Monday, March 4, 2013

Sound Quality ..then vs now

When VUK was revealed to fans via Yoshiki.net, 1 thing was made clear....
this project at its core was about attention to detail. The sound was paramount.

With the average song up close to the 10 minute mark...promotion was always going to be a challenge. Even the media format of choice CD, could't do the project justice.

Around the same time LOW quality mp3 was taking over.
LQ became the norm, and stayed the norm...until recently.

Super audio CD never took off...
Blue Ray won the HD wars,
but few artists are pushing Blue Ray audio.
And even if they did (LUNASEA for example),
most people don't have the setup or the 'ears' to tell the difference.

Enter BEATS.
You know... the company backed by the most respected Hiphop producer in history. The one that kicked the CEO of BOSE in the nuts, and made fairly-decent sound... Mainstream.

Beats may not give you bang for your buck. They may be too bass heavy for your liking. But the fact is, they made BUYING a pair of headphones popular.
To use the marketing slogan...Now more than ever, people are hearing the finer details in the music.

Enter VIOLET UK.
Anyone tried listening to a VUK song through really great headphones?
It's almost a religious experience.
The music comes alive with new sounds jumping out at you with each bar.

If Sales, Money & Pride can be pushed aside....DON'T YOU AGREE THAT NOW.. It's Time to unleash the music?

Smartphones are reaching saturation point in the music markets that matter. Everyone who could ever want a song now has a device capable of playing music. Infact most have more than 1 device. Fans probably would even go out and buy 5 versions of the album
(if they go the route of releasing bonus songs at select retailers).




note: Sex and Religion came out in 128kbps AAC via iTunes despite iTunes PLUSs existence at the time. Something maybe the record company had more control of than YOSHIKI in all fairness.


note 2: re: Beats
We can assume YOSHIKI is sitting up taking note..even hinting at his own line of
headphones..Apparently trying out 15 sets before tweeting to the fans.