#87 - Apple announces HD and Atmos - are we headed to more mediocrity?

Last year Apple announced it was going into the HD music area. At the time we didn't know what that meant. Yesterday they announced that in June 2021, they will release products in lossless audio and Atmos immersive sound at no extra charge. So while this seems interesting to the consumer who's never listened to HD before, is it covering up the demise of artists and labels?

At first I was horrified. The announcement was a blow to the gut, but really it's a blow to the digital stores who chose to charge the labels 20-30% more to accommodate higher fees for storage. But wait, does that mean that those HD digital stores will lower the price and keep the additional 20-30% they charge the artists? Probably. And how do we know what Apple is charging for the extra storage? How does a musician with no production budget ever pay for an Atmos mix or great recording?

And the bigger issue, who is policing the HD audio Apple will be streaming? Or did they figure out that it's nearly impossible to test millions of tracks to see whether they are up-sampled conversions of mp3 or CD quality files? We (Blue Coast Music) check the files we receive for frequency response, but even then, who is to say that the mastering engineer filtered out one frequency? Or that the immersive music you're buying was made with plugins and a stereo file? Remember the Universal fire? That left most of their catalog as low-res stereo, no more multi-tracks, let alone stems that create real immersive sound.

An interesting comment in the Apple release was that the consumer will determine whether they want to pay the extra cost for data that HD requires. Have you noticed how much Xfinity has raised their rates in the last few months? I have. The phrase "bandwidth is cheap" is going away really fast.

Mediocrity is coming faster than expected. It's too easy to sidestep good practices in the studio. Too many musicians recording at home trying to get a handle on what microphone to use, let alone what "immersive sound" means. Is there any good news for the audiophile who cares about their sound?

Who makes out with this announcement? Well, of course, Apple hardware with a new $249 set of earbuds AND you have to have a new phone to use HD and Atmos. Does that surprise you? Probably not. How many of you have been complaining about the bad reception and faulty phones you've purchased recently. I know I have. In Silicon Valley, I can't get a phone call in my house that doesn't cut off in two minutes.

There are two possible outcomes that could be good for the audiophile, meaning those folks really devoted to higher quality sound. DSD downloads and vinyl might take a bigger percentage of music sales. Good recording technique might be identified with more details about the session's recording. Engineers might have identifiers that give a clue to their practices and pass those onto the tracks and albums streamed and downloaded.

Still, I'm sad that the collapse of integrity will leave us with worse sound than ever for a good while, until the entire industry collapses and all music will be sold as NFTs. Get your cryptocurrency ready.

Discouraged but not defeated....

Enjoy your music while you can,

Cookie Marenco
(Returning to the studio or going to the ocean today)