(This was written to a blogger who argues that most classical consumers can't distinguish between lossless FLAC files and lower quality files)
Dear Proper Discord,
I read with interest your blog entry on the “Pepsi challenge” of comparing lossless files with compressed files. First, I’d like to state that I have a biased interest in the outcome- I run a classical download site that sells lossless files (FLAC) named Passionato(www.passionato.com). I’m being upfront about this – perhaps Proper Discord should expose his/her vested interest(s) as well.
Our research among high end, classical audiophile consumers, and our business results so far in the US, indicates that lossless files are preferred to compressed files, even though they have to pay on average 20% more for lossless, for three reasons. First, they maintain that they can tell the difference in a high quality audio playback environment. (Virtually no one says they can tell the difference with a $400 home theatre let alone computer speakers or the ear buds that portable devices like iPod offers).
Second, they don’t want their collections, which they see as long-term personal assets, encoded in a corporate-controlled format. They worry that sometime in the future Apple (or Microsoft or ‘fill in the blank’) will abandon their proprietary format, and that they will be left stranded.
I believe this fits in with the whole open source movement which has dominated web development for the past few years. FLAC is similar to Linux, mySQL, and the other open source technology that is prevalent on the web.
Third, they like the fact that they can convert their lossless files into CD’s that are uncompressed. Once you have compressed a file, you can never get back the original CD-quality sound. What’s more, a compressed file can’t be converted into a redbook CD, which is playable on any CD player.
Our research indicates that this group is indeed small (probably less than 10% of classical consumers, who indeed buy only about 2% of the US revenue for music). That makes them less than 0.2% of the public (if you extrapolate a bit). However, we are quite sure that this small group of buyers buy over half of the classical music sold in the US (the old 80/20 rule seems to run maybe 90/10 in classical).
As an aside, I passed the research results on to a market research buddy of mine, and she waxed rhapsodically about how the research was poorly designed and the base sizes were too small. I told her that it was not for the decision making of a large multi-national conglomerate but just for fun in a blog…..that’s true isn’t it?
May I propose we settle this by asking consumers (in a controlled, market research-worthy environment) the four questions below? They would of course be screened first to make sure they are unbiased, and are in our target audience (classical audiophiles):
1. How important do you think it is that your digitized music collection maintains the same sound quality as a CD?
a. Very important
b. Important
c. Don’t care\
d. Not important
2. Can you tell whether File A (an unidentified 256k mbps MP3 file) or File B (an unidentified lossless FLAC file) is identical in sound quality to File C (a CD)? (given some samples of all three to listen to, with the CD identified as the standard). Comparison testing should only be done in a high quality audiophile listening setup (such as a high end home system or studio headphones with a preamp and/or converter attached).
3. Would you prefer to have your music collection
a. in a format controlled, patented, and created by a multi-national corporation, or
b. in a format that no single entity controls, but which has been created and maintained for free by computer experts around the world.
4. Would you like to store your music
a. In a format that can be copied onto a standard CD which can be played In any player, including your old home theatre, boombox, car, etc.
b. In a format which is playable only on players that are equipped with MP3 playback capability.
Of course, real research requires money—if you wanted to participate, you’d have to pony up some to join us. Or maybe you're able to come up with a way to do it on the cheap (we like that, we're entrepreneurs). Good luck with that.
James Glicker
Twitter: jglicker
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