MQA is Vaporware

[Rt66indierock]

3 hours ago, firedog said:

People can convice themselves of all sorts of things - and believe them - when profit is involved.

 

The hope of profit not profit. Bob Stuart has reached a unique milestone in high end audio. He has managed to lose $100 dollars this century operating Meridian and MQA. Sorry I didn't post them here but I had my reasons. The current numbers are on Real HD Audio if you want to see them.

 

Tidal is also at an interesting point. Before Jack Dorsey bought a majority share, Tidal revenue and current liabilities were almost equal. Tidal funds its operations by not paying its bills. 

 

MQA is simply a bad business decision. The investors made a bad decision investing in MQA, manufacturers made a bad one by supporting it, Roon, Tidal, nug.net and others made a bad one by providing content.

[KeenObserver]

38 minutes ago, Rt66indierock said:

 

The hope of profit not profit. Bob Stuart has reached a unique milestone in high end audio. He has managed to lose $100 dollars this century operating Meridian and MQA. Sorry I didn't post them here but I had my reasons. The current numbers are on Real HD Audio if you want to see them.

 

Tidal is also at an interesting point. Before Jack Dorsey bought a majority share, Tidal revenue and current liabilities were almost equal. Tidal funds its operations by not paying its bills. 

 

MQA is simply a bad business decision. The investors made a bad decision investing in MQA, manufacturers made a bad one by supporting it, Roon, Tidal, nug.net and others made a bad one by providing content.

 

The question is: Are MQA and the three majors so arrogant as to think that they are going to ram MQA down the throats of the music consumer whether they like it or not?

[KeenObserver]

Has Tidal been successful in forcing MQA on their subscribers?

Will they continue?

[The Computer Audiophile]

8 minutes ago, KeenObserver said:

 

The question is: Are MQA and the three majors so arrogant as to think that they are going to ram MQA down the throats of the music consumer whether they like it or not?

Yes. 100% yes. When public corporations report to shareholders on a quarterly basis, nothing is off the table. 

[firedog]

1 hour ago, Rt66indierock said:

 

The hope of profit not profit. Bob Stuart has reached a unique milestone in high end audio. He has managed to lose $100 dollars this century operating Meridian and MQA. Sorry I didn't post them here but I had my reasons. The current numbers are on Real HD Audio if you want to see them.

 

Tidal is also at an interesting point. Before Jack Dorsey bought a majority share, Tidal revenue and current liabilities were almost equal. Tidal funds its operations by not paying its bills. 

 

MQA is simply a bad business decision. The investors made a bad decision investing in MQA, manufacturers made a bad one by supporting it, Roon, Tidal, nug.net and others made a bad one by providing content.

The MQA people and the record labels-streaming companies  may be mistaken, but the seem to be looking long term at the whole music industry ecosystem, and thinking that long term they will manage to squeeze large additional "rents" out of consumers and audio companies. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

25 minutes ago, firedog said:

The MQA people and the record labels-streaming companies  may be mistaken, but the seem to be looking long term at the whole music industry ecosystem, and thinking that long term they will manage to squeeze large additional "rents" out of consumers and audio companies. 

Absolutely. 

[AudioDoctor]

Just imagine the money that the record companies would have saved if they all decided to make music easily available rather than attempt to try and control it at every turn. They would probably make more money too.

[GregWormald]

5 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

Just imagine the money that the record companies would have saved if they all decided to make music easily available rather than attempt to try and control it at every turn. They would probably make more money too.

 

Sort of off-topic but related to AD's quote—two stories. (anonymised)

 

I had a friend who worked for Warner music. She was also the local Warner liaison of a well-known artist. Warner's management of this artist's work was so bad that the work was taken away from Warner (in the artist's home country) and the artist managed it all through a home-brew internet site. The music sold well, and internationally. (BTW the Opera browser has an on-board free VPN where you can set the country of "origin".)

............

I queried my friend one day when I was unable to find a particular artist on Warner's website no matter how I searched, despite knowing that this was a Warner artist. She also could not find reference to this artist or any of his work using Warner's resources. I eventually found a copy of the CD I wanted on a pirate site. It was a Warner branded CD.

 

Sometimes the big companies are their own worst enemy.

 

 

 

[lucretius]

1 hour ago, GregWormald said:

(BTW the Opera browser has an on-board free VPN where you can set the country of "origin".)

 

Thanks.  Good to know.

