I attended the Wax event in Hollywood today!
After doing a once-over on the general scene, I headed over to the Audio Fidelity table to see what they had brought out. There are a few titles I needed that are out of stock at some of the online retailers, and the table at WAX had them!!! I picked up two of the SACDs with 4.0 mixes that were on my list. Nice to get them direct and with no shipping cost added.
I met and preceded to grill Marshall Blonstein on everything I could think of related to the AF 4.0 series of quad releases. I asked him about about the possibility of four (Warners) titles I'd most like to see them release in the series. He had considered previously each of them and gave me the reasons why some were likely, unlikely, or impossible. A couple of my desired titles are totally out at this time. But surprisingly, the one I had some doubts about is in the cards! He wants to do it, but has other things in the pipeline already set that they are going on first.
Marshall then said "next" as to see "what else" was on my wish list? I kept on going with more albums I'd like from AF in this 4.0 series. I got to ask all of the questions. He even tipped me off to some things coming down the pipeline that are not yet officially announced. :shh: So that was totally cool. I got four titles out of him that are in or going into production (but not yet announced) in the quad / 4.0 SACD series. One thing he told me that will surprise some, is that AF is considering, or more than considering, they are actually pursuing two quad titles that have already been reissued (in stereo) not that long ago, and now being considered for their 4.0 SACD line. They are simply such strong titles, high quality (quad & stereo) recordings, that is makes sense business wise to have them in the catalog.
He could tell I was serious about this stuff, and said he was going to get lunch, and would I like to join him? So we walked down from the Capitol Records lot on Vine St. to Hollywood Blvd. and had a nice lunch over more industry chit-chat. How nice.
I got to talk to him about the difficulty of licensing titles from Sony vs. Warners vs. Universal. He explained that there is no block on quad from any of these labels, and that all are fine with what he has done and is doing. It's simply tapes not found, and often recent reissues (MFSL, AP, etc.) which we all know is one roadblock. And that a reply to a license request can take months, maybe even 5 to 6 months just to find out status. Sometimes the licensing fee is way out of the range of consideration. Artists sometimes want no reissues at all in any configuration. So it was good to hear that the labels agreeing is the least of the problems they sometimes face. For example, Warners is open to granting requests for their 4.0 tapes (pending artists' approval), but not now anything in 5.1. Interesting. Marshall stressed that the surround/quad crowd remains a small percentage of the buyers of Audio Fidelity product.
I was glad to hear him state which titles are not available to do at this time (if at all), so that I can get over them and not wait with expectations on something that is not happening. He said that tapes, the right tapes are sometimes impossible to get. And that he has received stereo analog reels that turned out to be recorded from a CD. That is how it is sometimes.
We talked some about his work in the record industry from ABC, Ode, Island, and forming DCC at the moment CDs were becoming white hot at retail. The guy knows everyone in town, and that I think has helped him in getting these a-list titles out on Audio Fidelity.
http://www.waxrecordfair.com/
After doing a once-over on the general scene, I headed over to the Audio Fidelity table to see what they had brought out. There are a few titles I needed that are out of stock at some of the online retailers, and the table at WAX had them!!! I picked up two of the SACDs with 4.0 mixes that were on my list. Nice to get them direct and with no shipping cost added.
I met and preceded to grill Marshall Blonstein on everything I could think of related to the AF 4.0 series of quad releases. I asked him about about the possibility of four (Warners) titles I'd most like to see them release in the series. He had considered previously each of them and gave me the reasons why some were likely, unlikely, or impossible. A couple of my desired titles are totally out at this time. But surprisingly, the one I had some doubts about is in the cards! He wants to do it, but has other things in the pipeline already set that they are going on first.
Marshall then said "next" as to see "what else" was on my wish list? I kept on going with more albums I'd like from AF in this 4.0 series. I got to ask all of the questions. He even tipped me off to some things coming down the pipeline that are not yet officially announced. :shh: So that was totally cool. I got four titles out of him that are in or going into production (but not yet announced) in the quad / 4.0 SACD series. One thing he told me that will surprise some, is that AF is considering, or more than considering, they are actually pursuing two quad titles that have already been reissued (in stereo) not that long ago, and now being considered for their 4.0 SACD line. They are simply such strong titles, high quality (quad & stereo) recordings, that is makes sense business wise to have them in the catalog.
He could tell I was serious about this stuff, and said he was going to get lunch, and would I like to join him? So we walked down from the Capitol Records lot on Vine St. to Hollywood Blvd. and had a nice lunch over more industry chit-chat. How nice.
I got to talk to him about the difficulty of licensing titles from Sony vs. Warners vs. Universal. He explained that there is no block on quad from any of these labels, and that all are fine with what he has done and is doing. It's simply tapes not found, and often recent reissues (MFSL, AP, etc.) which we all know is one roadblock. And that a reply to a license request can take months, maybe even 5 to 6 months just to find out status. Sometimes the licensing fee is way out of the range of consideration. Artists sometimes want no reissues at all in any configuration. So it was good to hear that the labels agreeing is the least of the problems they sometimes face. For example, Warners is open to granting requests for their 4.0 tapes (pending artists' approval), but not now anything in 5.1. Interesting. Marshall stressed that the surround/quad crowd remains a small percentage of the buyers of Audio Fidelity product.
I was glad to hear him state which titles are not available to do at this time (if at all), so that I can get over them and not wait with expectations on something that is not happening. He said that tapes, the right tapes are sometimes impossible to get. And that he has received stereo analog reels that turned out to be recorded from a CD. That is how it is sometimes.
We talked some about his work in the record industry from ABC, Ode, Island, and forming DCC at the moment CDs were becoming white hot at retail. The guy knows everyone in town, and that I think has helped him in getting these a-list titles out on Audio Fidelity.
http://www.waxrecordfair.com/
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