Die High-Fidelity-Pure-Audio-Disc-Totgeburt

Universal Music Group will die Erfolgsgeschichte der CD wiederholen oder zumindest an sie anschliessen. Mit einer neuen Plastikscheibe namens High Fidelity Pure Audio. Vorgestellt hat UMG das Format am 20.6. in London.

Bobby Owsinski in Forbes:

So what exactly is this stealth format? High Fidelity Pure Audio (HFPA) is basically a Blu-ray disc that delivers 96kHz/24 bit audio recordings in three lossless formats: uncompressed PCM, DTS HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. Most discs include the option to download MP3 and lossless FLAC versions of the songs as well. The discs will also play on any Blu-ray player or PS3 device.

Didn’t we just play this game about 10 years ago with the DVD Audio disc and SACD, formats that both failed miserably? While it’s laudable that Universal is even considering bringing a higher fidelity product to the marketplace, haven’t they learned anything from history?

Techdirt:

UMG may think there’s an underserved niche market that needs to be filled, but any physical music format at this point is really a niche. I don’t think it’s actively trying to fill a void as much as it’s trying to see how many people are willing to purchase something again in a shiny, new format. That’s really not how „repeat business“ is supposed to work.

I have to imagine the costs of this effort are going to outweigh the profits, which in an industry that has spent 15 years hollering about how uncomfortable its deathbed is, makes absolutely no sense at all.

Der Zug für ein neues physikalisches Format ist zur Jahrtausendwende abgefahren, falls er jemals existiert hat. (Die CD ist von der Audioqualität her völlig ausreichend für normale Konsumenten. Auch das hat die MP3, die trotz schlechterer Audioqualität populär wurde, gezeigt und auch diese Lektion wird bis heute von der Tonträgerindustrie ignoriert.)