Coinciding with the launch of the new version of The War of The Worlds comes new market research into the future of surround sound for music, which was commissioned by the Super Audio CD Project Team, a collaborative venture between consumer equipment manufacturers, pro-audio production tool developers and record companies seeking to establish the new high-resolution surround sound music format.
The Market Research, carried out by Scribe Technical Public Relations Limited, questioned more than 2600 key opinion formers within the music industry, including record company executives, studio and mastering facility management, equipment manufacturers, disc replicators, retailers, journalists and industry analysts.
Of the respondents, over 71 per cent believe that CD is not obsolete and still offers the main business platform for the provision of recorded music. However, the majority of respondents could see a time, within the next five years or so, when alternative music carriers will supersede CD. Looking at current market drivers, electronic music distribution systems are seen as growing strongly and are attractive particularly to younger music consumers, who are motivated by factors such as low cost, ease of access and portability.
In this environment, the majority of respondents believe that surround sound will play a very important role in the future development of the ‘high-end’ recorded music market. Over 79 per cent of respondents believe that surround sound for music is an important evolutionary development in home entertainment systems.
Whilst surround sound is seen as being key in the future development of the music industry, it is believed by most respondents that there is a low level of general consumer understanding regarding surround sound (particularly surround sound for music). It is thought that few consumers understand the nature and potential of surround sound and that many consumers believe that all surround sound is similar to that experienced on DVD-Video movie soundtracks.
Against this background, 64 per cent of respondents believe that the evolution of high resolution music formats, such as Super Audio CD are an important development in the audio industry due to the superior surround sound quality it offers music lovers. They believe that this quality, in terms of its specialist multi-channel audio abilities is something that will be valued more and more as people’s understanding of the technology and its capabilities are more fully understood.
The majority of respondents believe consensus should be sought amongst the music industry as to the best way ahead; more music should be made available as good quality surround sound and equipment manufacturers should develop ranges of affordable surround sound systems, especially for the in-car entertainment environment.
With respect to electronic music distribution systems, over 73 per cent of respondents believe that these systems should not be regarded as a competitor to surround sound music. In fact, many believe that, in several ways, they are complimentary to each other.
The consensus is that formats such as MP3 should be made more available and – if positioned correctly – can be used to promote the existence of superior quality surround sound versions of the same music. A number of respondents advocate the bundling of MP3 files on a surround sound music disc along with the surround sound mixes.
Quotes from market research respondents:
Question 1: How important is surround sound to the future of the music industry and why?
Simon Foster, Director, Avie Records, UK
“Very important. At last, computer, video, home entertainment and ‘record players’ come together in one room for the family. The basic set up will be 5.1 + plasma screen + wireless PC and Internet.”
Bob Ludwig, President, Gateway Mastering & DVD, USA
“I believe it is very important. In spite of the iPod’s portability, ease of use, being extremely cheap (sometimes free!) and ability to carry a very large record collection around with you, ultimately the enjoyment of music comes down the visceral thrill and goose bumps on the skin it can impart. While one can get a musical thrill from an iPod whilst listening at the top of a mountain, nothing can give you the much bigger thrill of hearing well-done surround music. The “you-are-there” quality good surround music can impart is as close to the absolute sound (as represented by a real orchestra) that we can achieve commercially today.”
Jan-Eric Persson, Founder and Recording Engineer, Opus 3 Records, Sweden
“For music only it is becoming more and more important all the time, while we now are getting more and more used to DVD-Video and more and more people already have a 5.1 system set up in their homes.”
Dan Waite, Label Director, MTV Networks Europe, London
“It’s important as it makes music come alive more than you know. It’s difficult as people rarely experience it outside of their DVD home cinemas and DVD-Video is not the best quality sound but it still really excites them in the film context. So high quality surround sound would make peoples ears prick up like a q-tip in the ear.”
Junzo Sano, Executive Deputy President, Sony Broadcasting Media, Japan
“Surround sound (for Music) is important. I feel the music is more alive with surround sound.”
Erik Nordström, Sound Engineering Program/Studio Musician Program
Luleå University of Technology/School of Music, Sweden
“Surround sound is very important for the music industry. Surround sound will spread and get more space as soon as people learn how to deal with their home cinema systems. It will spread even more when equipment manufacturers learn how to make systems for the non-music industry people. When it gets very easy to use it will spread very fast. Many will get into surround sound because of their love for movies, others for their love of music. Most important for me personally, surround sound makes the walls of a room disappear.”
QUESTION 2: IS THE HIGH-RESOLUTION SURROUND SOUND QUALITY OF SUPER AUDIO CD, WITH ITS STUDIO-LIKE QUALITY, A VALUABLE CONSUMER OFFER OR ARE LISTENERS HAPPY WITH LESSER QUALITY SUCH AS THE COMPRESSED SURROUND SOUND SYSTEMS OFFERED ON DVD-VIDEO?
Xavier Sastre, Technical Advisor to Spanish magazines CD-Compact and DVD-Actualidad
“To my taste, Super Audio CD allows to far better reproduce the music than DVD-Video and the sound is more natural than DVD-Audio.”
Ian Hooper, Partner/General Manager, Rockian Trading, Australia
“Super Audio CD will succeed rather than DVD in any format because of the marketing of DVD movies. Almost all Super Audio CD owners also buy DVD-Videos and they are aware of the DVD discount conventions. No one pays full price for a DVD-Video that is more than two or three months old. New release videos sell for full price, then, as the publicity for the new release movie dies off the video is discounted until it is sold out. Then it is not re-stocked, or only if it is supplied for a very deep discount. This means the shelf life for DVDs is very short. This applies to all DVD formats because it seems the retail client doesn’t differentiate between DVD-Video and DVD-Audio formats.
”Because DVDs in all formats that are more than three months old can not be sold for a profit we stopped importing and distributing them. In comparison, good Super Audio CD recordings like most of those produced by the quality labels we represent, continue to sell through years after their first release.”
Jan-Eric Persson, Founder and Recording Engineer, Opus 3 Records, Sweden
“Well, for most people the DVD-Video surround sound quality is enough, but the demand for better sound quality is growing all the time and Super Audio CD definitely fills that need!”
QUESTION 3: WHAT SHOULD THE MUSIC INDUSTRY DO TO ENCOURAGE THE DEVELOPMENT OF SURROUND SOUND?
Scott Gordon, Viva Disc Replication, Canada
“The music industry should promote the medium. Nothing is being done!”
Simon Heyworth, Founder, Super Audio Mastering, UK
“What we need is imagination and people that are brave enough to embrace new technologies. Funnily enough, it’s the smaller companies taking the plunge because they have little to lose and everything to gain.”
Mikael Vest, MD, Digital Audio Denmark
“The primary activity is to promote the surround music production already made, especially in the music shops, enabling customers to listen to the music and indeed just inform and promote the music on Super Audio CD (and DVD-A). Many players are now compatible with both formats, and not very expensive, so actually there is no longer the risk of a VHS/Betamax situation seen from the end customer, and thereby the music shops point of view.”
QUESTION 4: DO YOU REGARD DOWNLOADABLE MUSIC (MP3, ETC.) AS A COMPETITOR TO SURROUND SOUND OR CAN THEY CO-EXIST AND COMPLIMENT EACH OTHER?
Marcel van den Broek, Product Development, Challenge Records, Netherlands
“MP3 is fast food, easy to consume. Super Audio CD is an expensive restaurant with food that you experience instead of just eating.”
Chris Jenkins, Editor, totalDVD, UK “Put low-resolution downloadable music out to be a free taster for commercially available high-quality recordings. It’s up to the industry to work out a workable market model.”
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