entertainment conglomerates? How many times can they remaster stereo CDs when people already own them or have them as MP3s.

I'm glad BSM exists and hope they can deliver us the music we want. But...why did it come into being in the first place? I mean how much money can they make off of vinyl? We know that there is a high demand for DVD-A. You would think that the record companies would be pouring all their resources into these formats (including vinyl) to generate interest at the grass roots level in order to gain mass acceptance and interest in these formats. Instead of having just 2 guys run the whole show.

How much does it really cost to do short runs of previously released DVD-A and SACD? Why can't we download those instead of MP3? And why won't they rerelease Quadraphonic mixes when there is a demand for those as well?

You would think that on a corporate business level of decision making that if the record companies are not going to put money into new artists that they would at least preserve original Multi-track Master Tapes and Quadraphonic, Stereo and Mono mixes for possible future releases rather than let valuable potential money makers be lost to the ravages of time. The record company Captains are letting the ship sink while doing nothing...
They're too happy with themselves and their jobs and the great work they think they're doing.

Now I'm ready for my next cup of coffee...

 

[timbre4]

Labels are scared STOOPID; they run away from any profitable niche markets, figuring the RIAA can shield them from gravity and reality. They seem to think movie and TV song licensing is gonna make up the difference and more. I say this judging them on their behavior.

BSM is a two man fetish; is that a business model yet. I dunno.

 

[John Svensson]

A did note a couple of lowered price DVD-A's on the website, probably not fresh news but...... Bjork for $19 and Beethoven Symphonies (same). How old Beethovan Van qualified for "Pop" categorization I don't know. My own personal, selfish wish is that if they are going to re-issue some older titles that it be the Chicago/Doobies/Yes(Magnification)/single Doors titles.....items I thought would be around for ages and which some folks feel command $40 or more on Ebay now. John

 

[timbre4]

I'm steadily working on the BSM folks to improve the DVD-A aspects of their site.

This included submitting the list of some of the most obvious DVD-A titles to re-issue: Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery / Donald Fagen - The Nightfly / Eagles - Hotel California / Fleetwood Mac - Rumours / Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies / Chicago - Chicago II / Neil Young - Harvest

You have to think the titles they have up there are because these had existing inventory and available in signifigant quantities for a website.

The Bach DVD-A titles ($17 actually) ended up in POP because there is no classical category on the site.

The beat goes on...................