A Hi-Res Music Thursday

The Kickstarter funding goal was met just after midnight Pacific Daylight Time last night. The book and Blu-ray disc will be written and produced over the next 6 months and delivered in the spring of next year. There’s still 27 days left in the campaign and I’m going to continue to promote it as much as possible. It would be great to reach 1000 supporters…1000 people that want to learn how to avoid expensive mistakes in their music and audio purchases and experience better sound than they thought possible. If you’d be kind enough to post a note or share one of my posts about the campaign, I would appreciate it very much.

Tomorrow will be a very busy day here at AIX Records. Mario Aguilar from Digital Trends is coming by first thing in the morning to get the AIX tour, listen to a bunch of real high-resolution music (in stereo and surround…and maybe in headphone surround), and learn why the whole “hi-res audio/music” initiative is nothing more than an expensive marketing ploy. And why it might not actually matter.

While driving down the 405 freeway on my way to the university, I heard a radio story on the growing influence of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. The revenue balance has now tipped away from physical goods in favor of streaming (and downloads) for the first time. Digital music continues to grow in popularity. It doesn’t mean that record companies are making more money than ever…they aren’t. It simply means that the percentage of their diminishing revenue stream is coming from digital music streaming and the license fees they receive from Apple, Tidal, Spotify, and others. Physical sales are declining and that trend will continue over then next few years.

I will explain to Mario that in spite of the positive press about high-resolution equipment and content, the overall fidelity of music is not improving and promotions to the contrary are wrong.

At 11 am I’ll be pre-recording an hour with Leo Laporte for his show “Triangulation”. I haven’t yet met Leo but I have heard his radio show, seen his CES show reports, and watched him interview Neil Young on the Triangulation program. After seeing that show in particular, I knew I had to reach out and ask for an invitation to share the other side of the issue. I’m not sure when the show will air but I’ll keep you posted.

Finally at 2 pm, I’m returning for the fourth time as a guest on Scott Wilkinson’s webcast, “The Home Theater Geek”. I reached out to Scott and asked if he would like to get an update on the world of high-resolution audio/music…and of course, talk about the new book and Blu-ray disc. It’s always a lot of fun to appear on his program. Scott knows what questions to ask and he’s knowledgeable about the whole home entertainment space.

It’s going to be a busy Thursday.