All it takes is one trip on a Saturday to a Costco anywhere in America
to see the phenomenon. People are wheeling huge HDTVs to their SUVs in
numbers that make even the most optimistic Consumer Electronics (CE)
industry analysts’ heads spin. 60-inch plasmas for $2,999 have taught
mainstream America that the idea of owning a big, beautiful, flat HDTV
is not just for the people who we feature in ModernHomeTheater.com –
it’s for them, too. And they believe it and are investing in these sets
in record numbers.
The power behind the consumer
electronics industry is high-definition. Not just HDTV televisions that
are bigger, brighter and cheaper than ever before, but also HD content.
Regionally, more and more cable providers are offering far-reaching
sports packages that promote beloved teams in beamingly beautiful 1080i
HD resolutions. Nationally, satellite providers offer access to entire
leagues of sports, like DirecTV’s “super fan” deal. For about the cost
of two modest tickets to a game, you get practically every MLB or NFL
game in high-definition. Movies in HD beam in on cable and satellite on
a good handful of channels. Native HD content from network and
specialty providers like Food Network, Discovery HD Theater and HDNET
all make for an increasingly tempting offering of content for general
consumers, reaching far beyond the audience of videophiles and home
theater enthusiasts.
Beyond what is on your cable and or coming down from the bird is a
growing list of sexy titles on both Blu-ray and HD DVD. The Matrix is
headed to store shelves soon. The James Bond thriller Casino Royale has
set sales records with over 100,000 units shipped, thus giving more and
more reasons for people to pop for an HD disc player to go along with
that flat HDTV. When prices drop even more this holiday season, look
for both formats to get a major boost, considering how many millions of
HDTV sets are installed currently in the market place. At this stage,
if you want to see what your 1080p set can really do, you need HD DVD
or Blu-ray or both. Cable and satellite are HD, but not “as HD” as the
two disc formats.
Another source for HD is video games.
Both the Gen X and Gen Y audience seem drawn to the amazingly complex,
realistic and exciting world of gaming. Playstation 3, based on
Blu-ray, was the story of Christmas 2006. Xbox has games that are also
in very high resolutions. Recent reports show software sales for video
games up over 33 percent year to date for the first quarter of 2007 vs.
the same period in 2006. This is incredible growth in a segment that is
relatively new to the consumer electronics market, but again, it is an
HD format.
“Always Fight the New Technology” Record Industry Motto (1890 to Present)
It’s
easy to see why the world of HD video is booming. Content is king and
the content is getting so much better at such a fast pace that it is
suckering in everyone from the average NASCAR fan to the guy with the
Ferrari F430 Spyder in the garage to plunk down their credit cards for
an investment. But in the music business, things couldn’t be worse. The
know-it-all executives have taken a business that sold 33 billion
dollars in compact discs in the early 1990s and parlayed that into
about nine billion per year in domestic CD sales by 2006 – an
unimpressive development, to be polite.
Historically,
the music business has fought all new technologies. The LP was going to
kill off the sheet music business, they cried. The DAT was going to
allow everyone to copy CDs, so they killed that format off to protect
the goose that laid the golden egg. And fear of people recording and or
downloading ultra-huge 5.1 audio files from SACD and DVD-Audio made it
necessary to connect both formats’ expensive players exclusively via
analog connections – connections that required in many cases not just a
$1,000 new player, but an even more expensive receiver or preamp and
$200 in audio cables, as well as a degree in Electrical Engineering to
figure out how to make a B-list Steely Dan record come out of your rear
speakers. Consumers voted enthusiastically “no” with their economic
ballots at the one pathetic attempt the record industry made at selling
their lamest titles at a higher resolution level, thanks to fear of
files being stolen. When were these industry leaders going to get
scared that people might not care about the entertainment they are
selling at any resolution?
The music industry has yet to
embrace significantly anything HD and it is the number one reason why
they are sucking wind in the sales department. Downloads 
are a
three-billion-dollar-per-year business and are likely to grow, but to
call a 256 kHz download “high resolution,” as Apple has with their EMI,
deal is beyond insulting to consumers. In my eyes, it’s borderline
consumer abuse. Much like the 1/2 resolution (of a DVD) video downloads
that Apple sells for $13 and calls “HD,” their new high-resolution
music downloads are only a fraction as good as a 25-year-old compact
disc. Imagine trying to sell a Honeymooner’s disc set or Casablanca
with one-fourth of the resolution of the master. Consumers flock to
things that are HD.
The solution to the problem is actually very, very simple and easy for
the music industry to implement. Each of the four labels needs to pick
an HD disc format and, over the course of one to two years, re-release
all of their titles, starting with their very best in stereo 24-bit 192
kHz resolution and some video and/or high-resolution photographic
content (stills look great on your HDTV and give you something
compelling to look at when you play music on your theater). This is
audibly better than anything anyone has ever heard and, as I learned
years ago at an AES Convention audio taste test, even professional ears
struggle to hear the difference between 24-bit 96 kHz and the half-inch
master tape. In contrast, someone who is half deaf could easily hear
the difference between that and CD. The labels need to remember –
people are buying CE gear that is HD in massive volumes. Right now,
that’s not including music. Also, it is important to note that
videogame companies, who are kicking the hell out of the four major
labels in terms of overall sales, are able to pull off the same feat
that made Microsoft so mighty – they are able to sell the same title
over and over again. Madden Football or NHL 2007 can sell each year to
the enthusiast who wants the latest players, features and goodies. Why
couldn’t the music business jump into the HD format game (please pick
one format for all four majors – please), release their titles in
high-res stereo and then re-release the titles in surround sound as a
version two offering? Add in HD video performances from the artists on
the discs and watch schmucks like me line up to buy the same records
all over again.
The last step in the successful HD transformation of the music business
that will literally save them from their arrogance is to sell the music
via download in high-res as well. While I would like to see music with
no DRM (digital rights management), I will settle for copy protection
if all the music I want is available for me and my media center PC (or
Mac) with easy downloads. Music Giants is doing such feat now for those
who have a PC in their audio or home theater system, but they don’t
have the support of all four majors the way Apple does for their
low-resolution music downloads. Both Apple and Music Giants can sell
real high-resolution music downloads to consumers and help them to hear
more, not less, of the music they love. Just because the only important
advance in the world of audio since the compact disc is a
low-resolution iPod, this doesn’t mean that the music business should
forget that people are willing to pay for their media in HD. It’s time
for the major labels to step up to the plate and give consumers what
they want and more for their $20. The reward will be consumer spending
that rivals the levels the record industry enjoyed in the 1990s.
