MQA is Vaporware

[KeenObserver]

38 minutes ago, StephenJK said:

Maybe it's time to put this one to bed.  We all seem to be in agreement - is there anything more to be said?  

 

Now, about how power supplies could possibly make any difference.....

 

It should indeed be time to put MQA to bed.  However, MQA keeps pushing to implement their scheme.  MQA is intent on ramming their misbegotten scheme down the throats of the music consumer.  It would be a mistake for the music consumer to lie down and let MQA have their way.

If this thread bothers some people, they should just ignore it.  Unless they have reasons to not want this thread to continue.

[KeenObserver]

45 minutes ago, StephenJK said:

Maybe it's time to put this one to bed.  We all seem to be in agreement - is there anything more to be said?  

 

Now, about how power supplies could possibly make any difference.....

 

I believe there are threads regarding your second point.  This one does not need to be misdirected.

[KeenObserver]

"Look!  There's Bigfoot!

[KeenObserver]

No matter how much lipstick you put on it, a pig is still a pig.

 

MQA is a pig. It has no true benefit for the end user.

 

Warner, in collusion with MQA and Tidal, is trying to ram MQA down the throats of the music consumer.

The music consumer should not stand idly by and let it happen.

Boycott Warner and boycott Tidal.

[KeenObserver]

At this point I have to wonder if MQA was a benefit or a detriment to Tidal Music.

 I have to wonder if getting in bed with the South African Financiers of MQA was a benefit or a detriment for Jay Z.

I have to wonder if drinking the contaminated brandy was a benefit or a detriment for Jay Z.

[KeenObserver]

4 hours ago, GUTB said:

It's been a long time since I listened to SACD so I can't honestly say that MQA-CD is the best physical digital format currently.

 

NOBODY can honestly say that!

[KeenObserver]

MQA CD is the most ridiculous concept I ever heard of.

I only know of one person outside of Japan that has bought into this ridiculous concept.

 

We should probably notify the Guinness people.

[KeenObserver]

If you want the best mastered recording, then you should get the best mastered recording.

MQA is a lossy format. The original recording will be damaged.

It is utterly ridiculous to remaster a recording and then damage it by applying MQA.

[KeenObserver]

If you are accepting a MQA recording as the best that can be had, then you are accepting the contaminated brandy.

[KeenObserver]

7 hours ago, UkPhil said:

Typically that’s what’s happening with Tidal, let’s hope it doesn’t migrate anywhere else 

 

Well, if I was ever considering subscribing to Tidal, I certainly would not be considering it now!

 

And I certainly would be cancelling my subscription to Tidal now!

 

I simply refuse the contaminated brandy!

[KeenObserver]

2 hours ago, jmsent said:

Good luck trying to "cancel" Tidal. I  "cancelled" my subscription in July of 2019. Suddenly last Friday, I see a PayPal notification that "I had sent a payment to Tidal".  Huh?? Contacted Tidal support and explained what happened. It took till Wednesday for a reply, and of course, they take no responsibility, just referring me to their TOS, claiming someone must have had unauthorized access to my account. And of course a refund wasn't going to come from them.  And here I thought "cancel" meant "cancel". Maybe this is SOP for streaming services, but wouldn't it make sense to at least send an email requiring confirmation of account reactivation before charging the account? Or how about just requiring re-registration to reactivate an account? 

 

Perhaps they are desperate to up their subscription numbers in anticipation of a sale?

[KeenObserver]

Apparently, someone does have "unauthorized" access to your account.

 

Tidal's claim to fame is that they recompense the artist at a higher rate than other music distributors.  Have any of the artists actually been paid?  Other than perhaps Beyonce?

[KeenObserver]

Involving partisan politics diverts attention from the matter at hand.

Simply stated, MQA benefits MQA and the studios backing it at the expense of the music consumer.

If it was a matter of the music consumer having a choice the prospect of implementing MQA would be benign.

However, the business model of MQA and it's backing studios is that MQA would be THE distribution method for music in the future. The music consumer would have no choice.

MQA has been less than forthcoming right from the beginning.  It has been all smoke and mirrors.  MQA continues to repeat the same points over and over again. Points that have been refuted over and over again.