[Currawong]

On 4/28/2021 at 6:14 PM, UkPhil said:

Very confusing as I have just been given this screen shot is Tidal also going to give us 24bit lossless PCM in the options 

 

Report them to the Department of Fair Trading for false advertising. Australian regulations are very strict.  Totally serious about this: If you want to do more than just make noise about this on forums, write out a careful, but detailed complaint with screenshots. They've already removed the word "lossless" from their MQA info, which suggests they anticipated that they couldn't legally advertise it that way.

[StephenJK]

12 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

Just imagine the money that the record companies would have saved if they all decided to make music easily available rather than attempt to try and control it at every turn. They would probably make more money too.

That was the comment made back in the Napster days. 

 

Instead of trying to sell CDs for $25 each and suing the kids who were uploading tracks or doing file sharing, find a way to make music more readily available online at a low cost.  

 

Nope - not gonna happen.  That powerful drug of $25 CDs was too much to give up.  To this day they haven't found a new paradigm, still struggling to comprehend the whole mess with their dinosaur brains.  

[UkPhil]

26 minutes ago, Currawong said:

 

Report them to the Department of Fair Trading for false advertising. Australian regulations are very strict.  Totally serious about this: If you want to do more than just make noise about this on forums, write out a careful, but detailed complaint with screenshots. They've already removed the word "lossless" from their MQA info, which suggests they anticipated that they couldn't legally advertise it that way.

Speaking to a few contacts behind the scenes today it seems it’s just marketing errors (good try though)  and it’s going to be changed, Tidal are not going to deliver PCM 24bit Hi Res, the Uk advertising standards agency would have fun with it too 

[KeenObserver]

1 hour ago, StephenJK said:

That was the comment made back in the Napster days. 

 

Instead of trying to sell CDs for $25 each and suing the kids who were uploading tracks or doing file sharing, find a way to make music more readily available online at a low cost.  

 

Nope - not gonna happen.  That powerful drug of $25 CDs was too much to give up.  To this day they haven't found a new paradigm, still struggling to comprehend the whole mess with their dinosaur brains.  

 

It is ego and corporate think. THEY will dictate what happens.

Go back and read the comments of the Sony executives in regards to the Sony rootkit fiasco. It's like they wanted to line up those that were ripping their CD's and execute them.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Why do we need MQA again?

 

 

 

[KeenObserver]

3 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Why do we need MQA again?

 

 

 

 

WOW!

Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

[vmartell22]

1 hour ago, KeenObserver said:

 

WOW!

Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

 

Indeed - a good sign. But to me, the light at the end of the tunnel will be when Spotify Hifi comes out.  IF it is not MQA - that's all she wrote for MQA. Here's hoping

 

v

 

[KeenObserver]

1 hour ago, vmartell22 said:

 

Indeed - a good sign. But to me, the light at the end of the tunnel will be when Spotify Hifi comes out.  IF it is not MQA - that's all she wrote for MQA. Here's hoping

 

v

 

 

Just imagine!

A world without MQA!

A world where we can listen to Hi-Rez music without worrying about its future!

A world where we don't have to listen to the same MQA BS repeated over and over again by BS!

A world where Peter Veth goes back to peddling environmental test equipment!

 

Can such a world exist?

Oh, such a wonderful dream!

[KeenObserver]

I haven't even drank coffee today.

[GoldenOne]

ASR has now locked the MQA discussion thread.
 

Prior to this, one of the moderators requested a phone call with me. They said (and no I am not joking) that there were too many people criticising Amir for the MQA related comments he'd made and that they couldn't keep up with the moderation, so they wanted to lock the thread and wanted me to start a new one, in which they would not allow anyone to bring up the statements Amir had made regarding MQA. Because ASR/Amir needed to "remain neutral".
 

I told them that I was unwilling to do this and that censorship is not a good plan. Firstly it will just raise more questions and make ASR/Amir look suspicious, and secondly it's just morally wrong.

If ASR/Amir wants to remain neutral, then Amir shouldn't be making statements in any direction regarding MQA.
 

If they were going to lock the thread I was not going to help them make it more PR-Friendly by posting a new one and saying that it was all ok. Because it isn't.
No one should be immune to criticism, doesn't matter if it's their forum or not. And if you don't want to be criticised, you should say nothing. (And certainly shouldn't run a forum)
 

Even if there are people being un-necessarily hostile, which to be clear, some were, and that should absolutely be handled, if more moderation is needed, appoint more moderators.

Censoring discussion and preventing people from criticizing the forum owner is just wrong. And doing it now, when the owner of the forum says something in defence of a company that is known to have attempted to censor other forums, makes things look damn fishy.

I made quite clear that in my opinion, the best way for ASR to remain neutral would be to leave the thread up, as-is. And simply have Amir not say anything further on the topic.
Let people continue the discussion and have the forum owners/staff remain neutral from here on.

