May 1, 2007

Music Downloads for Convenience and Quality

In March, Greg Smith wrote about Linn Records’ initiative to offer downloadable music on their website. The Scottish company offers a wide range of music culled from their catalogue that can be downloaded in a variety of formats and resolutions. Now, Canada’s Fidelio Records, a small audiophile label, plans to make downloads available on their website, www.fidelioaudio.com. They cite two reasons for this: convenience and, surprisingly, sound quality. I talked with Fidelio owner René Laflamme about this in March, at the Festival Son & Image audio/video show in Montreal.

Laflamme’s experience in pressing CDs and SACDs has taught him that the manufacturing process can reduce the sound quality of discs by as much as 10-20%. The cause, he says, are errors introduced in the many steps between a transfer’s arrival at the pressing plant and the delivery of the final CDs to the record label. He cites everything from errors introduced by electrical problems in the plant’s equipment to misreadings of the recorded signal. Furthermore, Laflamme says, while manufacturers are supposed to guarantee that certain standards are met in the process if so requested, there’s no way to guarantee that those standards have indeed been kept to.

On the other hand, by offering files on his website, Laflamme can ensure that the files of Fidelio recordings made available for download match the source data bit for bit. While he can’t guarantee that no errors are introduced after the buyer has downloaded the file, at least that buyer has had the best chance of getting a pristine copy of the original recording -- a far better chance than he would from buying a disc from a substandard press run that Laflamme wasn’t able to do anything about.

For those who don’t want to waste time downloading or don’t want to risk ending up with an inferior copy, Fidelio plans to offer a service in which the company burns a custom CD-R for you on a cryogenically treated blank, thus guaranteeing in-house that what they’ve copied perfectly matches their source material. Basically, they’re eliminating the middleman -- the pressing plant.

Fidelio plans to offer downloads starting this October, beginning with 16-bit/44kHz or 16/48 WAV files, depending on how the source material was recorded. Users will be able to download individual tracks or entire albums (prices are still to be set). In time, Fidelio will offer higher-resolution material; if that proves successful, they’ll consider no longer issuing their music on CD or any other physical format.

...Doug Schneider
das@soundstageav.com

To learn more about Fidelio Audio, visit FidelioAudio.com.

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