It is common in marketing today to use "influencers" to flood the internet with wonderful reviews of products. Many of these "reviews" are not even made by humans. They are generated by AI computers.

And having publications like TAS and Stereophile blow their horns for your product  ties in to marketing. Audiophiles should understand that TAS and Stereophile are looking out for the bottom line. They are not looking out for the audiophile.

The methods of swaying and controlling public opinion may be changing in the age of the internet. People no longer buy ink by the barrel. They buy clicks by the million. People have to understand how they are now being manipulated.

The truth is out there.

MQA is no good for the music consumer.

[KeenObserver]

Calling anti MQA supporters as extremists is outright BS.

MQA is trying to ram a system down the throats of the music consumer.

The music consumer has a right and a duty to expose the BS that is MQA.

[KeenObserver]

What BS.

First off, to say that Linn does not support MQA because Linn does not incorporate MQA in their equipment is utter BS.

Linn does not support MQA because they can see what MQA is.  They have taken the ethical high road and have refused to buy into the MQA scheme. I believe that Linn posted their reasoning for not incorporating MQA.

The only time I watch that gentleman's videos is when someone posts them to make a point.  Frankly, they strike me as marketing BS.

A previous posting made the point that the " anti MQA" faction was not getting their point across. Perhaps that is true. There are a number of people that still believe the BS that MQA spews. They repeat it as if it were proven fact rather than debunked market BS. I don't know what the answer to that is except that we need to continue putting the truth out there.

People that care about the future of high quality music need to press the point.  MQA is no good for the music consumer.

 

Cancelling your subscription to Tidal will send a message.  It will tell them that they cannot force this MQA scheme on the music consumer.

Refusing to buy anything associated with MQA will send a message.

Refusing to buy anything from Warner or its subsidiaries will send a message

The bottom line is the bottom line. Money talks. If supporting MQA costs money without any return, it catches people attention.

[KeenObserver]

56 minutes ago, MarkusBarkus said:

I quit Tidal on Christmas day. I added a note in my cancellation screen, but I am not under the impression that someone read that note and thought: "We had better stop this MQA BS...even MarkusBarkus is mad. Get Jay-Z on the line."

 

Looking at the recently posted financials, Tidal is at a critical point in their existence.

They got in bed with MQA because they thought it would keep their head above water.

Perhaps one person cancelling their subscription may not have an effect. But if every music consumer that cared about the future of music cancelled their subscription ( if they had one ) it may reach a tipping point. It might make the point that forcing MQA on the music consumer is not a good financial decision. If Tidal crashed and burned because they were trying to force MQA on the music consumer, it would send a clear message.

Anyone that cares about the future of music should cancel their subscription to Tidal if they have one.  Anyone that cares about the future of music should not subscribe to Tidal. MQA on Tidal is the camels nose in the tent.

People that care for the future of music should avoid Tidal like the plague, which, frankly, it is.

 

Having MQA control the entire future distribution of music is not a good prospect.

[KeenObserver]

There are people that are intellectually lazy.  They don't have the ability and self discipline to apply logic and scientific principles to their decisions. They hear things over and over again and repeat them as gospel. They believe it makes them sound knowledgeable.  This is marketing.  This is what MQA is doing.

There are "reviewers" and bloggers that repeat the marketing propaganda and pose themselves as experts. The intellectually lazy follow them because it is easier than actually thinking it out for themselves.  They are easily led.

If MQA keeps putting out the same BS over and over again there will be those that follow them over the cliff.

[KeenObserver]

The thought occurred to me that the MQA faithful that follow them over the cliff have no idea what I'm talking about.

 

The metaphor is lost on them.

[KeenObserver]

There is a whole mass of people that don't understand the full implications of implementing MQA.

[KeenObserver]

2 hours ago, Fast and Bulbous said:

The PS audio video... If credibility is important then knowing the A is for Authenticated not Assured would seem to be important. And that Qobuz do not use MQA - as far as I know.

 

Had the "customers want it" dialogue with Charley H and Neil - there was no budging from Charley's well informed position and Neil has maintained that integrity ever since. That kind of thing is what we need. Maybe there is energy there?