[KeenObserver]

Amir is terrified of anyone speaking the truth about MQA. He must have been spanked badly at his previous employment.

You will not be able to speak the truth about MQA. It is not allowed on that site.

[KeenObserver]

Amir is either blindly unaware of the details involving MQA or he is deliberately trying to divert attention.

If he does not want to be questioned about it he should say nothing or ban talk about it altogether. That says it all.

[bambadoo]

1 hour ago, GoldenOne said:

ASR has now locked the MQA discussion thread.
 

Prior to this, one of the moderators requested a phone call with me. They said (and no I am not joking) that there were too many people criticising Amir for the MQA related comments he'd made and that they couldn't keep up with the moderation, so they wanted to lock the thread and wanted me to start a new one, in which they would not allow anyone to bring up the statements Amir had made regarding MQA. Because ASR/Amir needed to "remain neutral".
 

I told them that I was unwilling to do this and that censorship is not a good plan. Firstly it will just raise more questions and make ASR/Amir look suspicious, and secondly it's just morally wrong.

If ASR/Amir wants to remain neutral, then Amir shouldn't be making statements in any direction regarding MQA.
 

If they were going to lock the thread I was not going to help them make it more PR-Friendly by posting a new one and saying that it was all ok. Because it isn't.
No one should be immune to criticism, doesn't matter if it's their forum or not. And if you don't want to be criticised, you should say nothing. (And certainly shouldn't run a forum)
 

Even if there are people being un-necessarily hostile, which to be clear, some were, and that should absolutely be handled, if more moderation is needed, appoint more moderators.

Censoring discussion and preventing people from criticizing the forum owner is just wrong. And doing it now, when the owner of the forum says something in defence of a company that is known to have attempted to censor other forums, makes things look damn fishy.

I made quite clear that in my opinion, the best way for ASR to remain neutral would be to leave the thread up, as-is. And simply have Amir not say anything further on the topic.
Let people continue the discussion and have the forum owners/staff remain neutral from here on.

Thanks for your hard work

 

ASR has closed MQA stuff before. 

 

https://www.audio “science” review/forum/index.php?threads/mqa-a-review-of-controversies-concerns-and-cautions.2407/

[Stereo]

1 hour ago, KeenObserver said:

Amir is terrified of anyone speaking the truth about MQA. He must have been spanked badly at his previous employment.

You will not be able to speak the truth about MQA. It is not allowed on that site.

What a wuss he is.

[lucretius]

1 hour ago, KeenObserver said:

Amir is terrified of anyone speaking the truth about MQA. He must have been spanked badly at his previous employment.

You will not be able to speak the truth about MQA. It is not allowed on that site.

 

This all seems strange to me.  I've got to wonder what relationship Amir has or had with MQA and/or Bob Stuart.

 

As an aside, I just realized that you can get the Tidal software from the Microsoft store.

[Stereo]

1 hour ago, GoldenOne said:

ASR has now locked the MQA discussion thread.
 

Prior to this, one of the moderators requested a phone call with me. They said (and no I am not joking) that there were too many people criticising Amir for the MQA related comments he'd made and that they couldn't keep up with the moderation, so they wanted to lock the thread and wanted me to start a new one, in which they would not allow anyone to bring up the statements Amir had made regarding MQA. Because ASR/Amir needed to "remain neutral".
 

I told them that I was unwilling to do this and that censorship is not a good plan. Firstly it will just raise more questions and make ASR/Amir look suspicious, and secondly it's just morally wrong.

If ASR/Amir wants to remain neutral, then Amir shouldn't be making statements in any direction regarding MQA.
 

If they were going to lock the thread I was not going to help them make it more PR-Friendly by posting a new one and saying that it was all ok. Because it isn't.
No one should be immune to criticism, doesn't matter if it's their forum or not. And if you don't want to be criticised, you should say nothing. (And certainly shouldn't run a forum)
 

Even if there are people being un-necessarily hostile, which to be clear, some were, and that should absolutely be handled, if more moderation is needed, appoint more moderators.

Censoring discussion and preventing people from criticizing the forum owner is just wrong. And doing it now, when the owner of the forum says something in defence of a company that is known to have attempted to censor other forums, makes things look damn fishy.

I made quite clear that in my opinion, the best way for ASR to remain neutral would be to leave the thread up, as-is. And simply have Amir not say anything further on the topic.
Let people continue the discussion and have the forum owners/staff remain neutral from here on.

Thank you for having integrity and doing the right thing!!!!