Finally it’s begun. The waiting is over. I’m delighted and excited to report that this week we’ve launched our Studio Master download partnership with Universal Music Group. The first titles are some of the greats of classical music, remastered at 24-bit by Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Classics from their original analogue tapes.
The new Linn website is all about music and the emotions it inspires and reflects. As it developed, it was great fun for us to remember the music that defined the key events and emotions in each of our lives, and also surprising to discover many similarities and overlaps between these times when music made the difference.
Apple’s decision to finally open source its Apple Lossless (ALAC) format is welcome news. For one thing, people who use iTunes to store and archive their CD collection, and take care to change the audio quality to Apple Lossless, will be able to stream their collection to a wider range of products. For Linn, where we’ve been advocating FLAC, yet supporting an unofficial version of ALAC, it means we no longer risk the wrath of Apple HQ for letting people listen to their music collections through our systems.
You might have noticed that the Linn website has changed in the last couple of weeks. Our previous website was conceived as an online catalogue. The structure neatly mirrored the areas of Linn’s business and the categories of products. This was ideal for people who knew Linn and knew what they were looking for.The home page was used as a podium to display the latest products and upgrades. It broadcasted: “Look at our latest offering.” It assumed knowledge of Linn, assumed that the latest offering made sense in the context of an existing understanding of our business and products.Out with the Old
Following my last blog on music industry moves towards studio master, and Neil Young’s blog on the same subject, I was both gob-smacked and terrified to be invited to Broken Arrow Ranch to meet with the man himself. Neil Young’s music was a soundtrack to my teenage years, especially Harvest. Inevitably, every time I was dumped by the seemingly-never-to-be-replaced…
Following my last blog on music industry moves towards studio master, and Neil Young’s blog on the same subject, I was both gob-smacked and terrified to be invited to Broken Arrow Ranch to meet with the man himself. Neil Young’s music was a soundtrack to my teenage years, especially Harvest. Inevitably, every time I was dumped by the seemingly-never-to-be-replaced love-of-my-life, ‘Man Needs a Maid’ with its heart-breaking story and dramatic orchestral backing felt like it was written for me. And ‘Needle and the Damage Done’ just had to be nailed on the guitar in order to have any kudos at all with my guitar-playing friends.
The music industry has spent the last 25 years trashing the quality of its own product, mesmerised by the allure of convenience whilst watering down the quality of the music. It may not have been apparent to the music industry in 1985, when CD started to appear in the mass-market, but it was the beginning of a gradual decline in quality that led to the commoditisation of its core product -and to today’s crisis. The solution: the adoption of the Studio Master download as an industry standard is the only way out of this mess…
“Music companies are in a real spin - battling falling profits, increasing competition and rampant piracy.” So the inevitable has happened, and EMI has fallen into the hands of the bankers, after one of the most spectacularly bad bits of business in history. The private equity firm Terra Firma has lost $2.7bn - its entire investment - Citibank $3.5bn.
Really, she did. Let me explain, and I can assure you it’s not as dodgy as it sounds. Linn, together with our Russian partner Linn Prestige, brought Claire Martin to Russia for the first time to perform in front of an invited audience in St Petersburg.
As the latest debate on whether Linn should support a proprietary Apple format, this time the newly-announced AirPlay, flared up on the Linn Forum, it reminded me of the calls before the Klimax DS was released from some quarters for Linn to get on the bandwagon and support iPod docking, the latest “must-have” feature for home music systems.
Blog Updates by E-mail