 

As for a Youtube video... the only video work I have done is for basic animations for use in consulting assigments. Nothing fancy, not slick, but OK. I have worked with graphic artists and video producers. And done voice over work and script preparation. Putting something together would need to be a team effort I feel - as there are many perspectives to incorporate. The objective would be for it to go viral.

 

Darko's comments about extremist was about extremist positions I think? And at each end of the distribution curve the positions are extreme: either "there is nothing good about MQA, at all, to "there is nothing bad about MQA, at all". Darko points out that each position has work to do. And time is moving along. MQA has some serious money behind it, a significant team, labels, hardware manufacturers, streaming with their investors, much of the press, strategy and comms advice that we may deride, but the path they are on is not born of a whim. It is the result of some serious thinking about how to sell this so that it becomes part of the standard infrastructure. Every move and goal is towards that end. Nothing else will do - otherwise it gets sidelined to a niche thing. Tech is one thing, relationships that MQA have and the vested interests they serve are something else. Some are explicit, some are not.

 

Tonight I am doing a webinar on technology/innovation adoption/diffusion strategy. Have not done one for a while. In prepping for it I looked afresh at MQA through that lens. Yep, it stacks up. Is how technically inferior innovations have won their space and beaten lesser tech. Often the best tech does not win, is a repeating pattern.

 

Do we know where and who are the other folks who are clear about the danger / deceit of MQA?

 

"If not now then when...." comes to mind.

 

 

 

 

A well thought out post. It points to the fact that there is substantial financial backing behind MQA and all the parties involved are intent on ramming this thing through. The South African financial backers and the studios have a history of doing what they need to to to further their ends, ethical considerations being of little importance.

As I said before, the bottom line is the bottom line. It would have to be financially bad for them to drop their plans to implement MQA. Look at what the South African billionaires did to acquire their billions.  Look at the past histories of the studios. The only way these people are going to reverse course is if the public relations effect costs them money. Are the music consumers that are being screwed by MQA rejecting it to the point that it is costing the studios?

Look at what happened when Sony implemented their root kit fiasco. When it was exposed Sony took a financial hit.

The thing with the Sony root kit fiasco is that it provoked widespread disdain.

With TAS and Stereophile and others prostituting themselves for MQA, it is difficult to educate the music consumer as to the full implications of implementing MQA.

Having a powerful public relations program is effective. Yellow journalism provoked the Spanish-American War.

[KeenObserver]

Didn't the government of Norway initiate an investigation into Tidal? Something to do with inflating numbers? Weren't Beyonce and Kanye West's albums reported to be playing something like 24 hours a day, seven days a week on every subscribers account, on two separate players?

What was the outcome of that investigation?

[KeenObserver]

Mike Jbara positioning himself and Warner as taking the moral high road is laughable.

It's like the revisionist history of South Africa where those responsible for Apartheid are portrayed as noble humanitarians whose only concern was for the welfare of the people.  It had nothing to do with enrichening themselves so that they could run Netherlands holding companies.

Has Jbara asked his financial backers about the true horrors of Apartheid?

[KeenObserver]

7 minutes ago, Allan F said:

 

Nothing personal, but don't you think that a comparison in any way of the positioning of Mr. Jbara and Warner to the history of South Africa trivializes the latter? On any scale, the former is of virtually no importance or significance when weighed against the "true horrors of Apartheid".

 

It is not trivializing anything. It is pointing out the truth and it is pointing out who is actually backing MQA.

Those involved in creating and furthering Apartheid would like that part of history to be forgotten. There is an effort to gloss over the history and create a new revisionist version of history.  THAT is trivializing history.

The TRUTH should be shown.

Forcing MQA on the music consumer is not unlike forcing contaminated brandy on the workers. Compared to the effects of Apartheid it is trivial, but to the audiophile it is important. At what point is enough enough.

[KeenObserver]

1 minute ago, Allan F said:

With respect, of course you are trivializing the history of Apartheid when, in the same post, you compare it the the musings of Mr Jbara. It's not unlike when people compare government policies they disagree with to Hitler and the Holocaust. The two have no business in the same discussion. The fact that something may be true does not elevate its relative level of importance in the overall scheme of things.

 

Do you actually know the source of the financial backers of MQA?  Do you know where the Billions originated?

[KeenObserver]

Those that cannot learn from history...