 Boston Section |
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Boston Section |
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For its meeting each November, the Boston Chapter attends the evening presentation at the Parsons Audio EXPO in Wellesley (MA). The EXPO is a day of presentations and product exhibits (details at http://www.paudio.com/).
The evening presentation this year was a panel discussion entitled Our Changing Industry. The panelists were engineer/producer Tom Bates, Bob Ludwig of Gateway Mastering & DVD, David Moulton of Moulton Labs, and Dr. Toby Mountain of Northeastern Digital Recording. Mark Parsons served as Moderator.
The Moderator opened the discussion by quoting a remark written by the novelist Tom Robbins during a prior unsettled era (of the MLK and RFK assassinations, Vietnam, Watergate, etc.): "The state of the world is desperate, as usual." After adding that the state of the audio world today is perhaps not as desperate as that of the world at large, the Moderator proceeded to conduct an informal poll of the hundred or so professionals in the audience. A few of the results:
First topic for the panelists was today's audio consumer. David Moulton suggested that consumers are quite passive about formats. He reported concern that surround systems are too complex-in their installation and operation-for many consumers. The key to marketplace success for surround, he says, will be automotive. The auto platform is now where most music listening occurs-a change from the days when living room or table radio listening were more dominant. It is a fairly ideal venue for surround. Car systems are turnkey systems; the consumer won't have to know much in order to use it successfully. Car manufacturers are now working hard to develop these systems.
Tom Bates observed that home listening isn't competitive these days. People-especially kids-have too much else at home: cable TV, Net, movie rentals, games, etc. At home, the movie industry is driving the surround train. How can we in the audio industry become competitive? SACD and DVD-A sound great, he said. We need to get it out.
Bob Ludwig reported that more and more artists are interested in producing a package that includes video. They're especially thrilled with surround. If it weren't for budget issues, music artistry could quickly become a collaborative art, combining other media with audio. It is good that desktop video is with us; the costs of producing video are becoming lower.
Toby Mountain asked, rhetorically, whether home video consumers will be willing to sit in their home theaters and listen to music. Probably not, he answered, since there are so many other choices in home entertainment. He said he'd like to see more grass roots effort made with young people, to show them how and why to listen to music. Beyond that, he said, maybe we must add something to the music, to make it more appealing to consumers. Music releases should perhaps integrate more with the Internet. Music-on-demand at home-especially in home theaters-might be a good idea.
The panel turned to the question of where the 16/44 CD is headed. Toby ventured that the CD will stick around, as the LP has. For 10 or 15 years or more, perhaps. Bob added that SACD has a good shot at succeeding. Record companies love it for its four levels of security. That, and the fact that no SACD reference recorders exist, make it impossible to make pirated copies. He credited ABKCO Records with helping the SACD market to take off, via the recent Rolling Stones release, which can be played either as an SACD or a conventional CD. ABKCO ate the extra cost inherent in SACD production, and drove the market price of SACD's down to $18.95. The presence of SACD on the disk intrigued many consumers, he said. He pointed out that some fairly inexpensive players are now able to play SACD, regular CD, and DVD Video. DVD-A has a good shot, too, he said. If car DVD players turn out to be universal players, they will help both formats. Sonically, both are excellent, he said. For production and mastering these days, PCM has many more tools available, but he is confident that will come around. That said, however, he believes that the most of the future of music distribution lies in some form of downloading via the Net.
All panelists agreed that the downloading revolution won't end any time soon. Several believe it best is for purveyors of recorded music to give it away on the Net, via MP3 or similar, then to sell higher-class versions of the same music via disk or micro-licensed download. One scenario, set forth by David Moulton, would involve watermarking each piece of music, then requiring consumers to pay a small fee to rights owners each time the music is transmitted. The ability to do that is here now, he said.
There was much discussion of the high-rez/low-rez dichotomy. David ventured that there is not a general perception in the consuming public that MP3 sucks. He lamented that the record industry hasn't made anything of that issue in its marketing to the public. He says that labels should tell consumers: "What you're making a free copy of is really low quality. You can have it! But if you want the really good stuff, you should go to SACD (or DVD-A). You've gotta pay for that, but it's worth it, as opposed to downloading that really trashy garbage!" Let the low-rez market be what it is, he says. It's a great way to get material out there, for free. But for the good stuff, again, go to SACD or similar. Tell the consumer this: "Once you hear it, you will believe."
Toby observed that the technology isn't what will lead us; rather it will be the media, the message, especially re popular music. To make any of these formats take off with the masses, he said, artistry is needed. The Moderator added that while we tend to focus on technology; we of course owe our livings to whatever it is in the human spirit that music and other audio sources tap. That is a focus that we share with both artists and consumers.
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Mark Parsons
